Tax filers scrape past another April 15

PROVO — It comes just once a year — and thank goodness, said Utah Valley folks who scrambled to get that all-important April 15 postmark on their taxes.

Johnathan Conley of Springville dropped his taxes off at the Provo East Bay Post Office just before 7 p.m. Friday. To him, that counted as early.

"I typically wait until 11:59, but not this year," he said. "Historically, it has stressed me out, but this year I actually did most of the work earlier, at the beginning of the year. So this wasn't bad."

Conley said he waits because he doesn't want to give up his money any earlier than he has to. "I owe, so there's no sense in paying that early," he said.

Brigham Young University students sending last-minute returns had a slightly better excuse for procrastinating. This semester's classes ended Wednesday, and final exams begin Saturday. "It's awful timing; I hate it," said Aaron Hatch, sophomore from Chicago.

"I didn't have time (to do taxes) this year until school got over, which happened to be the same weekend," said fellow student Jared Cardon.

Cardon said he started preparing his taxes during the day on Friday, and it took just three hours. Next, he'll turn his attention to other taxing endeavors.

"Now we can worry about the stress of everything else we haven't done yet because we were doing our taxes — like studying for finals," he said, jokingly.

Not everyone sending envelopes to the IRS Friday was finished worrying about taxes.

"I just couldn't get it done in time," said Dale Sundberg, who dropped off a request to extend his deadline four months.

He said everything about filing the extension was easy — except for paying his estimated taxes before he'd officially calculated them.

"An accountant did it for me; all I had to do was drop it in the mail," Sundberg said. "But it was a lot of money — just glad it only comes once a year."

Several filers were a bit unhappy with the sum they paid to Uncle Sam.

"I'm really distressed that half of the money that I'm paying for taxes is going to an unjust war in Iraq," said Conley.

The East Bay Post Office in Provo set up a drive-through line for those mailing tax returns, and was the only office in Utah County that offered the service until midnight.