IRS Tax Day 2012: A Lonelier Post Office
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Where did all the people go? This post office in NYC used to be packed with last minute filers on tax day. Not so much any more. ABC News(NEW YORK) — For the United States Postal Service, tax deadline day is hardly as fun as it used to be.
“In the old days it was tax night parties and people standing outside grabbing the mail as you drive by,” said Connie Chirichello, a spokeswoman for USPS in New York. “Things have totally changed.”
They’ve changed because most taxpayers are filing online. For the week of April 6, the most recent for which data is available, 87 percent of taxes filed were done so electronically.
It means fewer of the financially strapped post offices around the country have the customers or the resources to stay open until midnight to accommodate procrastinators.
In California, for example, the Postal Service says there are 22 post offices with extended hours, about a quarter of the number open late in the past.
“[Taxpayers] were going to the post office to mail their return at 11:30 at night and over the last 15 years it has changed,” said Chirichello.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio