Tax Day 2016 - Thanks, Abe
Apr 15, 2016
Every taxpayer in America knows that April 15 is tax day - or, as we like to call it, run around in a panic trying to make last-minute adjustments day. But did you know that tax day is not always April 15? If April 15 falls on a weekend, it is typically moved to the next Monday. This year is extra special, however. April 15 falls on a Friday - which despite our sincerest efforts is not yet considered part of the “weekend” in most areas - but your federal tax due date has still been pushed back to April 18.
Why the break? As it turns out, you have Abraham Lincoln to thank for that. April 16 is Emancipation Day in Washington DC. Because April 16 falls on a weekend this year, federal DC employees - including our friends at the IRS - get Friday off.
Emancipation Day commemorates Lincoln’s signing of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act in 1862, which freed over 3,000 slaves in the District of Columbia. This was about nine months before the more famous Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the freedom of the slaves in the rebelling Southern confederacy.
So while you’re celebrating having a few extra days to figure out your federal tax status, take a moment to celebrate this holiday and what it represents. Individual liberty has become an important guiding principle for our country, and the fight to end slavery was a huge step towards “liberty and justice for all.”
Feeling patriotic? Show your national pride with some of our distinctly American designs.
Posted by: Alicia Milligan
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