Patriots' Day gives upstate
taxpayers an extra day for filing

Taxpayers in Upstate New York will have an extra day to file their income tax returns because this year's filing deadline falls on a state holiday.

Tax Day (April 15) is also Patriots' Day this year in Maine and Massachusetts. The two coincide whenever the filing deadline falls on the third Monday in April. Although IRS offices in both states will be open on April 15, the tax law gives taxpayers until the next business day to satisfy a deadline that falls on a state legal holiday.

The extra day is not limited to residents of these two states. Because the IRS directs taxpayers in Michigan, Rhode Island and Upstate New York to send their returns to its processing center in Andover, Massachusetts, they also get the day's grace because of the Massachusetts State holiday. To avoid confusion within these states, the IRS also gives these taxpayers the extra day for estimated tax payments or returns that might be sent to another address.

Next year, however, no one gets the extra day because April 15 will fall on Tuesday. The filing deadline won't coincide with Patriots' Day again until 2006.