IRS Begins Accepting 2022 Returns Today

Today is the official start of the 2023 tax filing season and there is more help available for taxpayers this year.

Beginning today the IRS will begin accepting and processing 2022 tax year returns.

With the three previous tax seasons dramatically impacted by the pandemic, the IRS has taken additional steps for 2023 to improve service for taxpayers.

As part of the August passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS has hired more than 5,000 new telephone assistors and added more in-person staff to help support taxpayers.

However, one financial expert recently told NPR that you can expect a smaller tax refund this year and you might even end up owing taxes.

Lynnette Khalfani-Cox told NPR one reason is because there are no more stimulus checks. Another is that the enhanced child credit is gone. Also, a special pandemic-era tax break for charitable deductions was also eliminated.

Khalfani-Cox advises taxpayers to file their returns electronically this year.

If you have to file by snail mail you may have to wait some time for your refund because of the tremendous backlog of paper returns.

She said as of late 2022 the IRS had about 9 million unprocessed tax returns and 7 million of them were paper returns.

And this year you have until April 18 to file your return because of the holiday in Washington DC.