The deadline to mail or file income taxes is midnight Monday, and public perception is that huge numbers of folks are frantically scrambling to meet their obligations to Uncle Sam.
But according to a new Dan Jones and Associates opinion poll, commissioned by the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV, most Utahns are not pulling their hair — and calculator batteries — out right now.
According to a survey of 421 state residents, only 13 percent of Utahns plan to file their taxes by mail close to the Monday night deadline. And only 4 percent plan to file electronically in the final days of tax season.
A full 41 percent of respondents said they already had filed their taxes electronically. Another 27 percent said they had filed their taxes early, by mail.
Another 4 percent said they will not have to (or will refuse to) file a tax return this year and 5 percent said they will seek an extension. Four percent of Utahns said they didn't know what their plans were for filing an income tax return.
The poll was conducted April 10-13. The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 5 percent.
Charlie Roberts, spokesman for the Utah Tax Commission, confirmed Utahns are, in fact, turning in their tax forms earlier this year. He said the number of state tax returns submitted by April 10 was 13.5 percent higher than for the same day last year.
"There are a couple of reasons for that," he said Friday. "One is the law that went into effect this year where, if you are a tax preparer and you prepare more than 100 returns, you must file electronically.
"The other reason is that the economy is up. There are more people working. And then there continues to be a trend of people becoming more familiar with the Internet and more comfortable doing their (taxes) over the Internet."
A closer look at the poll results reveals people who said they do not have a religion were more likely to be filing by mail at the last minute (17 percent) than Protestants (11 percent), and Catholics and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (13 percent.)
The leaders in procrastination are residents of Davis County, where 22 percent said they would file by mail at the last minute compared to 17 percent in Salt Lake County and 8 percent each in Weber and Utah counties.
The highest percentage of taxpayers waiting until the final days to file by mail were in the 55-64 age group (18 percent) while only 7 percent in the 35-44 age group planned to file by mail just before the deadline.
The poll also found 54 percent of Utahns hire an accountant or tax service to do their taxes while 42 percent prepare their own. Four percent said they have their taxes prepared another way.
One reason why many Utahns did not wait until the last few days to file could be because 63 percent said they expect to receive a tax refund this year. Thirty percent said they do not expect a refund and 7 percent said they don't know if they'll get one or not.
Roberts said about two-thirds of Utahns will receive tax refunds from the state this year.
Of those who thought they would receive a refund, 73 percent said they would get money back from both the federal and state government. Twenty-one percent said they would receive a refund only from the federal government.
E-mail: zman@desnews.com