Tax

THOSE HARRIED procrastinators who were hoping to file their city taxes online or access related forms on Sunday were met with an unpleasant surprise: Philadelphia's Department of Revenue website was down due to "routine maintenance. " Scheduled maintenance for the website occurs every Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., but many questioned a routine maintenance the day before taxes were to be paid. "Why would you schedule maintenance the day before the deadline?" City Councilman Mark Squilla said Monday.

The phone was ringing off the hook when the H&R Block office in the shopping center at 23d Street and Oregon Avenue in South Philadelphia opened Monday - tax day - and the last-minute filers began streaming in, waving their paperwork and hoping the pros could make things as painless as possible. Denise Evans, a bus driver clutching her pay stubs and Form 1040-A, said she had tried to avoid paying extra. "I thought I could do this on my own this year," she said. "I looked it up on YouTube.

With a touch of theatrics and an eye toward his reelection, Gov. Christie used Monday's tax deadline to drop a revived tax-credit plan on the Democrats who control the Legislature. "Everybody who works and makes up to $400,000 would be getting a tax cut under this plan," the Republican governor announced. The plan would not cut property taxes for New Jerseyans, who have the nation's highest average property-tax bill. Instead, similar to a plan Christie unsuccessfully pushed last year, it links a 10 percent reduction in income taxes to how much a homeowner pays in property taxes, and restores Christie's previous cut in a tax credit for the working poor.

The 2300 block of Christian Street sits squarely in Graduate Hospital, for more than a decade one of the city's hottest neighborhoods, where new homes and residents have translated into skyrocketing prices. While about half the homes are filled with newcomers, the block also reflects the strong attachment Philadelphians have traditionally shared with their neighborhoods. The other half of the homes there have had the same owners for an average of 27 1/2 years, according to a City Council analysis, including three under the same ownership for more than 50 years.

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania residents will have an extra day to file their state personal income-tax returns because the Department of Revenue website - as well as the websites of many other state agencies - went dark for several hours Monday afternoon due to a technical breakdown. State officials had not pinpointed the cause of the problem as of late Monday afternoon, but did say it was not the result of a cyber attack and ruled out foul play. Residents will be able to file their returns until midnight Tuesday without penalty, Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser said.

Some details of how an estimated $2.5 billion would be raised via taxes, fees, and fines and spent on Pennsylvania's transportation needs under a plan released Tuesday by State Sen. John Rafferty (R., Montgomery), chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee: Spending $1.9 billion a year for state and local highways and bridges. $510 million a year for Pennsylvania's 36 urban and rural mass-transit agencies. $115 million a year for railways, airports, ports, and bicycle and pedestrian programs.

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania residents will have an extra day to file their state personal income-tax returns because the Department of Revenue website - as well as the websites of many other state agencies - went dark for several hours Monday afternoon due to a technical breakdown. State officials had not pinpointed the cause of the problem as of late Monday afternoon, but had ruled out any foul play. Residents will be able to file their returns until midnight Tuesday without penalty, Revenue Secretary Dan Meuser said.

WASHINGTON - Worried the Internal Revenue Service might target you for an audit? You probably should be if you own a small business in one of the wealthy suburbs of Los Angeles. You might also be wary if you're a small-business owner in one of dozens of communities near San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta or Washington, D.C. A new study by the National Taxpayer Advocate used confidential IRS data to show large clusters of potential tax cheats in these five metropolitan areas.

Very last-minute tax help for the DIY crowd is abundant. So, don't panic, even if you've waited until now to start the paperwork. Check out these sites and pages to get the job done. Reasons to wallow. Why do people procrastinate on doing their taxes? This post at Time.com offers some of the reasons. Among them: laziness, a mistaken impression that it'll get done faster and better under pressure, and having gotten away with it in the past. http://ti.me/153uh5c Can't pay the tax?