The Internal Revenue Service today
announced a delay of approximately one to two weeks to the start of the
2014 filing season to allow adequate time to program and test tax
processing systems following the 16-day federal government closure.
The IRS is exploring options to shorten
the expected delay and will announce a final decision on the start of
the 2014 filing season in December, Acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel
said. The original start date of the 2014 filing season was Jan. 21,
and with a one- to two-week delay, the IRS would 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.
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 workstreams 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.
“Readying our systems to handle the tax
season is an intricate, detailed process, and we must take the time to
get it right,” Werfel said. “The adjustment to the start of the filing
season provides us the necessary time to program, test and validate our
systems so that we can provide a smooth filing and refund process for
the nation’s taxpayers. We want the public and tax professionals to know
about the delay well in advance so they can prepare for a later start
of the filing season.”
The IRS will not process paper tax
returns before the start date, which will be announced in December.
There is no advantage to filing on paper before the opening date, and
taxpayers will receive their tax refunds much faster by using e-file
with direct deposit. 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 processes, 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 IRS continues resuming and
assessing operations following the 16-day closure. The IRS is seeing
heavy demand on its toll-free telephone lines, walk-in sites and other
services from taxpayers and tax practitioners.
During the closure, the IRS received
400,000 pieces of correspondence, on top of the 1 million items already
being processed before the shutdown.
The IRS encourages taxpayers to wait to
call or visit if their issue is not urgent, and to continue to use
automated applications on IRS.gov whenever possible.
“In the days ahead, we will continue
assessing the impact of the shutdown on IRS operations, and we will do
everything we can to work through the backlog and pent-up demand,”
Werfel said. “We greatly appreciate the patience of taxpayers and the
tax professional community during this period.”
Circular 230 Disclosure
Pursuant to the requirements of the Internal Revenue Service Circular 230, we
inform you that, to the extent any advice relating to a Federal tax issue is
contained in this communication, including in any attachments, it was not
written or intended to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (a)
avoiding any tax related penalties that may be imposed on you or any other
person under the Internal Revenue Code, or (b) promoting, marketing or
recommending to another person any transaction or matter addressed in this
communication
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