Tax Day April 15 Looms, but Millions of Americans Are Behind

Stress from tax forms, waiting for code reforms, more independent contractors, and weather-related disasters are reasons people delay filing tax returns.

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For the average U.S. taxpayer, April 15 is the official deadline to file tax returns. But this year, the IRS has indicated that filings are down by 1.7 percent from the same period last year.

As of March 14, only 70.4 million filings had been submitted; at that point last year, the IRS had received close to 71.6 million returns.