Ever wonder why April 15 is tax day?  Pundits have called the date "appropriate" because April begins with cries of "April Fools!" and ends with people shouting "Mayday!"

It all started in Congress.  When the 16th Amendment was ratified, Congress was allowed to institute an income tax.  On Feb. 3, 1913 they did just that.  They originally chose a filing date of March 1.

Then the Revenue Act of 1918 changed the date to March 15.  No reason was given.

The date remained unchanged until 1955.  Buried inside the massive change was the new date - April 15.  IRS offered the explanation that this allowed them to "spread out the peak workload."  But USC law professor Ed McCaffery says the government was seeing more refunds going to members of the middle class, and "pushing the deadline back gives the government more time to hold on to the money."  (But don't try holding on to the government's money even an extra day - they'll penalize you!)

 

Home Page