Procrastinators take heart: The experience of the late tax filer is universal

For all you procrastinators out there who look upon April 15th with a dread similar to what George Bailey felt when the IRS showed up in Bedford Falls, you are not alone.

TurboTax has released its annual list of the top 10 procrastinating cities and after all the last minute electronic tax filings have been tallied, Chicago leads the country in procrastinators. But the reach of the procrastinator stretches across the country with New York City, Houston, Austin, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Las Vegas, San Antonio, and Los Angeles rounding out the top 10.

AccountingWEB has concluded that the experience of putting off something that you know is not only important but also inevitable seems to be universal. In Chicago, Rockstar CPA, founded by a young entrepreneur named Martin Kamenski, set up shop at Alliance Bakery on W. Division Street April 15 to help procrastinators file for extensions. As NBC Chicago reported, in addition to extension seekers, anyone with a basic tax question was welcome to stop by. During downtimes, questions submitted to Rockstar CPA's Web site or Twitter were answered, no doubt over coffee and scones.

In San Francisco, the Franchise Tax Board set up Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites on April 15, according to the San Francisco Chronicle's web site sfgate.com. One of the sites was at San Francisco State University where business students helped their classmates and others with last minute preparations. All of the help was offered for free, which coincides with another universal American experience – finding and appreciating a good deal.

And as AccountingWEB discovered, sometimes help goes beyond questions and coffee and free advice. In Schenectady, NY, at the April 13 City Council meeting, the Rev. William Levering covered different topics before he "surprised everyone with a new twist," according to the Timesunion.com. He asked for divine help and said, "Lord, we pray for those who have yet to file their returns."