Taxpayers Affected by Tax Law Can File Returns Now

In late December, the IRS had informed taxpayers who were affected by recent tax law changes to wait to file their returns until notified that the IRS was ready for them, which was estimated to be around mid-February.

On Monday, IRS began to accept and process both e-file and paper tax returns claiming itemized deductions on Form 1040, Schedule A, as well as deductions for state and local sales tax, higher education tuition and fees and educator expenses.

“The IRS is now accepting all the 1040 forms,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said. “We worked hard to update our systems and get the changes in place as quickly as possible. We appreciate the patience of those impacted by the delay. We urge taxpayers to use e-file with direct deposit, and they can get their refunds within days.”

The IRS expects a high volume of tax returns in the next few weeks because of the wait for affected taxpayers. They cautioned that a small number of taxpayers may experience a short delay in receiving acknowledgement of their e-filed returns, which is normally 24-48 hours.

Business taxpayers who use the 1040 series can file now as well. However, the February 14 start date does not apply to non-1040 business tax returns affected by the recent tax law changes. The IRS will announce a specific date in the near future when it can begin processing those impacted business tax forms.

For more information on filing your federal taxes, visit www.irs.gov.


Source:
Internal Revenue Service