Every year IRS makes changes and calls them improvements. Some of them are, and others – not that much. 2014 is no exception.
2014 tax season is delayed – again!
This time, the delay is blamed on last October’s government shutdown. Whatever. The bottom line is that no tax returns will be processed until January 31st. If you print your tax return on paper and put it in the mail – it will be sitting in the IRS intake facility until January 31st. If you go online and submit it via TurboTax or some other software – it will not be processed until January 31st, either. If you come to some tax office, including ours, in early January – we will prepare your tax return, but we still cannot get it processed before January 31st.
Translation: NO tax refunds until February! Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying just to get your business. Beware.
But once processing starts on January 31st, you will still be better off (and faster!) with electronic filing, either online or via tax offices. Paper filing is history.
IRS will no longer help preparing simple tax returns at their offices.
They should not be doing it anyway, but now they officially stopped. Instead, they will refer low-income people to the volunteer tax help centers or to free online filing. Unless your taxes are real simple, these are not good options. If you have a business or real estate investments, hiring a competent tax professional will pay off many times over. Especially considering that IRS audits more and more small business returns.
IRS will stop answering tax law questions over the phone.
Personally, I cheer this announcement. And not because I will get more questions called in to my office. The IRS phone advice has been declining in quality every year, sometimes reaching atrocious lows. I think it’s better to receive no advice at all than bad advice.
Anyway, the IRS phone reps will be answering only basic questions (those that you can easily google yourself) and only until April 15. If you have a more complicated question or call after April 15, the IRS will politely (gee, thanks!) recommend that you look for the answer on their website or inside your tax software. But since their publications are notoriously confusing – which prompts calling for clarifications in the first place – you get the picture. Have fun!
Do not call the IRS about your refund status!
At least not for 21 days after filing. During these first 3 weeks, they will not even try to help. You will be told to use the “Where is my tax refund?” auto-responder on their website. They even created an app for that, believe it or not. Yep, an IRS app on your phone – how (un)cool is it?
IRS transcripts will be available online.
Finally! The IRS has not announced the start date, only that it will happen in “early 2014.” This is a long overdue service, and it will help tremendously. You will be able to see your W2s, 1099s, 1098s, your payments, your penalties, and a lot of other valuable information, particularly if you have some unresolved issues with the IRS, such as being behind on tax returns or owing money to the IRS.
Two caveats. One is that current year’s forms (W2s, 1099s, etc.) will not be available until sometime in the summer. If you lost your forms and need this information, you will have to file for an extension and work on your tax return later in the year. The other problem is that this very useful feature will also be quite useful to identity thieves. Expect this epidemic of ID theft to get worse.
IRS debt solutions will cost more.
This is not a major blow, but still annoying. The IRS increased their fees for things like installment agreements (payment plans) and offers in compromise (debt settlement). Oh well.