Connie's Corner

Why the 17th?

Yesterday, I finally got around to doing our taxes, always put off till the last minute since we have to pay. When I finished, I began to wonder why I didn't need to mail them until the 17th. I realize the 15th is on a Sunday so Monday, the 16th made sense, but why the 17th?

It seems the 16th is Emancipation Day in D.C. Now I know the Emancipation Act was signed by Abraham Lincoln freeing the slaves but I had no idea D.C. celebrated it on a particular day. Apparently, D.C. made this a special holiday recently. On the 16th of April 1862, when President Lincoln signed the Act, it freed 3,000 slaves in D.C., thus the new holiday. I guess some politician found this out like I did and said..."Oh boy, another holiday just for us." Ain't Google wonderful?

Then I began to wonder...well, when were the other slaves freed? Some when the individual States ratified the Act, others not until after the Civil War was won by the North. So I dug a little further and found a list of ratification dates by the States. Check out Mississippi http://www.usconstitution.net/constamrat.html

So now I am completely clear on why I do not need to mail my taxes until April 17th this year. What I'm not clear on is if another State found a nice reason to claim a holiday on say the 17th of April, could tax day be postponed until the 18th? And with 50 States, maybe it could be postponed all the way into June! Wouldn't that be great? Who decides these things anyway? Right, my representatives...

until next time....c