Washington – Itemize your tax deductions? Itching for a refund? You’re going to have to wait.
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The IRS said that it needs until mid- to late-February to reprogram its processing systems because Congress acted so late this year cleaning up the tax code. The bill, which includes deductions for state and local sales taxes, college tuition and teacher expenses, wasn’t signed into law until Dec. 17.
The bill ensured that the federal income tax rates would not change, and itemized deductions will continue to be allowed in full for high-income taxpayers.
As a result, the 50 million taxpayers who itemize their deductions will have to hold off for a bit before they file. Of course, not everyone files early: only about 9 million of the 140 million U.S. tax filers filed in January or February of last year.
“The majority of taxpayers will be able to fill out their tax returns and file them as they normally do,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman in a statement. “The IRS will work through the holidays and into the New Year to get our systems reprogrammed and ensure taxpayers have a smooth tax season.”
The delay affects both paper and electronic filers who itemize deductions on Form 1040 Schedule A. That includes those claiming the new Educator Expense Deduction, which credits grade school teachers for out-of-pocket expenses of up to $250.
It also includes those claiming deductions for college students, covering up to $4,000 of tuition, which is claimed on Form 8917, though the IRS said there will be no delays for those that claim other education tax credits.
Though itemizers can work on their tax returns before the IRS is ready to accept them, the government said people should not send them in before it is ready to process the returns.
The IRS hasn’t yet said exactly what day it will be able to begin processing the impacted tax returns, but it expects to announce that date “in the near future.”
Meanwhile, TurboTax said its customers can e-file with the company as early as Jan. 6, and it will hold onto the filings until the IRS is ready to process them.
Its no big deal…..if you owe money, you don’t want to file earlier than April 15th anyway. If you are getting a refund, it will come a few weeks later. Everyone is going to pay less under the new law so we are better off even with the delay. Thank you president obama for this new year’s gift and allowing us to keep a few more dollars of our hard-earned income.
Its still a gift cuz had the d’s not lost big the tax bill would have looked a lot different. So yeah thank obama for getting his party to sign on to the gop bill.
Wow once again the Government slacks on what is important. You have had all year to figure this out. You wait till December. Now we the people have to wait because of you’re lazy asses. You know what we the people need to take our right’s back, we need to manage our money that serves this Country because all of you Congress, Government and yes you Obama have no idea what you are doing in office. I for one am tired of higher taxes and you telling us what we have to do, to help America and be better people. Leave us the hell alone. Maybe you can afford to wait for you’re refund due to all the money you make taking money from the ones who work for a living, but some people have waited for the refund to pay the extra shit you have handed our way. What an unorginized group of people.
Wow, once again the Government slacks on what is important. They have had all year to figure this out. You wait until December. Now, we the people have to wait for our money because of you’re lazy, overpaid, underachiever’s, being paid by us the people. You know what, we the people need to take our right’s back, we need to manage our money that serves this Country because all of you Congress, Government and yes you Obama have no idea what you are doing in office. How do you allow us to get into this situation? I for one am tired of higher taxes and you telling us what we have to do, to help America and be better people. Leave us the alone, worry about you’re duties as an elected official, remember you work for us we pay you have you forgotten. I honestly think we have forgotten, we allow you the Government to do what you want when you want. It makes no difference what we want. Has it ever? What do we do protest, which gets us arrested. We post things like these on sites that we can, so people can agree with us or disagree. We have psychos that go to an extreme and comment crimes over the lack of power we have. The question should be how we have the people allowed the Government to take so much control over our decisions. I guess we gave up long ago fighting for what we believe in. I wonder was it easier for us to do this? Did we get tired of standing up for our rights? We are at War now, and when we go to other Countries to help the people who are in need, are we standing up for what we believe in or do we do these things because once again we do as the Government tells us to do? I don’t know if I am upset and outraged at this whole ordeal or am I just so tired of fighting for what is right anymore.
Great article. Thanks for the info, you made it easy to understand. BTW, just in case anyone needs to fill out a tax forms, I found a blank forms in this site PDFfiller. This site also has some tutorials on how to fill it out and a tons of fillable tax forms that you might find useful. Here is a blank IRS form 1040 that I was able to fill out.