IRS offers YouTube videos to help last-minute income-tax filers
WASHINGTON -- People who still haven’t filed their income taxes probably shouldn’t get distracted watching YouTube videos.
But the Internal Revenue Service is pointing last-minute filers to the site for tips on how to avoid busting Tuesday night’s filing deadline.
The IRS said it has several videos on its YouTube channel to help people scrambling to file their taxes. One titled “Last-minute tax tips -- 2012,” narrated by an IRS employee named Eric, calmly tells procrastinators, “Please, don’t worry, you still have options.”
The video goes through those options -- preparing and filing electronically before the later deadline this year, including using the IRS Free File program or requesting an extension -- along with any money due.
The IRS YouTube channel has 54 videos with tax tips. The agency said that the English-language version of the channel is the fourth-most viewed U.S. government YouTube channel, with more than 3.1 million views since it debuted in 2009.
But so far, the last-minute tax tips video, posted on April 3, has been viewed only about 2,300 times.
The videos also are available on the agency’s smartphone app, IRS2Go.
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