2024 Tax Season Begins January 29, Says IRS

The Internal Revenue Service has announced Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, as the official start date of the nation’s 2024 tax season when the agency will begin accepting and processing 2023 tax returns.

The IRS expects more than 128.7 million individual tax returns to be filed by the April 15, 2024, tax deadline.

Although the IRS will not officially begin accepting and processing tax returns until Jan. 29, people do not need to wait until then to work on their taxes if they’re using software companies or tax professionals.

For example, most software companies accept electronic submissions and then hold them until the IRS is ready to begin processing later this month.

IRS Free File will also be available on IRS.gov starting this Friday, Jan. 12 in advance of the filing season opening.

Taxpayers will continue to see helpful changes at the IRS following ongoing transformation work.

Some of the new and expanded tools and resources include:

Expanded in-person service by opening or reopening Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs).

Improvements to the “Where’s My Refund” tool.

Enhanced paperless processing that will enable taxpayers to submit all correspondence, non-tax forms, and responses to notices digitally and will be able to e-File 20 additional tax forms.

And a new, pilot tax filing service called Direct File which gives eligible taxpayers a new choice to file their 2023 federal tax returns online, for free, directly with the IRS.

It will be rolled out in phases and is expected to be widely available in mid-March.

For most taxpayers, the deadline to file their personal federal tax return, pay any tax owed, or request an extension to file is Monday, April 15, 2024.

The IRS encourages taxpayers to take steps now to “Get Ready” to file their 2023 individual federal tax return.