Pa. Extends Tax Deadline

By KYW's Lynne Adkins The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has decided to give a two-day extension for filing state personal income tax returns because of a problem with its electronic filing system Monday.

Residents trying to file Pennsylvania state taxes started running into trouble just hours before the midnight deadline, receiving an error message preventing the return from being filed in time through the state's pa.direct.file web site.

Deb Snyder, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, says because of the problem, all procrastinators get a break:

"Any taxpayer that needs to file their state tax return can do so if postmarked by the 18th at midnight, without penalty or interest."

She claims you can now file online with no difficulty. The problem was traced to a glitch on the Internet server. No word how many people were affected, but she says online filing is up 23 percent over last year.

Initially, the state said it wouldn't extend the deadline because, even though the web site was down, people still could file by telephone or mail in paper forms.

http://www.kyw1060.com/news_story_detail.cfm?newsitemid=13319

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), April 17, 2001