Tax filers stretch deadline to limit
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By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Ah, Easter Sunday. Egg hunts. Family feasting. Tax preparation.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Today is the last day to file federal taxes, so the people who haunted tax preparation offices yesterday weren't the worst of the last-minute procrastinators. But they were close.
Chuck Linster, a self-employed painter, said he was relieved when H&R Block's Virginia Makinney completed his federal tax paperwork yesterday, one day before the deadline.
State taxes are due April 20. Federal filers got an extra day this year because April 15 fell on a Sunday.
"I've been scolding," Virginia Makinney, a tax preparer for H&R Block at Kahala Mall said as she worked with longtime customer Chuck Linster.
"He comes in this late every year," she said. "We have a lot of customers like that."
"I just keep hoping they'll change the laws just in the nick of time and tell us we don't have to file," said Linster, a self-employed painter. He sat hunched over his documents at Makinney's desk while the 27-year tax preparer worked. Occasionally he sneaked a glance at Makinney's computer screen, then looked quickly away.
"I'm relieved," he said when Makinney showed him the final federal tally.
Most of those having their taxes done yesterday were doing so by appointment, preparers at H&R Block in Kahala Mall and at the Pacific Center said. The walk-in rush is expected today.
Mona Tom, director of H&R Block's Premium office in Pacific Center near Ala Moana Center, said she left the office at midnight Saturday night and two co-workers camped out all night. Many tax customers routinely schedule appointments during the last week before the deadline.
"They know they'll have to pay our bill and Uncle Sam's," she said.
