It’s coming up on that glorious time of the year again. The leaves are changing, the air is brisk, school is in full session and the IRS tax deadline looms near. Wait. What? Now you’re probably thinking, “hey, wasn’t that like 6 months ago? You know, the well-known doomsday, gotta-file-my-taxes-today-or-else date of April 15th?” (although the most recent tax day fell on April 17th instead) (Correction: the odd deadline was in 2007, not 2008). Well, my friends, it is and it isn’t. Some people (my procrastinating self included) did not file their taxes by April 15th, instead choosing to simply file an extension form that gives them six extra months of leisurely tax preparation time. So now I, along with 10 million other people who filed an extension in 2007, face a new deadline: October 15th. It’s just as scary as April 15th, but with the added pressure of being the “for real this time” deadline. This deadline is not only for filing taxes, but it's the last chance to get that sweet stimulus check most people have already used (although not necessarily to stimulate the economy).

As of Aug. 29th, the IRS has issued 93 billion dollars in economic stimulus checks, and I’d hate to miss out on that money train. Or as I like to call it, my own personal government bailout. So while most of you live your normal lives tomorrow night, I will be locked in my bedroom surrounded by W-2 and 1040A forms, quietly weeping into my calculator.

--Erin

The pictures are taken from photostreams 1 and 2 and used with the permission of a Creative Commons license.

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