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A deadline is a rule of the country; null is an answer

Status: accepted

Context

A filing deadline could be a function with a case on the country — the mistake this repository exists to avoid. It changes when a country changes it and belongs beside the form it applies to, with the article that sets it.

Decision

The date is pack data, in two shapes: a fixed day of the month that follows the period, or the last day of it, plus an optional number of days of extension.

The third shape is a gap, not an operator. Where a country assigns dates from a taxpayer's identifier or legal form, the pack says nothing and filing_deadline() returns null. A null meaning this country publishes no rule of this shape is worth more than a date right for one filer in ten, and upcoming_filings() lists the period with no date rather than hiding it (reason = 'no_deadline_rule').

An extension is stated where it usually applies, and the exception is named in the reference, because nothing in the schema records the special scheme that would exclude it.

No working-day shift. Moving a date to the next working day needs a national, sometimes regional, calendar of holidays that no pack carries; a date on a Sunday is a visible gap rather than a silent error.

Consequences

  • A calendar can show a period with no computable date instead of hiding it.

See also

Rendered from docs/decisions/0038-a-deadline-is-a-rule-of-the-country.md, in the repository, when the site was built. Read or change it on GitHub