Delay in 2014 Tax Filing Season

Last updated on October 28, 2022

The IRS has announced that it will delay the 2014 tax filing season for one to two weeks because of the federal shutdown. According to the IRS, the filing season has been postponed to ensure that all the operations during the filing season run smoothly. During the 16-day shutdown, most of the IRS’ operations were temporarily suspended.

Bloomberg shares the details:

“The IRS, which had been scheduled to open filing Jan. 21, 2014, will now begin accepting returns for tax year 2013 as early as Jan. 28. The agency will make a final decision on the date in December, according to a statement today.”

Bloomberg quotes a statement made by Danny Werfel, the acting IRS commissioner, “Readying our systems to handle the tax season is an intricate, detailed process, and we must take the time to get it right.”

This is the second consecutive year that the IRS has postponed the filing season. After Congress delayed certain tax policy legislation, the 2012 filing season started on January 30^th.

“Considering the IRS has dealt with much larger changes on far shorter notice over the past years without delay, its reasons are suspect,” spokeswoman for the House Ways and Means Committee, Sarah Swinehart, said in an e-mail to Bloomberg.

“The IRS furloughed more than 90 percent of its employees during the shutdown, which began Oct. 1 when Congress was unable to pass a spending bill and ended after midnight Oct. 17,” Bloomberg explains.

Due to the shutdown, the IRS will not be able to give refunds on time. Even though there is no mention of it, Bloomberg opines that delay in refunds “could have an additional consequence in 2014.”

Bloomberg goes on, “The U.S. debt limit is suspended through Feb. 7, and changes in the government’s projected spending after that date will affect the timing of how long the Treasury Department’s extraordinary measures to prevent a default will last.”

Loren Adler, research director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in Washington explains to Bloomberg: “Because the government may issue more refunds after Feb. 7 than previously anticipated, a potential lapse in borrowing authority could come a few days sooner than projected.”

“The delayed start of tax-filing season probably will create a backlog of potential returns for the start date, rather than delaying all returns equally.

‘Those are folks who are trying to do this as soon as their books are in order,’ Adler said.”

How the delay in the tax filing season will affect the economy will become evident in the next few months, but as far as taxpayers are concerned, they faced many changes related to taxes in 2013 and will continue to face them in 2014.