The Internal Revenue Service has announced the 2016 filing season start date. And surprise! There’s no delay. Tax season for paper and electronically filed returns will open on Tuesday, January 19, 2016. That’s one day earlier than last season’s start date (January 20, 2015).
Even better? There’s no tiered opening season. All taxpayers can begin filing on January 19, 2016. There was some concern about what might happen if Congress did not sign off on all of the tax extenders. Fortunately, Congress eventually approved a tax extenders package which renewed all of those extenders – with no changes – making it possible for all taxpayers to start filing at the same time.
The IRS will begin accepting individual electronic returns on Tuesday, January 19, 2016. The IRS expects to receive more than 150 million individual returns in 2016, with more than four out of five being prepared using tax return preparation software and e-filed. The IRS will begin processing paper tax returns at the same time. There is no advantage to people filing tax returns on paper in early January instead of waiting for e-file to begin.
And don’t be fooled. Just because a tax preparer will prepare your return earlier doesn’t mean that you skip the line: although the IRS begins accepting returns on January 19, many tax software companies will begin accepting tax returns earlier in January and submitting them to the IRS when processing systems open. That date remains January 19, 2016.
“We look forward to opening the 2016 tax season on time,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said. “Our employees have been working hard throughout this year to make this happen. We also appreciate the help from the nation’s tax professionals and the software community, who are critical to helping taxpayers during the filing season.”
As noted earlier, Tax Day is pushed out a bit this year. Tax Day will be Monday, April 18, 2016, rather than April 15, 2016.
