The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) opened the 2014 United States filing season for individuals on January 31, highlighted a growing selection of online services, and encouraged taxpayers to check out a variety of tax benefits, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
January 31 2014 represented a delay of ten days from the original opening date of January 21. The IRS had previously disclosed that there would be a delay of approximately one to two weeks to the start of the 2014 filing season following last October’s 16-day federal government closure. The delayed opening date for individuals to file their tax returns has allowed the IRS adequate time to program and test its processes, with more than 50 IRS systems needed to handle processing of the nearly 150 million tax returns.
Taxpayers have until April 15, 2014, to file their 2013 tax returns and pay any tax due. The IRS expects to receive more than 148 million individual tax returns this year, and more than four out of five returns are now filed electronically.
