It seems that a whole lot of taxpayers are anxious to get their taxes in to the IRS!

I’ve never seen the IRS issue a statement that they have yet to determine the date when they will be accepting tax returns; however, they’ve done just that this year.

Below, I outline various reasons that could be responsible for this sudden frantic rush:

1) Anxious taxpayers could be hoping that with a firm date for accepting taxes, any changes that may be coming would not be in effect for 2017 taxes.

2) Taxpayer may be intent on getting their returns in as early as possible to avoid having criminals file a return in their name. That would be a wise thing to do since this is what criminals do – they try to get a jump on procrastinating taxpayers.

3) Taxpayers could be wondering when they’ll get their tax refund in order to make plans for what to do with that money.

They might be disappointed because some tax returns require additional review and take longer than the typical 21 days the IRS usually gets most refunds out. For example, Congress passed a law that delayed certain refunds last year. The law is still in effect this year and it requires the IRS to hold refunds tied to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Additional Child Tax Credit before mid-February.

4) Unfortunately, criminals may be pushing to find out the date so they can start feeding false returns to the IRS. I sure hope this is not the case.

Typically the IRS releases the exact date they will be accepting tax returns in mid-December. It looks like the IRS is still following that plan.

Have a question? Contact Barry Fowler 

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