Tax Day: Five things you didn’t know about the least-popular American ‘holiday’
April 15 is the last day for people in America to file their taxes
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Andrew Feinberg
White House Correspondent
Tax Day is here, Americans. A day as reviled as it is inevitable has arrived. If you work in the US and you haven’t filed your taxes, the time is nigh.
But despite the near-revulsion most feel toward Tax Day, here are five things you probably did not know about 15 April.
When did US federal taxes start?
The US did not institute a federal income tax until the Civil War, but only as a temporary measure, Time reported. The Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1913 and allowed the federal government to tax individual incomes without divvying it up among the states.
Why is Tax Day on 15 April?
Prior to 1954, Tax Day in the US was 15 March, but a massive revision to the Internal Tax Code pushed the date back a month. The official reason was to allow taxpayers an extra month to recover from Christmas expenses. The unofficial reason was to avoid people talking about the ides of March in relation to taxes.
Tax Day is more dangerous than the average day
The combination of extra stress in trying to complete taxes and many people rushing around trying to submit taxes causes a 6 per cent increase in traffic-related deaths on Tax Day, Forbes reported.
It might be too late for 2015, but how about we get those taxes submitted earlier in 2016 and keep everyone safer?
Restaurants will try to relieve the pain of tax day
Sad over having to pay taxes? Not to worry. Plenty of restaurants are offering deals to customers on Tax Day. Nothing cures the Tax-Day blues like buy-one-get-one-free at Boston Market.
You could have a lot of unclaimed money
The IRS has more than $1 billion in unclaimed tax returns for people who did not file tax returns in 2011, according to Bank Rate. While those people had to claim that money by Tax Day, there will be more where that came from next year. Don’t let the government keep your money.
Follow @PaytonGuion on Twitter.
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