This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Because of the local Emancipation Day holiday on Friday in Washington, D.C., April 15 is not Tax Day this year — and Americans have three extra days to file their federal tax returns.
Two Utah post offices will collect mail later than normal Monday to allow extra time for an April 18 postmark on returns. The Salt Lake City post office at 1760 W. 2100 South will collect returns until 8:15 p.m. And the Provo post office at 936 S. 250 East will stay open until 8:30 p.m.
Additionally, 31 post offices statewide have kiosks that are open 24 hours per day, year-round, where customers who print a mailing label before midnight will receive an April 18 postmark. Because of growing use of online filing, fewer post offices remain open late, compared with past years.
The Tax Foundation, meanwhile, has released its new estimate for when "Tax Freedom Day" will occur this year, when people have earned enough to pay their total tax bill for the year.
Nationally, Tax Freedom Day falls on April 24 this year, or 115 days into the year. The foundation says Americans will collectively spend more on taxes this year than they will on food, clothing and housing combined.
The Tax Foundation also says that if federal borrowing is included, which it considers to be future taxes owed, Tax Freedom Day does not come until May 10.
The foundation does have a bit of good news for Utahns. Because local taxes here are a bit lower than the national average, Tax Freedom Day in Utah is a little earlier than in the rest of the nation — on April 21. But that is still the 30th latest-arriving Tax Freedom Day among states.
Meanwhile, the National Priorities Project (NPP), a group seeking transparency for the federal budget, released a breakdown of how the federal government spent tax dollars in 2015.
"For example, 25.4 cents of every federal income tax dollar goes to the Pentagon and military, while just 3.6 cents goes to education," said Lindsay Koshgarian, NPP's research director.
The group also said that out of every $1 of federal income tax spent in 2015, 28.7 cents went to health programs, 13.7 cents went to interest on the federal debt, 8 cents went to unemployment and labor, and 5.9 cents went to veterans' benefits.
Just pennies each went to food and agriculture, government, education, transportation, housing and community, science, international affairs, and energy and environment programs.
The National Priorities Project said the average taxpayer in 2015 paid $13,000 in federal income tax.
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy earlier this year issued a state-by-state report looking at what percentage of the income of various groups goes to state and local taxes.
In Utah, it said the poorest people pay higher share of their income for state and local taxes than do the rich.
The lowest-income 20 percent of Utahns pay 8.5 percent of their income for those taxes, according to the study, while the top 1 percent pay 4.8 percent.
To help customers through taxing times, numerous merchants offer Tax Day deals.
For example, Staples allows people to shred 5 pounds of documents for free.
Schlotzsky's is treating guests to a free small original oven-baked sandwich with the purchase of a 32-ounce drink and a bag of chips Monday.
Even the federal government has a special: Entrance into national parks is free Monday through Sunday to celebrate National Parks Week.
But here's one final warning: The odds of being in a fatal crash jump by 6 percent on tax-filing day, according to a 2012 study by University of Toronto researchers published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
The reason: higher levels of stress. —
Post offices for late filers
Thirty-one Utah post offices have 24-hour kiosks where last-minute tax filers can print labels with an April 18 postmark before midnight — but they accept only credit or debit cards.
They are: American Fork, Bountiful, Cedar City, Draper, Layton, Lehi, Logan, Ogden Ben Lomond, Ogden Mt. Ogden, Ogden Main, Orem Mountain Shadows, Pleasant Grove, Provo East Bay, Provo Main, Riverton, Roy, South Jordan, St. George Redrocks, St. George Downtown, Salt Lake City Foothill, Salt Lake City Kearns, Salt Lake City Main, Salt Lake City Millcreek, Salt Lake City Murray, Salt Lake City Sugarhouse, Salt Lake City West Valley City, Sandy Alta Canyon, Sandy Main, West Jordan.