Taxpayers who did not file timely income tax returns to claim their tax refund generally have three years from the time the return was due to file any refund claims. If you mailed your 1996 tax return in on the extended due date of April 17 and expected a refund, you missed it by two days. Three years ago the due date was April 15. You needed more time to file, so you filed for an extension until Aug.15. This was up about 8 percent from a year earlier.
Standard deductions are also on the rise.
There is no rate change. The rate remains at 6.2 percent for the employer and the employee. For the self-employed, their total remains at 12.4 percent.