Paying Taxes Late

The tax laws are jam packed with examples of double standards. Paying your taxes late is a big one. Miss the deadline by even one day and you are nailed with penalties and interest. However, if the government decides to take its time, there's nothing you can do about it.

The latest example is the State of Missouri, which has found itself in a cash crunch. This has caused them to hold off sending people their tax refunds. According to this official press release, they are hoping to return to sending out refund checks around the end of June or the middle of July. This is just another perfect illustration of why overpaying your taxes and banking on a big refund is such a stupid investment. The MO DOR isn't even require to pay any of the late payees any interest until after August 15.

What is a bit scary is that this very same thing could happen with refunds from IRS and from other states. The Feds are very close to running out of cash unless the debt ceiling can be raised by our rulers; and several states have had much lower tax revenues than their crystal balls had predicted for their spending plans. Eliminating wasteful programs is harder for the rulers to do than to just hold onto the taxpayers' overpayments.

KMK
- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 5/08/2002 04:42:00 PM Send this post: