Those who put off filing their taxes up until to the last minute will be pleased to see extended hours at major post office collection centers Tuesday, April 17, the last day to file income tax returns before penalties are applied.

The nearest late-night option for Tracy residents is a post office at 3131 Arch-Airport Road, off Highway 99 southeast of Stockton, which will remain open until 10 p.m. The downtown Tracy post office, 125 W. Ninth will operate normal hours, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Meeting those deadlines ensure returns will be sent to the Internal Revenue Service and the California Franchise Tax Board on time.

Ralph Petty, customer service representative at the post office’s Sacramento office, said that officials are accustomed to an increased flow of mail around deadline.

Petty said that though the rise of online tax filing has meant a steady decrease in the number of people who send physical returns, it’s typical for traffic at offices to increase about 70 percent on tax day and last until the doors close.

“We expect there are probably going to be some late-filers,” he said Monday, April 16. “I hope it’s not going to be what it’s been in past years.”

Petty added that “our facilities both in Stockton and West Sacramento, we had traffic all the way to midnight (in 2011), and I expect to see the same thing (this year), too.”

He recommended a few extra steps to ensuring returns will be received:

• Sign a return before sealing it an envelope

• Properly seal the envelope

• Make sure the correct amount of postage is on the envelope

While the California and federal governments collect revenue from various sources, income tax gets a lot of attention. Here is a quick breakdown of where your money can go at each tax level:

Federal income tax

A married family with one child making $50,000 a year* pays an average of $995 annually in federal income tax, in addition to $725 in Medicare tax and $2,100 in Social Security taxes. The dollar amounts below show how that family’s income tax would be divided among various federal government functions.

• 24.9 percent ($247.75) for national defense

• 23.7 percent ($235.81) for health care, including CHIP and Medicaid ($99.50) and Medicare physician and drug payments ($104.47)

• 19.1 percent ($190.05) for job and family security, including food and nutrition assistance ($36.82) and federal military and civilian employee retirement and disability ($43.78)

• 3.6 percent ($35.82) for education

• 4.5 percent ($44.77) in Veteran benefits

• 2 percent ($19.90) for environmental protection, energy conservation and land management

• 1.6 percent ($15.92) foreign aid and embassy support

• 1 percent ($9.95) for science, space and technology

• 2 percent ($19.90) law enforcement, justice administration and immigration

• 0.7 percent ($6.96) agriculture

• 0.5 percent ($4.98) community development

• 0.4 percent ($3.98) natural disaster response

• 7.9 percent ($78.61) other government programs

• 8.1 percent ($73.63) net interest

Source: whitehouse.gov *The median household income in San Joaquin County is $50,011, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.

State income tax

• 28.6 percent health care, including Medi-Cal

• 27.6 percent K-12 education

• 10.7 percent business, transportation and housing

• 8.6 percent higher education

• 7.6 percent corrections and rehabilitation

• 5 percent legislative, judicial and executive (including the Legislature and Governor’s Office)

• 4.9 percent general government (including offices with oversight of specific policy areas)

• 4.1 percent natural resources

• 1.1 percent environmental protection

• 1.1 percent consumer and protection services

• 0.6 percent labor and workforce development

Source: ftb.ca.gov