Tax Day weighs on victims of Harvey
As filing deadline nears, many worry about critical documents lost in storm
As Tax Day arrives, Hurricane Harvey’s devastation has turned filing into an emotional experience for families and individuals fretting over documents lost in the storm.
Crumpled receipts that had been soaked in floodwaters. Phones displaying digital credit card statements, the paper copies taken by Mother Nature. Photographs of houses hit by Hurricane Harvey.
These were among the documents Houstonians brought with them this weekend as they rushed to file their taxes or file for extensions before the midnight Tuesday deadline.
Service providers including H&R Block and Liberty Tax reported full waiting rooms throughout the weekend and on Monday, as expected.
But tax season was even more emotionally fraught this year for families and individuals still reeling from the August hurricane. Many fretted over critical documents lost in the
storm.
“It’s so sad, recalling everything we went through,” said Sandra Martin, a senior tax analyst for H&R Block in Houston.
On Monday, Martin helped clients brainstorm ways to make up for lost files — from pulling up digital copies to requesting photographic evidence to determine what losses they could calculate.
Under federal rules established for Harvey victims, taxpayers can deduct all flood-related losses from their income, less a $500 deductible.
Tuesday also is the deadline to file for an automatic six-month extension, which tax analysts recommend for Harvey victims.
While lines formed at several offices across the city a day before the filing deadline, confusion over the deadline itself prompted larger crowds on Saturday.
The 11 neighborhood tax centers run by the nonprofit Baker-Ripley group got a total of 30,400 clients by Saturday’s end with most if not all thinking Sunday was the deadline, said Christina Cave, a spokeswoman for the tax centers.
Though Tax Day normally falls on April 15, two additional days were added this year because the 15th was a Sunday and Washington, D.C., offices were closed Monday for Emancipation Day.
Even with the extra time, plenty of Houstonians delayed a meeting with a tax agent until the last moment.
Carpenter Jesus Balbuena, 22, started using the Baker-Ripley free tax service two years ago on his parents’ recommendation.
Sitting in the center’s overflow area on Monday, he offered the one reason he and many others took so long to file their paperwork.
“I was busy,” he said with a shrug.