It’s a Christmas miracle! Okay, maybe that’s overstating it a bit… But after initially announcing that the 2014 tax season would be delayed by as much as two weeks, the Internal Revenue Service has announced that the season will open on January 31, 2014. That’s ten days after the projected state date before the shutdown but a few days earlier than the feared February start date.
The government shutdown contributed to an already overtaxed (*cough*) IRS staff, making it unlikely that the agency would have time to program and test its tax processing systems on time for an early opening. IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel is confident that the new January start date will be enough time, saying:
Our teams have been working hard throughout the fall to prepare for the upcoming tax season. 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 new start date is one day later than the 2013 filing season opening, which started on January 30, 2013. That start date contributed to one of the shortest tax seasons in recent memory.
The January 31 start date is key: no matter what tax preparation and tax software companies tell taxpayers, the IRS has indicated that it will not process returns before that date. Tax preparation companies and software companies may accept tax returns before that date but they must hold those returns until January 31, 2013.
Despite a later start date this year, the due date remains the same: the April 15 tax deadline is set by statute. If you need more time to file, you can request an automatic six-month extension to file. Remember, however, that an extension of the time to file is not an extension of the time to pay.
