The Cleveland Plain Dealer meant to help its readers by listing the addresses of post offices that would be open until midnight on the last day to file income taxes on time. Unfortunately, it listed five post offices that were not open until midnight, causing about 400 people to have their returns stamped with a late date. The paper appears to have remedied the situation, and it ran a story about the mistake. Some excerpts:
…A story in Monday’s Plain Dealer incorrectly listed the post offices as among those that stayed open until midnight for last-minute filers. The post offices did not stay open until midnight, so the returns left in drop boxes there weren’t post-marked until Tuesday morning.
However, postal officials saw the error in the newspaper, gathered those returns together and will deliver them with letters explaining the mix-up.
Plain Dealer editor Doug Clifton is also sending a letter to tax officials.
“Taxpayers who posted their returns based on the bad information we provided should not be penalized,”
Clifton said. “I plan to send a letter to the appropriate authorities acknowledging the mistake. It should never have happened.”
IRS spokesman Chris Kerns said the taxpayers will not be penalized. “We appreciate the quick action of the Postal Service and The Plain Dealer in bringing this to our attention,” he said.
Ohio State Department of Taxation spokesman Gary Gudmundson was less charitable, noting that the law doesn’t allow
for “forgiving late filers.” But, he said, “the tax commissioner will consider the appeals”
from the Postal Service and Clifton.
The problem affected about 400 people mailing 1,000 local, state and federal tax returns to 24 different addresses, local postal spokesman David Van Allen said…
