IRS kicks off tax season with extended hours, service and tools
January 29, 2024
By Michael Cohn
The Internal Revenue Service began accepting tax returns Monday, promising improved help to taxpayers and new resources both in-person and online.
The IRS anticipates it will receive over 146 million individual tax returns by the April 15, 2024, deadline. The agency is using some of its extra funding from the Inflation Reduction Act to extend the hours of service at nearly 250 of its in-person Taxpayer Assistance Centers around the country. It's also working to continue improvements to its phone service as well as online tools like "Where's My Refund?" where the website will provide more details for taxpayers checking on the status of their tax refund. However, the agency faces some challenges with a tax extenders bill working its way through Congress that would make changes in the Child Tax Credit, disaster relief and a number of business-related tax provisions.
"The start of a tax season is an important day for the nation and for the IRS," said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel during a press conference Friday. "Behind the scenes at the IRS, we've been working for months to be ready to help taxpayers and make the process of filing taxes as easy and smooth as possible. It takes many long months of planning and preparing as well as programming and testing to get to the opening of filing season. This is a big job, but it's a critical one for the nation. Tax season is a unique right of citizenship."