Originally published on Forbes.com.
I find the term “Tax Day” distressing, and I think it would be better if we eliminated the mindset that probably created it. “Tax Day” is a slang term for the date prescribed in Section 6072 as the date that returns under section 6012, 6013 or 6017 for persons reporting on the calendar year must be filed on or before. That would be income and self-employment tax and just about everybody who pays those is on a calendar year. In my nearly 40-year career, I have only met one individual who had a fiscal year. The date is the 15th day of April following the close of the calendar year.
Code Section 7503 provides that when the last day prescribed for performing any act falls on Saturday, Sunday, or a legal holiday the performance of such act shall be considered timely if it is performed on the next succeeding day which is not a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday. The term “legal holiday” means a legal holiday in the District of Columbia.
Now Here Is Something To Celebrate
On April 16, 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act which abolished slavery in the District of Columbia. The fight over slavery in the District was a long slog. It was pretty clear prior to the 13th Amendment that the federal government had no say over slavery in the states, but the District of Columbia was another matter. So there were petition drives that got stronger and stronger beginning in the 1830s. The petitions aggravated Southern congressmen and they started passing “gag rules” to prevent them from being heard.
William Lee Miller tells the story in Arguing about Slavery: The Great Battle in the United States Congress, which includes an account of the greatest second act in American politics. When it was suggested to John Quincy Adams that serving in Congress was beneath the dignity of a former President of the United States he indicated that it would be an honor to serve as a selectman of the town if the people elected him. He served in Congress from 1831 till his death, from a stroke in the House chamber, in 1848. He shrewdly turned the debate about slavery in the district into a debate about the right of petition which turned into a motion to have him expelled from the House, which gave him another opportunity to rail against slavery.
So it is understandable that abolishing slavery in the District was one of the earlier acts of Congress after most of the slave-holding states decided to try to leave the Union. And it is something really worth celebrating. At any rate, this year the 15th falls on a Sunday and the next day the 16th is a legal holiday i.e. Emancipation Day in DC, making the last day prescribed for filing Tuesday the 17th, which ends up being referred to as Tax Day.
Don’t Call It Tax Day
Christmas Day, New Years Day, Veterans Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day St. Crispin’s Day etc. – What do they have in common? They are all particular days of the year and whatever you are supposed to do on that day, which of course will vary with family tradition and local custom you do on that day. For example on St. Crispin’s Day, actually the day before, you have the neighbors over and strip your sleeves and show them the wounds you had on St. Crispin’s day or you have to hold yourself accurs’d that you weren’t there with Harry the King. Turkey on Thanksgiving Day, fireworks on Independence Day, Chinese food on Christmas Day, whatever. The point is that you do the whatever on that day,
But Tax Day, so called, is not the day to do something, it is the final day prescribed meaning that there are days before that day on which you could have done it. You can nitpick about this what with getting information and whatnot, but most people probably had part of February and the whole month of March along with the first couple of weeks in April. And Regulation 1.6081-4 allows you to get a six month extension. Including the extension option, there are many more days in the year on which you can file a timely tax return for the previous year than there are days on which you cannot.
Why Tax Day Is A Pernicious Concept
Back at Joseph B Cohan and Associates, we never used the term Tax Day. We referred to tax season and “the fifteenth” (even though thanks to Patriot’s Day it might be the 16th or 17th or 18th). And finishing returns on “the fifteenth” was something we tried to avoid. If things had gone well we spent the day prepared to respond to emergencies and playing cards and quit around five to go drinking. The ritual was repeated on October 15. I do have memories of meeting clients at the post office on October 15, but that was a sign that things had not gone as they should have.
You see you are supposed to plan to get things done on one of the days before “the fifteenth”. Referring to it as Tax Day implies that it is a good idea to be filing on the final day. It is actually a very bad idea, because it is much more likely that you will get something wrong.
The attractive thing about “Tax Day” and even “tax season” is the drama. The work of tax professionals is only interesting if you are a little peculiar. It is hard to convey the fascination to normal people. And actually, the most successful people in the profession in terms of prestige and compensation might not be all that fascinated by the actual work. They tend to be good enough at it to get through the first few years and then focus on the really important stuff – bringing in business, which means relating to normal people. The drama about deadlines is something that is more understandable to normal people than minimum gain, at-risk or activity grouping, so that ends up being emphasized.
Tax season and the focus on “the fifteenth” has other pernicious results. Things that are really important that don’t have an externally imposed deadline attached to them are put off until “after the fifteenth”. And “after the fifteenth”, there is a tendency to operate at a lower rate of urgency. And the real nightmare is very complicated returns that slip past the due date through no fault of the firm. It can end up being almost impossible to get them prioritized since being “already late”, they are of lesser importance than other returns that can be “on time”.
The Wisdom Of The Crowd
I wanted to find the origin of the term “Tax Day”, which I thought might have been relatively recent, but it has actually been around for a while. Here is an article by Peter Yoo from 1996:
Of course tax day also spurs anger, especially in Americans who owe the government money.
During the 1984 election President Reagan was quoted in the Christian Science Monitor:
Then the sky lit up with a dramatic display of red, white, and blue fireworks and the crowd sang ”God Bless America.” The President had a parting shot before he disappeared: ”For our opponents, every day is April 15, tax day. For us every day is the Fourth of July.
It probably goes back further than that.
The Wikipedia entry for Tax Day went up in 2008. It is disappointing in that it does not discuss the etymology. The “talk section”, however, has a good observation by Oldtaxguy
“Tax day” is a slang expression. This article’s topic violates WP:Not a dictionary policy. Further, the article is little more than a stub, certainly not close to C class. I propose downgrading to stub, and modifying the first sentence to mention that the term is slang. Were it not for the amusing tidbits in the “history” section, I’d propose deletion. (Emphasis added)
I’m with you Oldtaxguy and I am disappointed that name is taken; otherwise, I would grab it for myself.