The official start date of this year’s tax filing season will be January 27, the IRS said Friday.
That is the first day the agency will start accepting and processing 2024 income tax returns.
“This has been a historic period of improvement for the IRS, and people will see additional tools and features to help them with filing their taxes this tax season,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel in a statement.
Such improvements include expanded use of chatbots online and voicebots when filers call the IRS with questions.
When are returns due?
The official deadline to file your 2024 return will be April 15, the agency noted.
But not all people who are required to file will have to meet that deadline. In fact, millions of Americans won’t need to this year.
That’s because your filing deadline may be different if you live or do business in a federally declared disaster area. You will get an automatic extension to file as well as to pay any remaining federal income taxes you may owe. (The IRS compiles a list of those areas and the relevant tax-filing deadlines here.)
For example, the IRS said Friday that due to the fires and straight-line winds in Southern California this week, “individuals and households that reside or have a business in Los Angeles County” will receive tax relief on a variety of filing and payment deadlines that otherwise would occur between January 7 and October 15. They now have until October 15 to file and pay what they owe during that period, including their 2024 taxes.
Similarly, due to the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, all taxpayers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as parts of Tennessee and Virginia, have until May 1 to file their 2024 returns and pay any tax due, according to the IRS.
If you are not in a group that gets an automatic extension, but you can’t file by mid-April, you may apply for an automatic six-month filing extension by April 15. If you don’t and it turns out you still owe money, you will be hit with a late-filing penalty if your return is late. And if you do owe money, know that an extension to file is not an extension to pay. Your payment is still due on April 15. If you don’t pay by then, you also will be subject to late-payment penalties.
Direct File program expands to 25 states
The agency said Friday its pilot Direct File program will now be open in 25 states, up from 12 when it launched last year. The program lets eligible tax filers file their taxes directly with the IRS for free, starting January 27.
The states where Direct File is now available are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington State, Wisconsin and Wyoming.