Tax Packages Arrive in Mail; IRS Reminds Taxpayers to e-file and Watch for Tax Law Changes

Washington — With millions of tax packages beginning to arrive in mailboxes this week, the Internal Revenue Service reminded taxpayers to watch for commonly overlooked tax credits and late tax law changes that could affect their tax returns."The IRS will work to make this tax season as smooth as possible for taxpayers," said Linda Stiff, Acting IRS Commissioner. “We strongly encourage taxpayers to file electronically, particularly those affected by late tax law changes. Filing electronically makes things easier by reducing errors and speeding up refunds.”The IRS is sending 16.5 million 1040 tax packages to taxpayers this month who have filed paper tax returns in the past. The number of paper packages has dropped rapidly in recent years, falling from 34 million packages in just four years. The paper packages are becoming much less common as the popularity of electronic filing soars. Last year, nearly 80 million tax returns used e-file, representing about 57 percent of all returns.This year, the individual income tax packages mailed to taxpayers do not include any tax credit forms and certain other forms due to late tax law changes involving the alternative minimum tax (AMT) “patch.” However, copies of these forms are available in the Forms and Publications section on this Web site. Taxpayers who e-file should update their tax software to ensure that they are using the updated forms.The AMT changes also mean that as many as 13.5 million taxpayers using five forms related to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) legislation will have to wait to file tax returns until the IRS completes the reprogramming of its systems for the new law. The IRS has targeted Feb. 11 as the potential starting date for taxpayers to begin submitting the five AMT-related returns affected by the legislation.For the rest of this tax related article please feel free to visit www.irs.gov.