2014 Tax Season to
Open Jan. 31; e-file and Free File Can Speed Refunds
IR-2013-100, Dec. 18,
2013
WASHINGTON — The
Internal Revenue Service today announced plans to open the 2014 filing season
on Jan. 31 and encouraged taxpayers to use e-file or Free File as the fastest way to
receive refunds.
The new opening date for
individuals to file their 2013 tax returns will allow the IRS adequate time to
program and test its tax processing systems. The annual process for updating
IRS systems saw significant delays in October following the 16-day federal
government closure.
“Our teams have been
working hard throughout the fall to prepare for the upcoming tax season,” IRS
Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel said. “The late January opening gives us
enough time to get things right with our programming, testing and systems
validation. It’s a complex process, and our bottom-line goal is to provide a
smooth filing and refund process for the nation’s taxpayers.”
The government closure
meant the IRS had to change the original opening date from Jan. 21 to Jan. 31,
2014. The 2014 date is one day later than the 2013 filing season opening, which
started on Jan. 30, 2013, following January tax law changes made by Congress on
Jan. 1 under the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA). The extensive set of ATRA
tax changes affected many 2012 tax returns, which led to the late January
opening.
The IRS noted that
several options are available to help taxpayers prepare for the 2014 tax season
and get their refunds as easily as possible. New year-end tax planning
information has been added to IRS.gov this week.
In addition, many
software companies are expected to begin accepting tax returns in January and
hold those returns until the IRS systems open on Jan. 31. More details will be
available in January.
The IRS cautioned that
it will not process any tax returns before Jan. 31, so there is no advantage to
filing on paper before the opening date. Taxpayers will receive their tax
refunds much faster by using e-file or Free File with the direct deposit
option.
The April 15 tax
deadline is set by statute and will remain in place. However, the IRS reminds
taxpayers that anyone can request an automatic six-month extension to file
their tax return. The request is easily done with Form 4868, which can be filed
electronically or on paper.
IRS systems,
applications and databases must be updated annually to reflect tax law updates,
business process changes and programming updates in time for the start of the
filing season.
The October closure came
during the peak period for preparing IRS systems for the 2014 filing season.
Programming, testing and deployment of more than 50 IRS systems is needed to
handle processing of nearly 150 million tax returns. Updating these core
systems is a complex, year-round process with the majority of the work
beginning in the fall of each year.
About 90 percent of IRS
operations were closed during the shutdown, with some major work streams closed
entirely during this period, putting the IRS nearly three weeks behind its
tight timetable for being ready to start the 2014 filing season. There are additional
training, programming and testing demands on IRS systems this year in order to
provide additional refund fraud and identity theft detection and prevention.
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