You get three extra days to gather your paperwork and file your federal tax return in 2016. The tax deadline is April 18.
You can thank Washington, D.C., for the gift. Washington will celebrate Emancipation Day on April 15. The day is treated as a federal holiday, so federal offices – read IRS – will be closed.
Emancipation Day typically is celebrated on April 16. It’s the day President Abraham Lincoln signed into law a bill ending slavery in Washington, D.C.
April 16 falls on a Saturday in 2016, so Emancipation Day will be celebrated on April 15.
And Tax Day will be pushed back to April 18.
That doesn’t mean you have to wait until April 18 to visit your tax preparer, though.
Maine and Massachusetts
For individual taxpayers in Maine and Massachusetts, there’s a further complication in their states’ observance of a state public holiday, Patriots’ Day. This holiday is observed on the third Monday in April, which in 2016 falls on, you guessed it, Monday, April 18th. When a legal state holiday falls on the due date for a state where a tax office is located, the due date for returns in that state is again pushed to the next business day. This gives Maine and Massachusetts taxpayers an extra day to file their individual tax returns, their deadline is Tuesday, April 19th.