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Monday night was indeed different from other tax-filing nights in Berkeley. The downtown post office stopped accepting returns at 10 p.m., leaving some 75 late-night procrastinators in the lurch.  

The Berkeley post office has a long history of staying open until midnight on tax-filing deadline day. 

“It was a business decision,” said Berkeley Postmaster George Banks. “It is simply at my discretion every year.” 

With the advent of e-mail filing, the crowds that typically surge near midnight have dissipated in the last couple of years, Banks said.  

He said he posted notices on the downtown post office doors and otherwise left it up to the office of Consumer Affairs in Oakland to alert the public. 

Berkeley residents Tom and Jane Kelly were among those milling about on the Post Office steps, tax returns in hand, after the post offices doors had been shut tight.  

Tom Kelly tells it this way in an e-mail to the Planet: “After chatting with a few people a young girl suggested that it would be quite a mitzvah if someone was to offer to take the tax returns to Oakland. Jane and I agreed and began to offer to take the returns. At first, people seemed reluctant. We were sized up carefully. As soon as one person of every age group, gender, and ethnicity turned over their returns, the flood gates opened. People started handing over their returns with many thanks and reminders of their great trust in us! One young man told us that this was his first tax return as if that would carry some extra weight. Within 10 minutes we had an armful and began to make our way to Oakland.” 

The purpose of Kelly’s e-mail was a request to let folks know that “the couple who were entrusted with the armful of tax returns on Monday, April 16, at approximately 10:30 p.m. arrived at the West Oakland Post Office by 11:15 p.m. and placed the mail in the hands of a postal supervisor who guaranteed that the returns would be postmarked before midnight. All is well.” 

Banks noted that people gathered at the Berkeley post office were so desperate to get tax forms after 10 p.m., that post office workers had a hard time closing the doors. They called police for help.  

Next year probably won’t be different from this one. The post office will probably close its doors at 10 p.m. “Maybe next year people will be more efficient,” Banks said.