Last-minute filers race to beat income tax deadline once again

NEW YORK -- Eyes fixed nervously on clocks and watches, millions of Americans packed into post offices and logged onto the Internet to submit their tax returns before the midnight deadline Friday.

In some places, the annual ritual became a kind of celebration, with bands performing and postal workers serving coffee and doughnuts as patrons waited to mail their tax forms or file for extensions.

At the cavernous Eighth Avenue Post Office in Manhattan, hundreds of people stood waiting for tellers while the Columbia University marching band played on the steps outside an hour before the deadline.

As she approached the head of the snaking line, Ayanna Adams, 25, said she liked the festive atmosphere. ''The experience of filing here at the last minute is very whimsical," she said.

But there was a strong element of anxiety in the air, too, especially among those who had planned to file for extensions: The Post Office ran out of forms earlier in the evening.

''We had 10,000 extension forms, and they're all gone," said Pete Fontana, a post office customer relations coordinator. ''People are getting a little edgy here."

In Miami Beach, Jacqueline Benjamin came to H & R Block on Friday afternoon before her shift at a nearby hospital. ''Last year I forgot," said Benjamin, 41. ''I was at work when somebody told me that day was the last day. I had to leave work."

In Springfield, Mass., the main post office stayed open until midnight Friday for the 23d year in a row.

''We started off with a coffee pot and a couple dozen doughnuts, but this has emerged into a really big day for us," said Springfield operations manager Ted Goonan, who expected the post office to receive about 285,000 tax returns Friday.

Still, much of the eleventh-hour rush was happening online: The Internal Revenue Service said it expected more than half of all US returns this year to be filed electronically, a first.

''When you compare it to doing business on the Web or through e-mail, the acceptance level for tax filings is much higher," IRS spokesman Eric Smith said. ''It's been very successful."

The agency had no estimate of how many returns would be filed Friday, but Smith said of the 120 million returns expected to be filed on time, only 88 million had come in by April 8.