Procrastinators across the nation can thank President Abraham Lincoln for giving them a 72-hour reprieve on filing their taxes.

Tax Day, which traditionally falls today, April 15, was pushed back to Monday this year to make way for Emancipation Day, a somewhat obscure holiday celebrating Lincoln’s freeing 3,100 slaves in the District of Columbia on April 16, 1862 — nine months before he signed the Emancipation Proclamation. The holiday is April 16, but is being observed today, causing the Internal Revenue Service to push the deadline back to Monday for folks to file their taxes electronically or get them in the mail .

More than usual, tax talk has dominated the news lately, with the California Legislature engaged in an ongoing battle over whether to extend temporary tax increases and President Barack Obama’s recent proposal to impose higher taxes on the wealthy as a way to cut the federal deficit. Locally, a pair of Tax Day protests are scheduled for today — one by the Humboldt County Tea Party Patriots protesting high tax rates and another by the US Uncut Group at local Bank of Americas protesting what they deem as insufficient taxes paid by the banking giant.

California officials will certainly be watching tax revenue closely as it comes in this month, as Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal projects $6.8 billion in revenue will come into state coffers this month. More revenue would lessen the burden on lawmakers already looking to erase a projected $15.5 billion deficit for the coming fiscal year. Less revenues than projected would exacerbate the problem.

Many taxpayers, however, are simply scrambling to get their returns filed on time, and accountants throughout the county said they have had a busy week and expect a busier weekend.

For the true procrastinators, the U.S. Postal Service will keep its main Eureka Post Office open until 6 p.m. Monday — an hour later than usual. All other Post Offices in the county are scheduled to keep normal business hours.

Postal Services spokesman James Wigdel said some offices used to stay open until midnight on Tax Day, but no longer, as 70 percent of income tax filings are now done electronically.

Wigdel reminded the people filing by mail that they need to make sure their returns are postmarked by the close of business Monday, and that they apply proper postage. It costs 44 cents to mail anything weighing an ounce or less, and 20 cents for each additional ounce — which is equivalent to about four pages.

Wigdel also offered one last piece of advice Thursday.

”We recommend people file early,” he said.

For information about getting an extension from the IRS, visit www.irs.gov/formspubs/article/0,,id=98155,00.html.

(Source: Times-Standard)