Posted on 04/16/2004 11:20:36 AM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Taxpayers tell IRS: We've been through Hell
Community has fun with normally dour event
Friday, April 16, 2004
BY LEANNE SMITH
News Staff Reporter
Kevin Wilson has lived in Putnam Township near Hell all his life. Mailing his taxes from there Thursday, just in time to meet the filing deadline, was no big deal.
"Hell is just Hell," he said.
But to about 400 people, some coming from as far away as Walled Lake in Oakland County, sending their taxes from the postal station inside Livingston County's Hell Country Store made the day easier to take.
"We've been busy," said Hope Lawson, a store employee and Hell's postal clerk. "This is the best job I've had in my life. You meet so many people who think it's fun to go to Hell."
All the tax forms that left Hell for the state and federal government were marked with a "Taxes From Hell" cancellation stamp. For added authenticity, Lawson singed each envelope ever so lightly with a butane lighter.
Even Wilson admits it's kind of fun and that maybe it gives those who get the tax returns a chuckle.
"They might notice it," he said. "Then again, they might not."
This is the fifth year people have been invited to Hell to mail their taxes.
"Why in the Hell do we do this?" asks John Colone, owner of the store and unofficial mayor of Hell. "I don't know. It's just fun."
To show people how warm Hell really is, the store gives out free coffee and homemade chocolate chunk cookies to those mailing their taxes from there. And even though filing taxes via the Internet is becoming more popular, Colone doesn't think it will cut into Hell's popularity on April 15.
"E-filing may be the smart way to do it, but coming to Hell is the fun way," he said.
People don't have to wait until the tax deadline to send mail from Hell, either, Lawson said.
"We have stamps for just about every holiday from Christmas to Thanksgiving to Sweetest Day," she said. "And every piece of mail that leaves here gets singed."
In fact, Lawson said, the mail that leaves the post office on just an ordinary day even has a cancellation stamp that says, "I've Been Through Hell."
That's why one customer makes a special trip from Ohio every month to send one special piece of mail to his ex-wife, Lawson said.
"It's his alimony check. I guess he's really been through Hell."
If I hadn't done my taxes already, I'd probably be on the Highway to Hell....
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