IRS Launches Tax Filing Season

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

05 February 2019

The United States Internal Revenue Service has announced that it "successfully" opened the 2019 tax-filing season, with the the agency now accepting and processing federal tax returns for the 2018 tax year.

Despite the government shutdown and the major tax law changes included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the IRS said that it opened the 2019 tax filing season one day earlier than in 2018. However, the agency said that it is "working to promptly resume normal operations" following the appropriations lapse.

More than 150 million individual tax returns for the 2018 tax year are expected to be filed, with the vast majority of those expected to be submitted before the April 15, 2019, tax deadline. Because of the Patriots' Day holiday on April 15 in Maine and Massachusetts, taxpayers who live in Maine or Massachusetts have until April 17 to file their returns.

The IRS expects about 90 percent of returns to be filed electronically.

The IRS anticipates that more than 90 percent of tax refunds will be issued within 21 days. However, due to law changes giving the agency more time to detect and prevent fraud, some tax returns may require additional review, meaning that these refunds could take longer to process, the agency said.

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