Tax Day Extension

Tax Day is over!  Returns and extensions were due by midnight last night for those incurable procrastinators.   The tax filing deadline was pushed back two days for most U.S. taxpayer this year.  The April 15 deadline landed on Sunday and Monday was a Washington, D.C.-celebrated holiday --Emancipation Day.

Emancipation Day, celebrated on April 16, honors President Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Compensated Emancipation Act on April 16, 1862.  “The act is not well-known, but you could consider it the predecessor of the broader proclamation that President Abraham Lincoln used to free the slaves in Confederate states. According to the National Archives, it "provided for immediate emancipation, compensation to former owners who were loyal to the Union of up to $300 for each freed slave, voluntary colonization of former slaves to locations outside the United States, and payments of up to $100 for each person choosing emigration." It led to the freedom of 2,989 slaves.”

Emancipation Day was made an official public holiday in Washington, D.C. on January 4, 2005, by Mayor Anthony A. Williams.  Read more about the District of Columbia 1862 Emancipation Law.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat