Tax Time: Earlier Deadline For State Taxes In Arkansas

Arkansas taxpayers accustomed to getting refunds after filing their state income tax returns may be looking at smaller checks from the state this year. And if those returns haven`t already been filed, the April 15 deadline for state and federal taxes is less than a week away. David Foster, income tax administrator for the state Department of Finance and Administration, says the agency hasn`t encountered any major problems stemming from three big changes this year -- the earlier deadline, a three percent surcharge tacked onto income taxes to help meet state budget needs and elimination of the working-taxpayer credit. Awareness of the earlier deadline for filing has been helped by the high proportion of taxpayers who either have their returns prepared by a specialist, or use home-computer software available on the Internet or on disks for sale at many stores. Foster says those two categories of tax filers amount to 70 to 75 percent of all filers. Posted by Mike Hellgren