NEWS RELEASE

SOUTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

Public Affairs Office

Contact: Danny Brazell

Phone: (803) 898-5464

Email: brazeld@sctax.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 14, 2005

Revenue Department Holding Annual Drive-thru Service

Even though the South Carolina Department of Revenue expects more than half of the state's income tax filers to file electronically this year, revenue department employees will be on hand this Thursday and Friday at the department's Gervais Street headquarters to hand out tax forms to last-minute filers.

Procrastinating taxpayers needing state and federal tax forms as the April 15 deadline approaches can swing by the Drive-thru Forms Service at 301 Gervais Street (State Museum building) where DOR employees will hand out forms at the front of the building from 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. both days. Signs will be located in the parking lot directing taxpayers to the drive-thru service. Taxpayers can also drop off their state return at the drive-thru.

While electronic filing is catching on, meaning fewer taxpayers need forms, DOR and IRS employees still assisted more than 1,500 taxpayers at last year's drive-thru.

Many drive-thru customers ask for the deadline extension form at the drive-thru, but taxpayers also can request a state extension by going to the Department of Revenue Web site at www.sctax.org. Taxpayers who have already determined they will not make the April 15 deadline can receive an automatic tax extension on their state return through May 2 by filing electronically. South Carolina grants the two-week extension to electronic filers each year to encourage computer filing. The May 2 extension does not apply to federal returns.  

Department of Revenue officials hope the annual Drive-thru Forms Service will become a thing of the past as taxpayers become more comfortable filing electronically. More than 915,000 South Carolina taxpayers have already filed their state return electronically this year, nearly half of the expected 2.1 million tax returns the department will process.

Taxpayers filing the traditional paper return are reminded that the post office will close at 5 p.m. on April 15 this year (with the exception of the Assembly Street branch which will remain open until 6 p.m.). State and federal paper returns must be postmarked by midnight April 15.

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