On Dec. 18, 2013, the Internal Revenue Service announced plans to open the 2014 filing season on January 31st. The original opening date was scheduled for January 21st. However, the IRS claimed the 16-day federal government closure caused significant delays in the annual process of updating their systems, applications, and databases to reflect tax law updates, business process changes, and programming.
According to one of their news releases, "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."
The 2014 date is one day later than the 2013 filing season opening, which started on January 30, 2013. That delay was caused because of the January 1st tax law changes made by Congress under the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA).
Many tax software companies are expected to begin accepting tax returns at the beginning of January and hold those returns until the IRS systems open on January 31st. 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.
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