If You Prepaid Your Property Taxes, The IRS May Have Just Wasted Your Time (And Money)

Millions of American homeowners this week interrupted their lazy winter vacation days and post-holiday clearance shopping to frantically crowd their county or city tax offices, hoping to prepay next year's property taxes and dodge a tax bullet. Now the IRS, for whom the Grinch is perhaps not just a seasonal foil but a year-round inspiration, says they may have been wasting their time.