The IRS announced Friday the official start date of the 2025 tax season as Jan. 27, and expects more than 140 million tax returns to be filed by the April 15 tax deadline. There is.
The announcement comes as the agency is undergoing a major overhaul, with tens of billions of dollars allocated to the agency through Democrats' Inflation Control Act, passed in August 2022, to improve technology and customer service. Trying to improve processes.
The IRS said it is expanding a program that allows people to pay taxes directly to the tax agency for free. The Federal Tax Collector's Direct File program, which allows taxpayers to calculate and submit their returns directly to the government without the use of commercial tax preparation software, will begin January 27th and expand from the previous 12 states. It will be available to taxpayers in 25 states. pilot program in 2017.
A pilot program in 2024 allowed people in certain states to use a very simple W-2 to calculate their returns and submit them directly to the IRS. The IRS announced in October that people who took advantage of the program had claimed more than $90 million in refunds.
The IRS expects most refunds to be issued within 21 days. The agency says taxpayers can use “Where's My Refund?” You can check the status of your 2024 income tax refund within 24 hours of e-filing. Taxpayers who filed paper returns typically have their refund information available after four weeks.
The agency also said it expects to maintain the service levels it has achieved in the past, including wait times of less than five minutes for assistance.
Two goals for the upcoming tax filing season are to provide 10,000 hours of additional office time and to expand the IRS' local assistance programs by 20% to increase the number of returns prepared. The agency said it also continues to simplify the notice to make the language easier to understand.
IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel also said the IRS is working to increase public awareness of the Earned Income Tax Credit, and that nearly 1 in 5 eligible taxpayers either don't know about it or don't know about it. He said he didn't claim it because he wasn't aware he was eligible.
As in past years, the IRS also urges filers to be wary of tax scams, including false promises of tax assistance or fake attempts to trick people into paying penalties they don't owe this filing season. He says that the number of bad actors making threats is rapidly increasing. Filers can visit IRS.gov and search for “fraud” for the latest information.
He said on the conference call that the IRS will be able to maintain its current staffing levels thanks to the additional multi-year funding provided by Congress, adding that the agency's technology and tools will be stagnant if the funding is eliminated.
“This is a period of historic improvement for the IRS,” Secretary Werfel said. “With continued investment in our nation’s tax system, we can do even more.”
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