Late Filers In Frenzy North Idaho Taxpayers, Accountants Feel The Heat As Tonight’s Deadline Looms

Carla Stewart reached out to open the door marked “Internal Revenue Service.”

It didn’t budge.

Stewart sighed.

Inside the locked foyer is a wall covered with 60 different tax forms, including the one she needed: the form to extend the tax filing deadline. Stewart and her husband, Joe, are busy real estate agents, and filing last-minute tax returns has become a tedious tradition.

“I do this every year,” she said Sunday, standing outside the closed office. “It (filing) is sort of an unpleasant thing to do, and you don’t want to get it done.”

The Stewarts are not alone. Idahoans are expected to file 516,000 federal income tax returns this year. But by this time last week, only 239,000 had been received.

Because April 15 fell on a Saturday this year, procrastinators have until midnight tonight to file returns or to request an extension. The surge of last-minute filers has North Idaho tax preparers working marathon hours.

At Eagle’s Eye Income Tax in Pinehurst, Rose Frutchey said she’s working 12 to 13 hours a day.

“I couldn’t get any busier right now,” she said. “Some of them (filers) haven’t got their act together at all.”

Frutchey has developed a triage system for procrastinators. If they owe money, she does the return. If they expect a refund, she puts the forms in a drawer in the order they came in.

“That’s the best I can do,” she said. “The late people know they’re late.”

At the H&R Block office in Coeur d’Alene, district manager Linda Furia said customers have been bringing in 80 returns a day.

“They’ve had three months now to worry about it and grieve about it,” she said. “Now’s the time to get it done.”

Preparers are putting in 10 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week, she said.

Furia said the maximum tax paid by a customer this year was about $20,000. The largest refund, she said, was about $5,000.

During the off-season, H&R Block offers tax classes and helps with other returns, she said.

“Most of them are late filers,” Furia said. “They get a love letter from the IRS and decide to file those three years’ worth of returns.”

Near Harrison, the two Wilmas of Wilma’s Accounting Service are working 12 hours a day and eating lunch at their desks.

The business was started three decades ago by Wilma Schorzman. Her granddaughter, Wilma Christiensen, has been a partner in the business the past eight years.

Christiensen said the two crank out 350 to 400 tax returns a year, with taxes up to $40,000 and refunds up to $3,000.

Asked if she has any last-minute tips, Christiensen didn’t even pause.

“Get ‘em in earlier,” she said.