Day of reckoning has arrived for tax procrastinators

WASHINGTON - The day of reckoning has arrived for the estimated 26 million taxpayers who have not finished their income tax forms.

The filing deadline for taxpayers in most parts of the country is midnight. In parts of the Northeast, people have until midnight tomorrow because of the Patriot's Day holiday in Massachusetts, home to an Internal Revenue Service center.

In their rush to file, tax procrastinators should double-check their math and take care to use the correct tax amount from the tax table, the IRS advises. One way to save possible headaches later on is to correctly list Social Security numbers, including those for dependents.

IRS spokesman Don Roberts estimated that roughly 37 million tax returns would be filed in the final two weeks before the deadline - 11 million last week and 26 million postmarked or electronically filed today. About 130 million individual returns in all are expected this year.

Many post offices around the country will be open late to handle returns. The IRS accepts a postmark as proof the return was filed on time.

Taxpayers can request an automatic four-month extension, but they should pay their estimated taxes on time. Otherwise, the IRS will assess a late-payment penalty and interest currently running at 8 percent.

Extensions can be obtained by phone by calling (888) 796-1074 - some information from the 1999 return is needed to verify identity - or with Form 4868.

Those who owe money should mail a check or money order made out to "United States Treasury," rather than "IRS," and include a Social Security number, the year and the type of form filed. For most people this would be "2000 Form 1040."

For people facing a big tax bill they cannot pay all at once, the IRS offers several options. One is credit-card payment through one of the two toll-free numbers: (888) ALL-TAXX or (800) 2PAYTAX.