October 23, 2013
The Internal Revenue Service announced today that there will be a one to two week delayed start to the 2014 filing season to allow adequate time to program and test tax systems following the 16-day federal government closure.
The IRS will start accepting and processing 2013 individual tax returns no earlier than Jan. 28 and no later than Feb. 4. The government closure came during the peak period for preparing IRS systems for the 2014 filing season. Their systems need to handle processing of nearly 150 million tax returns. Updating their systems is a complex, year-round process with the majority of the work done in the fall of each year.
The IRS received 400,000 pieces of correspondence during the closure, on top of the 1 million items already being processed before the shutdown.
The IRS encourages taxpayers to wait to call if their issue is not urgent, and to continue to use automated applications on IRS.gov whenever possible.
(This article contains the current opinions of the author but not necessarily those of Brighton Securities Corp. The author's opinions are subject to change without notice. This blog post is for informational purposes only. Forecasts, estimates, and certain information contained herein should not be considered as investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or investment product. References to specific securities and their issuers are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended and should not be interpreted as recommendations to purchase or sell such securities).
IRS CIRCULAR 230 NOTICE:
As required by U.S. Treasury Regulations, please be advised that any written tax advice contained in this communication was not written or intended to be used (and cannot be used) by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code