Has ND seen this?

the grade was measured, not by how people in the class did, but rather by how much you individually improved over the course of the semester. While it was terrifying for me, the grade whore, I do have to say it really pushed me. I couldn't just skate by in that class. Though, there aren't many subjects you can do that in.

I tried to do things like that in my beginning French classes, where, yes, the goal was that you come out with X amount of French but where, by default, the false beginners always had better grades than the others for whom it was all new. The problem these days though is that, in order to be as "fair" as possible, grading systems have to be mathmatical formulas spelled out on your syllabus, which can often make the system much less organically fair.

If you have a refund coming, you don't even have to file an extension.

No, no. You have to file a form 4868 for an extension whether you owe or not. As I recall, you have to give a reason, but "Illness in the family" is more than enough. I have filed many a 4868. My impression is that "The dog ate my tax forms" would also work. If you think you might owe, you can send some wild stab at it, but it's not a big deal. You will have to pay interest on what you owe, but it's low interest.

I got mine done, except for my figuring out how to actually find the money I owe, and then I found out we had an extra month because the county I'm in was declared a disaster area because of the tornado damage.

As I recall, you have to give a reason, but "Illness in the family" is more than enough

Is "my sister is an idiot" a good enough reason?

signed,

still hasn't gotten the needed paperwork yet.

You have to file a form 4868 for an extension whether you owe or not.

Technically, yes, but there's no penalty for not doing so if they owe you money. (In fact, once they tracked me down in another country three years later and made me recollect all my W2s in order to give me my full, entire refund with no penalties at all.)

Oh, also - the paper had a long write-up on Charleton Heston right after he died and in the discussion of "The Ten Commandments" had a mention of an "orgy" (PG-13 rated), with the comment "Would you attend an orgy hosted by Edward G. Robinson?"

"orgy" (PG-13 rated),

Okay, I'm stumped.

Is "my sister is an idiot" a good enough reason?

While that's true enough in my case too, I haven't tried that. My understanding is that you have to have a demonstrable reason to get a second extension, but the first one is pretty much pro forma.

Brenda's right. There's no penalty if you don't owe. I just believe that having the IRS notice you at all is generally a bad thing.

I have to say, since my husband insists on our doing our own taxes, the IRS has noticed us a couple of times and has been astonishingly good to us. Better than we deserve.