By Paul Tuthill
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Springfield, MA – The state income tax filing deadline is drawing near in Massachusetts. It is midnight tonight ( Tuesday). It is one day later than the federal income tax deadline because Massachusetts state offices were closed Monday for the Patriots Day holiday WAMC"s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports
Not unlike other years, a substantial number of people have waited until the last day to file their tax return, according to Bob Bliss..the spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. He says about 2 point 5 million tax returns have been received, leaving about 800 thousand that's about 25 percent still to come. For the last minute filers, Bliss suggests the DOR's Webfile For Income website
Eightysix percent of the tax returns are filled electronically. The days of mad dashes to the post office to make it by the midnight deadline are long gone.
Budget cuts at the DOR have resulted in layoffs and cutbacks to customer service..That means fewer people available for shorter hours on the telephone to help taxfilers..But there has been no delay in processing returns. Bliss says refunds still go out within 3 days to taxpayers who file electronically
Bliss says the tax filing season went smoothly, in large part because not much has changed on the state tax forms in several years
While today is the tax filing day, last week was the so -called tax freedom day, according to Barbara Anderson, the executive director of the group, Massachusetts Citizens for Limited Taxation .
Anderson's group has supported efforts to reduce the Massachusetts income tax rate, and she says they'll fight a proposal in the legislature to raise to raise the rate
A coalition that includes public employee unions, and advocates for more spending on human service programs, is campaigning to raise the state's income tax rate from the current 5 point 3 percent up to nearly six percent.. They propose to nearly double the personal exemption, which they say would mean only higher income earners would more taxes..
Reporting from WAMC's Pioneer Valley News Bureau on the campus of Western New England College..I'm Paul Tuthill.