It's as much a tradition as death and taxes themselves -- the last-minute rush to get a return filed by April 15.

With that deadline coming tonight, tax filers, preparers and the postal service are all racing the clock.

The Tooele County Post Office will be accepting mail until midnight tonight, though last-minute filers are encouraged to mail their tax returns earlier to avoid long lines in the evening, according to Janet Vincent, postmaster for the Tooele City Post Office. The collections area on the south side of the building, where the mail collection slots are, will be the only part of the post office that will be open until midnight.

"This will be the first time ever that our post office will be collecting mail until midnight on the day taxes are due, but our windows will not be open that late," Vincent said. "The retail portion of the office will just be open until 5:30, like usual. We expect there to be a big line of people formed during the evening, and all the mail from the slots will be collected and sent off in a truck at 2:30 a.m. on April 16."

Vincent said the idea for collecting until midnight began because of Tooele's rapid population growth, and will likely continue in future years.

Postal workers won't be the only ones scrambling to meet the filing deadline.

Diane Cox, office manager for the north Tooele office of H&R Block, said people often procrastinate until the last day and pay any money they owe only when it's absolutely required.

"People don't want to have to give the government any more money or do it sooner than they have to," she said. "We already have quite a few appointments scheduled today, and we will also be open until midnight. We expect to have a number of walk-ins as well."

Kathy Ringwood, manager of Liberty Tax Service in Tooele, said she expects her location will also be busy with customers up until midnight.

"Even though our last appointment is at 9:30 p.m., we also expect to have a lot of walk-ins after that," she said. "We're actually all booked up with appointments from 3 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. right now. We'll be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the rest of this week just to finish up before we go into off-season hours."

Local CPA Sam Woodruff, who owns his own tax preparation business in Tooele, said the dreaded thought of dealing with taxes is what keeps people from coming to see him earlier, and that tonight will also be a busy night for him.

"I think people wait until the last minute because they just really don't want to get their taxes done or pay them," he said. "I'll be pushing it until the midnight deadline tonight, so tomorrow will definitely have to be a recovery day."

Those who do not file their tax return by the due date may have to pay a failure-to-file penalty. The penalty for federal returns is usually 5 percent for each month or part of a month that a return is late -- but not more than 25 percent. The penalty is based on the tax not paid by the due date.

There will also be 25 other Utah Post Offices across the state that will provide late-night collections on April 15. In addition, three post offices will extend window service hours until midnight, and 29 locations have Automated Postal Centers, which are available for use around the clock. Stamps can also be purchased through the Automated Postal Centers, which will accept both debit and credit cards.

For a list of all the Utah locations allowing late-night mail collections, visit www.usps.com.

dougrad@tooeletranscript.com