The IRS announced that tax filing season for 2020 will be delayed a bit this year, CNBC reports. Instead of beginning late January, returns will be able to be filed beginning February 12th. This gives the IRS time for updating the filing changes that came along with the Covid relief bill from December.
The IRS also made clear that taxes this year will be due on April 15th, despite last year’s extension of tax season through July 15th.
NewEgg has a promo valid until 3/23 to get various versions of H&R Block tax software at significant discounts
Deluxe Federal – $14
Deluxe Federal + State – $15
Premium Federal + State – $25
Premium & Business – $33
A little annoying since I was floating money in estimated taxes, but I’ll live…
So the IRS can’t delay stimulus payments so that they can actually send them to people, yet they can force those same people to wait weeks longer to receive their 2nd stimulus payment? Oh government, you never cease to amaze me.
Yeah this is freaking ridiculous.
This whole tax filing thing is a sham. I filed through turbotax in 2019 April and got my usual refund. Sometime in 2020, I got a mail from IRS that I have to pay them $2000 for some missed thing in that filing. I realized the mistake, fixed the return and refiled it for a $50 refund as told by turbotax instead of $2000 tax. Guess what, I got a mail back from IRS in 3-4 weeks that the refund is $450 and not $50. I don’t understand the whole point of why they have to go back and forth and tell me that the refund is $450 instead of fixing the whole return thing in the first place and provide my refund. The whole episode told me that IRS could very well get way with the whole tax filing process, but the private companies are the ones stopping them.
Totally agree with you. You’d think that it is in this country’s best financial interest to make paying taxes simple, convenient, and cheap (e.g. not having to buy a lame software every spring) to 100% of its citizens
You can file your taxes on one page, or three if you have common investments. It takes minutes with no software.
The complexity in the US tax system only enters when people decide to take advantage of incentives. If you’re willing to put in some research, you can do this yourself. If you want to expend less effort, you can pay for software or an accountant.
Ultimately, the reason we don’t have the “one 3×5 card in five minutes” tax system is that we want to give incentives for people to buy houses, go to college, give to charity, save for retirement, etc. Collecting tax revenue is a distant second.
^^ This. The vast, vast majority of tax filers have uncomplicated returns that take little time to complete. I’ve had a varying level of returns over the past 20+ years and even with very complicated returns with W2 and multiple self-employment incomes, investments, complicated p2p investing, it still only took me a few days to do it myself taking a few hours a day.
I agree with you two and have always done my own taxes. While it’s gotten more complicated over time, I have all the forms I need in an interlinked Excel file. Only started paying for tax software in recent years to do efiling so I don’t have to snail mail a whole tree every spring.
That said, the tax system appears intimidating and most people don’t have the time, patience, or reading comprehension to endure it. I’ve encouraged quite a few of my coworkers (all with above-average education) to do their own taxes at least once and none of them considered it seriously. The complexity of deductions and credits – which affect most people by the way – only makes it worse (I believe strongly that we can have a simpler tax system without all these “incentives”, but that’s really beside the point here).
There’s no reason the IRS cannot make its own version of Credit Karma Tax and offer it for free to all Americans. The improved efficiency in tax collection, paperwork processing, and auditing should cover the costs. Instead, the IRS shuffles the forms around every year to make things confusing to the taxpayers (for example estimated payments was on 1040, got moved to schedule 3 a couple years ago, and is now back on 1040 this year). No wonder the private tax filing support is such a large and profitable industry.
No, the point is if IRS already knows what the tax refund/owed is, why does it want us to file? To make sure we learn how to file taxes?
The answer is the tax filing companies bribe (otherwise called lobbying in US) politicians to make the system as is.
I am talking about individuals/couples who have only W2 income.
I understand what you are saying, but Turbotax’s a shady lobbying to disable free filing option does not spell innocence.
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-fight-to-stop-americans-from-filing-their-taxes-for-free
IRS only knows part of the info that goes into your return.
Another delay for those who never got stimulus payments last year and are trying to claim it on their tax return via the rebate credit.
If Biden and Congress passes another round of stimulus before IRS opens their filing I seriously wonder what they’ll do.
Still waiting on my 2019 refund. Paper filed on October 15. Haven’t heard anything since. Doesn’t even show up in the online status check.
I got my state refund about 6 weeks after I filed. Smaller jurisdiction that usually is 7-10 days in normal times.
Also paper filed, and checked on my $600 stimulus round 2 payment, they ‘don’t have enough information’. Meanwhile I checked on the money order I sent for 2019 tax payment – cashed!!
What happens if I file my returns before Feb 12??
Be the datapoint you want to see.
Tax software may let you “file” before then (to be done with it), but they simply hold it until IRS is ready to accept.
All they do is to store the returns and transmit them to IRS once the IRS filing is open. This is the case in normal times too. Not every filing is immediately transmitted to IRS and even when the filing is sent to IRS, they take their own sweet time to acknowledge your return. An acknowledgement from IRS usually takes up to 72 hours after filing.
It sits in a giant queue/inbox until the ancient IRS computer opens the floodgates and starts processing returns.
There’s a tiny, tiny, tiny chance your return is accepted the week prior as part of their small test batch(es) before they open the gates to everyone else on the 12th.
Interestingly, the IRS web page for Free File Fillable Forms (https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-forms) says “Opens Jan. 25, 2021, at 11 a.m. ET.”
So is today, January 15th, still the last day to prepay taxes for the 2020 tax year or has that been extended as well?
January 15, 2021 is still the due date for the September 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020 payment period per the IRS; no extension.
It would be neat if they would announce when you would get your refund. Filed in early March; amended in early June. Got part of my refund in mid September, and just today got a letter saying they owe me interest. But no check for that or for the rest of refund.
My mother got a 1099-INT from the IRS for $13 of interest that she was never paid, nor got notice that she was owed interest. Sounds like they’re backed up in many ways. (Which is tough when they’re the judge and jury on all these matters.)
I filed a paper return (as I always do) for 2019 sometime in April and didn’t get my refund until mid-September. I have somewhat complicated taxes (capital gains, business income) so the private free services don’t work for me. This time I’m going to the IRS’s free filing service so I hope I’ll get better turnaround. It’s at https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/free-file-fillable-forms
If anything that’s pretty good, I paper-filed my 2018 taxes (can’t do e-file for prior years unfortunately, I really wonder what they gain from this policy) on 4/2/20, and didnt get my refund until 11/30. So you beat me by 2 months! In fact, I filed my 2016 taxes on 4/14/20 and STILL haven’t gotten my refund, going on 9 months… this makes me suspect that maybe they’re prioritizing newer years, although how would they know the year before opening it and doesnt it only take a few minutes to process once opened? Who knows. But either way, the mail backlog last year was insane, hopefully this year should be much better with no IRS shutdown.
Filing taxes years late is not a good idea. Just get them done in Feb or March and it works just fine. No backlog. All is fine.
Will IRS asking for a cut on that “interest”?
Yes. I got a 1099-INT from the IRS a few days ago.
Same situation as you but haven’t gotten the refund yet. They keep saying 9 weeks (and then 9 more when that deadline passes). Bullshit system
There’s a weird loophole where if you file by January 30, you don’t have to pay estimates taxes due January 15. Guess that needs to be resolved somehow.
I came here just for this reason. I’m hoping they clarify soon, I’m almost ready to file already.
If I understand correctly, that’s always the case so long as you wouldn’t have incurred a penalty. For example, if your total tax owed for the year was $10,000 and you paid $3,000 each in Q1, Q2, and Q3, you’d reach the 90% threshold even if you made no Q4 payment. In that case, your Q4 payment can be received until 30 Jan and still count as a quarterly estimated payment, not an amount owed on your taxes.
No clue why this exists.