2024 to bring some major changes filing taxes

Due to an extensive technology update being carried out by the IRS, certain papers can now be submitted online for the first time.

WASHINGTON – “Death and taxes are the only certainties in life,” as Benjamin Franklin once stated.

Additionally, the Internal Revenue Service opens a window of several months each year for American taxpayers to submit their taxes, much like clockwork.

The official start date of the 2024 tax season is Monday, January 29, as determined by the IRS this year. It is anticipated by the government agency that over 128.7 million tax returns would be submitted by the April 15th deadline.

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There may be some differences from the regular tax season this year. The Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, which was passed into law in August 2022, provided the IRS with tens of billions of dollars, which it is currently using to undergo a significant technical makeover aimed at improving its customer service and technology systems.

IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel stated in a news release that “taxpayers will continue to witness dramatic improvement in IRS operations as our transformation initiatives take effect.” “IRS staff members are putting forth a lot of effort to ensure that more funding is utilized to assist taxpayers by streamlining the tax preparation and filing process.”

What is new for this year?

According to agency leadership, this year will see the opening of additional walk-in facilities to assist taxpayers, improved personalized online accounts for taxpayers, and more paperless processing to assist with IRS communication.

Additionally, under a new electronic direct file pilot, qualified taxpayers will be able to file their 2023 taxes directly with the IRS online. According to the IRS, it will launch gradually and become generally accessible by the middle of March.

Most refunds should be processed by the IRS in less than 21 days.

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Can I electronically file my tax return?

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that taxpayers would be able to electronically file a variety of tax forms and other communications to the IRS this year, marking a move toward the agency’s digital transformation.

“It will have a huge and extensive effect,” Yellen states in a speech that was ready to be given at the IRS headquarters in Washington last year. “And we’ll speed up processing times for the system as a whole.” The IRS has been unable to process tax forms more quickly for decades due to a combination of underfunding and an excessive amount of paper paperwork.

The IRS’s 2024 filing season customer service enhancement plan is being presented against the background of many funding reduction suggestions from congressional Republicans.

By 2024, the majority of individuals will be able to electronically file everything but their tax returns thanks to the plan. The IRS will be able to handle everything digitally by 2025, including tax returns, when it begins to test its new electronic free file tax return system in 2024.

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Do enormous backlogs of paper still exist?

Massive backlogs of paper tax returns plagued the IRS in prior years. With more than 21 million paper tax returns pending with the IRS as of June 2022, National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins remarked, “The math is intimidating.”

The IRS currently anticipates a more efficient filing season with fewer backlogs with greater funds, but it is also witnessing ongoing concerns of financial reductions.

A separate agreement to take $20 billion from the IRS over the next two years and direct those funds to other nondefense programs resulted from last year’s debt ceiling and budget cuts agreement between Republicans and the White House. The agency’s original $80 billion allocation through the Inflation Reduction Act was rescinded, totaling $1.4 billion.

What is the child tax credit amount?

The Republican-led House is hoping to vote on a bipartisan package to double the child tax credit and provide additional corporate tax advantages during the first week of tax season, though it’s not a given that the bill will become law.

With a total estimated cost of $78 billion, the tax package was one of the most widely supported proposals in the sharply divided Congress when it passed the House Ways and Means Committee on a vote of 40 to 3.

In order for the law to reach President Joe Biden’s desk, it must first pass the House with a two-thirds majority and then be voted on by the Senate.

Source:
https://www.abc10.com/article/news/nation-world/2024-tax-season-begins/507-64ca7af5-01a2-4b65-afad-57b8180449a1

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