Tax day was here Monday, and more than a few people noticed.

Tuesday, April 16, 2002

Tax day was here Monday, and more than a few people noticed.

The line at the post office was already long when the counters opened up at 8:30 a.m., said postal workers in Albert Lea. And business remained steady throughout the day as patrons brought their returns in to be weighed, stamped and dropped in the mail chute.

While no extended hours were planned for the counter service, the post office made one final pickup from the mailboxes outside the building at midnight.

George Wichmann runs a tax service out of his home in rural Conger, and he’s relieved that April 15 has come and gone again.

&uot;I’m glad the season is over again,&uot; he said. He did not have to deal with a lot of last-minute returns this year, which he appreciates. He also didn’t have to file many extensions, a task he tries to persuade clients to forego unless filing on time is impossible.

Wichmann still prepares paper returns for his clients, although he expects to be doing more electronic filing in the future, possibly even by next year.

In contrast, John Berglund, at H.R. Block of Albert Lea, relies on electronic filing for the vast majority of his clients – up to 80 percent this year, he said.

More people also procrastinated and waited right up until the end to file this year, he said. According to Berglund, clients were coming in throughout his work day on Monday. After starting work at 8 a.m., he had already completed returns for several people before lunch.

&uot;April is always busy, but this year it’s crazy busy,&uot; Berglund said.

Tax Trivia

– Approximately 700 separate sections of the U.S. tax code apply to individuals. More than 1,500 separate provisions apply to businesses.

– As of May 2000, before the two most recent tax bills, the tax code contained 1.3 million words – more than 300 times more than the Constitution.

– IRS regulations contain more than 8.5 million words – more than you would find in 11 copies of the King James version of the Bible.

– The IRS publishes 649 separate forms, schedules and instructions. Publications providing guidance to taxpayers alone total about 13,400 pages.

– Ten years ago, the IRS estimated it would take the average person 9.5 hours to complete the 1040. Today the estimate is 13 hours – enough time for more than a couple baseball games.

– This year, Americans will spend an estimated 5.8 billion hours complying with the tax code. 5.8 billion hours ago it was the year 660,000 B.C.