Tax Returns Jan. 30? Fiscal Cliff May Delay Your Refund
Tax returns have a new Jan. 30 filing date kickoff, and you can thank the fiscal cliff stalemate if you’ve got to wait a bit longer for your annual refund check.
Tax returns, starting Jan. 30, will be processed by the IRS — but the season is starting eight days later than normal, after wrangling over the fiscal cliff caused the originally-planned tax hikes and spending decreases to throw a wrench into the system for the Internal Revenue Service.
Commissioner Steven T. Miller said in a news release that the tax return date on Jan. 30 will allow about 120 million individual taxpayers to submit their paperwork — no small feat for the agency considering the last-minute agreement reached by Republicans and Democrats as 2013 rolled in.
Miller said in the statement:
“We have worked hard to open tax season as soon as possible… This date ensures we have the time we need to update and test our processing systems.”
New York financial planner Gary Schatsky told USAToday:
“There was not a lot of acrimony on large pieces of the tax packages… If Congress could have come to grips with them early, people would not have had uncertainty about what large portions of the tax code looks like, nor would people have had to put off filing as soon as they desire.”
If you’re burning to do your tax return before Jan. 30, take heart — services like TurboTax will process your submission and give you all the information you need to know, but tax prep agencies will have to hold on to the returns until the IRS starts accepting them at the end of the month.
