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2013 IRS Calendar and Deadlines

These IRS filing deadlines determine when you need to file your 2012 return and pay certain 2013 taxes

January 2013

  • January 10 – Employees who received $20 or more in tips for December 2012 must report them to their employer.
  • January 15 – If you are not paying your 2012 taxes through withholding, you must pay the fourth and final installment of your 2012 estimated tax. However, you don’t have to pay this installment by January 15th if you file your 2012 return by January 31st.
  • January 30 – The IRS starts processing both e-filed and paper 2012 returns.
  • January 31 – If you are required to make estimated tax payments – but did not pay your last installment by January 15th – you can file your 2012 return and pay your tax liability by January 31st to avoid penalties for late payment of the last installment. Continue reading “2013 IRS Calendar and Deadlines”
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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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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”