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IRS Moves Start of Tax Season Forward to January 30th!

It’s official: January 30th will be the first day to e-file taxes in 2013!

Well, this was hardly a surprise. The IRS  announced Tuesday that it was kicking forward the opening of the 2013 tax season to Wednesday, Jan 30th. That’s a full eight days later than the previously announced January 22nd marker, which was itself set five days past the Jan 17 date on which the 2012 season began.

It would be cheap, at best, to blame the Taxman. After the protracted end of year mess in Washington, the agency could hardly have been expected to have all its t’s crossed and its many i’s dotted by mid-month. For anyone in need of a reminder, legislation to pull the nation off the fiscal cliff was only passed on the second day of the year!

“We have worked hard to open tax season as soon as possible,”  said IRS Acting Commissioner Steven Miller in a statement issued Tuesday.. “This date ensures we have the time we need to update and test our processing systems,” he added.

So when does tax season start in 2013? The old 22nd date, on which e-filing was set to begin, left open the option of paper filing your tax return hours after the din of the fireworks had died down, which is to say on Jan 1st. This will not be possible this time around.

Instead, both e-file and paper filing will have to wait for the end of January’s opening bell, further reducing the incentive to paper file. In the IRS’s estimate, more than 80 million taxpayers filed online last year. This is a number the agency’s brass is intent on increasing.

Starting Jan 30, the large majority of taxpayers, or roughly 120 million households, will be able to file their tax return, whether they go online or put pencil to paper. The rest, notably those claiming residential energy and some business credits, will have to wait longer, until late February and possibly into March.

Photo via Scott S on Flickr.

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Do I Have to File a Mississippi Income Tax Return?

Find out if you have to file a Mississippi income tax return when you file your federal

As if filing a federal tax return weren’t complicated enough, the states have to go and add their own tax forms on top of it.

Oftentimes the most complicated thing about state taxes is figuring out whether you have to file at all. There are two different types of state tax returns you have to look out for: resident and nonresident returns.

If you are a Mississippi resident, then you have to file a Mississippi return. This return will tax you on all of your income, no matter where it was earned.

If you moved during the year either into or out of Mississippi, you will have to file a part-year resident return that taxes you on all of your income for the portion of the year that you were a Mississippi resident. You will also have to file a part-year resident return in the state that you moved to/from. Continue reading “Do I Have to File a Mississippi Income Tax Return?”

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How to Prevent Tax Identity Theft

Last year tax identity theft affected 1.1 million taxpayers. Use these tips to prevent someone from stealing your identity and filing a fraudulent return

Every year millions of taxpayers look forward to tax season as a nice fat tax refund is waiting to enter their bank accounts.

But for an increasingly large group of tax filers, tax season can be a scary time. Every year, more and more people become the victims of tax identity theft – their names and Social Security numbers were stolen and fraudulent returns are filed under their names.

Not only do criminals now possess these unfortunate filers’ personal information – with which they can do any number of dastardly things – but these people also have their tax returns rejected by the IRS because every Social Security number can only be used once. They then have to print out their return out, fill out a lot of extra paperwork, and mail it all to the IRS, which slows the process down considerably. Many have to wait months, even upwards of a year, before they get their refunds.

In 2008, there were 51,700 cases of identity theft-related tax fraud. In 2011, that number was over 1.1 million.

So even if you’ve never had your identity stolen, you still need to be vigilant about taking preventive measures. Don’t think it can’t happen to you. Following these steps will save you a lot of hassle and heartache: Continue reading “How to Prevent Tax Identity Theft”