By Jim Witty
Star-Bulletin
"It's what I do and I do it very well," she says with a hint of pride.
Yesterday, she joined a steady stream of like-minded Oahuans surging into the Internal Revenue Service office in downtown Honolulu, seeking 1040s, 2555s and the sacred 4868 - the automatic extension form.
With midnight, April 15 just hours away, procrastinators - for this day at least - have turned into reluctant taxpayers on deadline.
"I went to bed last night and said to myself, 'Oh my gosh, tomorrow is the 14th. It's time to get going on my taxes.'"
Even so, the Waikiki bartender claimed she's not the least bit tense.
"It takes a lot to stress me out," she said. "I'll get money back. I have dependents."
She said she planned to finish her taxes overnight and mail them this morning.
She's far from alone.
According to a survey by Men's Health Magazine, one in five taxpayers put off preparing their tax returns until the last minute. A majority of those surveyed cited a busy family and work life, 21 percent said they owe the IRS money and 28 percent said they were simply disorganized.
It isn't that Jill Nagamine is disorganized, it's just that life has become more complicated.
"We used to do it on time, but the last two years we've gotten extensions," said Nagamine, a bundle of paperwork in hand.
"We have too much property and too much stuff. So, we put them off. My husband spent the entire evening last night and I'm going to sort through it all tonight."
Still, she fears another extension is in the family's future.
"I feel like a criminal when I do the extension," she said. "I feel like we're going to get audited."
Not likely, said Mike Muromoto.
"I read a book once that said never file your taxes on time, always file an extension," he related. "They pick 99 percent of random audits from people who file on time. I always get money back, but I'd much rather not risk an audit."
Elaine Brown owes the IRS money. So she hasn't been in any hurry to face the task now at hand.
"The last few years I've done this because I owe them," said Brown. "I'm going to work on them right now. It makes me nervous, especially since I owe them money."
Evelyn White showed up at the federal building yesterday with a short list of forms she needed. She's new to eleventh-hour tax tallying.
"Normally, I file right after I get the W-2s, but this year I'm not getting a whole lot of money back," she confided, smiling serenely. "But I'm not sweating it. It's going to be short and sweet."
The same goes for Richard Harrington, who said he likes to keep his taxes simple.
"Usually I don't wait until the last day, but it's usually the last month," he said. "But this year it got sort of complicated. I did some work for a new company. I had the wrong forms."
But Harrington said he was also taking the last-minute glitch in stride.
"I'm going to sit down at McDonald's right now," he said. It'll take me all of 10 minutes."
According to Men's Health, the typical last-minute filer is between 35 and 44, earns more than $35,000 a year and is a college graduate.
For Vicki Mayer, it's become an annual ritual.
"It's something I do every year," she said. "It's the same thing every year. Simple stuff. I had all weekend to do it, but when I saw all those receipts, I said, 'Forget about it, I'm relaxing.' I'll work on it all tonight."
Charlene Cambra of the Ala Moana branch of H&R Block confirmed yesterday that tax season has reached its zenith.
"It's been nonstop," she reported.
As of Friday, about 320,000 Hawaii returns have been filed out of about 560,000 individual returns expected.
Numbers: The average refund so far is $1,081, up 12.8 percent from $958 in 1996. (Usually, about 71 percent of filers get a refund, the IRS says.)
Source: Internal Revenue Service