Today (Monday April 18th) is the deadline for filing your taxes or applying for an extension

Usually, when April 15th falls on the weekend, the tax deadline is simply moved to the next Monday but this year Emancipation Day is what actually pushed back the deadline.

Emancipation Day is the day set aside to commemorate the signing of the Emancipation Act by President Abraham Lincoln and is celebrated in Washington, D.C. – being observed April 16th, which fell on Saturday this year.

Emancipation Day is a legal holiday in D.C. with city workers having the day off, and since the date fell on the weekend – it was instead observed on the closest weekday – which was Friday.

According to information published by the Internal Revenue Service the IRS anticipates the issuing of 90% of refunds in less than 21 days; the IRS expects more than 70% of taxpayers to again receive refunds this year – last year some 109 million refunds were issued with the average refund being $2,797

(al.com/www.al.com)