Don't Mess With Taxes

Here’s hoping your tax procrastinating doesn’t go this far! (Photo by Tara Winstead)

More than 33 million taxpayers already have filed their 2024 tax returns this year. Chances are a lot of them live in the Midwest.

Taxpayers in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana tend to procrastinate the least when it comes to filling out their federal returns, according to IPX1031’s latest Tax Procrastinators report.

Midwest-adjacent Pennsylvania rounds out the five states, coming in between Ohio and Michigan, where filers don’t dally

So where do taxpayers tend to put off filing?

Waiting to file: The sixth annual study from the firm that focuses on tax-deferred like-kind exchanges found that Wyoming, for the third year in a row, is the tardiest when it comes to taxes. Alaska ranks second, followed by Vermont, North Dakota, and Delaware.

Those five tax slowpoke states also were in IPX1031’s top five last year. In 2025, however, Alaska moved into the number two spot ahead of Vermont.

The map below shows the 2025 filing season tax procrastination rankings.

The rankings were reached by analyzing Google search data related to the tax filing deadline.

Slow cities, too: IPX1031 also looked at cities, also using the popular search engine’s data, that are home to tax procrastinators.

Congratulations (or not) Seattle residents. You put off filing more than your urban counterparts in 29 other locales deemed the most populous in the United States.

Las Vegas ranks second, followed by Baltimore when it comes to putting off the annual federal tax task.

The least procrastinating tax filers live in New York City, San Antonio, and Phoenix.

Why we wait: It’s not really a surprise that so many of us put off filing our annual 1040 forms. If you’re not getting a refund, what’s the hurry, right? 

But there are other reasons, according to the taxpayers that IPX1032 asked about their tax filing habits back in January, before the 2025 filing season officially started.

This year, the top three reasons for delaying filing are —

1. They find the process too complicated and/or stressful.
2. They want to make sure the return is correct before filing it.
3. The filing process takes too much time.

When we’ll finally file: There’s always a lot of attention on the ultimate procrastinators who wait until the last possible day to file. That’s April 15, which 21 percent of taxpayers surveyed by IPX1031 said they didn’t know.

IPX1031 also found that 22 percent of the queried taxpayers planned to send their returns to the Internal Revenue Service on Tax Day.

But IPX1031’s numbers show that after an early, but relatively small, rush to file early, the pace of filing is pretty even across the filing season.

Thirteen percent of taxpayers said they would file in January, with 29 percent planning to file in February and another 29 percent in March.

April filers accounted for 24 percent. That includes the 22 percent who plan to wait until the last minute.

The remaining 5 percent of taxpayers said they would file in May or later, hopefully after getting an extension and paying any tax they owe.

You also might find these items of interest:

• 4 ways to file your taxes for free
• 5 reasons to wait to file your tax return
• Why we put off filing our taxes and how to stop it

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