TAX TIME CAN BE TAXING

Scott Washburn, left, and Jessica Dussner talked to Stanley Beggs about preparing their taxes at H&R Block in Cape Girardeau.

The number of H&R Block customers at the Cape Girardeau office has exceeded the number at this time last year.

Filing income taxes for the 1995 tax year is only a telephone call away for some 23 million Americans.

It's simple: No forms, no charge, and refund checks are usually available within three weeks.

Uncle Sam even provides a toll-free number.

"It's called Telefile," said Sam Catalano of the Internal Revenue Service's St. Louis office. "This is the first year for the program, and it takes about 15 minutes to file your taxes if you qualify."

The program, for single filers with income of less than $50,000 and no dependents, is designed to cut down on paperwork.

To use Telefile, taxpayers must have received the special packet from the IRS.

"Twenty-three million packets were sent out," said Catalano. "If you didn't receive a packet from the IRS, you can't use Telefile."

Other prerequisites for Telefile qualification are that the taxpayer filed last year and lives at the same address as last year.

The process is simple, said Catalano. "You dial the special 800-numbers using a touch-tone phone, and a recorded voice guides you through the steps as you punch numbers from your W-2 and 1099 forms."

The IRS computes the tax return and tells you how much you own or how much refund you'll receive.

For those four out of five taxpayers who must take the "paperwork" route, millions of Americans are assembling tax forms, looking at instruction books, and dumping out shoe boxes full of receipts and pay stubs.

Once the homework is finished, a taxpayer can expect to work three or four hours preparing, copying, assembling and sending their forms to the IRS.

"We try to create forms and instructions that are accurate and can be easily understood," said Ruth A. Rothbacher, public affairs officer with the Kansas-Missouri IRS office at St. Louis.

For some people with income mostly from wages, filling in the forms is easy. For others, who have businesses, pensions, stocks, rental income or other investments, it is more difficult. and professional tax-preparers may be sought.

Tax preparation is big business. No less than 35 tax-preparers advertise their services in the immediate area each year.

With 55 days left before tax deadline, plenty of time remains. But many already have sent Uncle Sam his due, especially farmers. Many of them are required to submit income tax returns by March 1.

"People seem to be coming in earlier this year," said Debra Beussink Eudy of Beussink, Hey, Martin & Roe PC, which has offices at 351 S. Silver Springs Road, at Jackson, Kelso, Cairo, Ill., and Marion, Ill.

"We're receiving a lot of calls now, setting up appointments," said Eudy.

"People are more positive this year than last," said Lee Kimmel, district manager of H&R Block, 1471 N. Kingshighway. "No major changes have been enacted from last year and people seem more responsive to early filing. Things have been moving steady for us."

H&R Block, which has a number of offices throughout the area, including Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City, recommends that most people file electronically.

"Taxpayers will know within 48 hours whether there is anything wrong with their returns then," said Kimmel. "And they can receive their refunds quicker, anywhere from two to 14 days."

The influx of early filers in the Cape Girardeau area is opposite the trend statewide.

"Right now we're running a little behind the norm for this time of year," said Catalano. Of the more than 2.5 million people expected to file in Missouri, only 168,000 returns were filed by Feb. 2.

"That's about 85 percent of the number of returns we had this same time last year," said Catalano. Of returns filed, more than a third -- about 60,000 -- have been filed electronically.

There are a lot of people who wait until the last minute to file, and IRS officials say many Missourians -- as many as 50,000 -- request extensions each year. Taxpayers, however, are reminded that even with the extensions, there are interest charges on any taxes paid after April 15. By filing the extension form, a person will avoid only the late filing penalty.

To keep interest charges as low as possible, the IRS advises taxpayers to pay as much as they can as soon as they can. The 2688-extension form is for four months.

IRS officials also stress two big factors for all income tax filers: Check the math and sign your tax forms. An income tax form is not considered complete until it is signed.

Because the demand for tax assistance continues, a number of programs are available to the public.

Tax assistance, including tax law information, forms and publications, are available at more than 400 IRS offices nationwide. The Cape Girardeau IRS office offers taxpayers assistance on Mondays and Tuesdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Forms are available at the Cape Girardeau Public Library.

Tele-Tax topics are available 24 hours a day with a touch-tone phone. Taxpayers may call 1-800-829-4477 to hear recorded information on a variety of topics such as earned income credit, child care, elderly credit, dependents and electronic filing.

Once people have filed, they can keep check on the status of their refunds by calling 1-800-829-4477 from 7 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Last year the IRS Automated Refund Information system received more than 54 million calls to check on tax refunds.

Americans usually have to work about 125 days to pay the year's tab on federal, state and local taxes, putting the annual Tax Freedom Day in early May. It is a symbolic date when the average person finishes paying federal, state and local taxes if all earnings since Jan. 1 were turned over to the government for fulfilling tax requirements.

The annual day is computed by a Washington organization known as the Tax Foundation, which serves as a watchdog over such matters. In 1994 and 1995, the date was May 6, three days later than the 1991, 1992 and 1993 dates -- May 3.

In earlier years, it required shorter periods of time to pay the tax tab. Tax Freedom Day was Feb. 9 in 1929; March 8 in 1940; April 17 in 1960; April 28 in 1970; and May 1 in 1980.