The signs of spring are here: fliers for summer sublets are all over campus, people basking in the sun on the HUB lawn, and tax day.

The deadline for filing tax returns is tonight at midnight, whether taxpayers go online or rush to the post office to get an "April 15" postmark on their paper forms to avoid penalties.

Many students are ahead of the game this year, getting their tax forms in early. "I already filed a while ago," Brian Kapp (sophomore-premedicine) said. "I did it online through H & R Block and already received my refund check."

Kapp said filing online was easy and recommended it to other students.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) expects about 84 million individual income tax returns to be filed this year in paper form, and another 50 million to be filed online at www.irs.gov.

While some students file their tax returns on their own on paper or on the Internet, some others leave their IRS-related paperwork to their parents. "My mom did it for me," Elizabeth Thomas (junior-psychology) said. "She'll probably do [my taxes] next year, but I'm probably on my own once I'm in grad school."

Thomas received her refund check from the IRS a few weeks ago, but was not particularly happy with how she used the money. "It all already went to my bills," Thomas said.

Kapp has other plans for his tax refund. "I think I'll use it to go away in the summer with my friends," he said.

Local tax preparation firms have not seen a lot of students lately, but they are still extremely busy filing returns.

"There isn't a tremendous amount of students who come in here," said Tammy Chronister, manager of Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, 1786 N. Atherton St.

Generally, students are prepared when they come in to do their taxes, she said. "The vast majority know they need to bring their W2s, but some are concerned and puzzled about local taxes because they changed recently," Chronister said.

Neither students nor area residents have been prepared to file their local taxes because the paperwork requires pay stubs from the last year, she said.

"That's been the biggest problem, because a lot of older people don't even keep their pay stubs," Chronister added.

For those who still have not done their taxes, Chronister recommended trying to get them filed on time by getting them done professionally or doing them online. Otherwise, taxpayers can file a four-month extension for their tax returns, she said.

"You can file a federal extension, but for that you still have to figure out if you owe any money," Chronister said.

While actually completing the tax forms takes the bulk of the time involved in the process, taxpayers using traditional paperwork to file their returns should allow some extra time for going to the post office.

"It's already crowded," said Kathy Punt, customer service supervisor for the State College Post Office, 237 S. Fraser St.

The post office will be open until midnight with extra staff to reduce the time spent waiting in line, she said.

"People are waiting about 10 minutes average," Punt said. "Since we're open later, people will come in after work to send their taxes."