The IRS will start accepting 2024 federal tax returns on January 27
For most US households
(CNN) — 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, 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.
The IRS said the program this year will cover more tax situations than previously, including for filers claiming the Child and Dependent Care Credit, for instance.
Free filers can send in their returns earlier
The IRS also announced that starting today — January 10 — anyone who qualifies to file their return for free through any of the private-sector IRS Free File partners may do so.
“This year, eight private-sector partners will provide online guided tax software products for taxpayers with an Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $84,000 or less in 2024. Additionally, one partner will offer a product in Spanish,” the agency said in a release.
It also noted that each of the private-sector partners has its own eligibility criteria based on factors such as age, income and state residency, but added that all offer “active-duty military personnel with an AGI of $84,000 or less in 2024, free tax preparation and filing using IRS Free File.”
The lowdown on refunds
If you expect to get a refund, and you don’t file on time, you will not face a penalty. But you will not get your refund until you do file.
The majority of all US tax filers typically do get a refund, which the IRS usually issues within 21 days of accepting your return. But the agency notes on its site that if you are claiming an Earned Income Tax Credit, the IRS cannot by law issue the EITC-related refund before mid-February.
Last year, out of the nearly 161.5 million returns filed, the IRS issued more than 103 million refunds. The average refund was more than $3,100, Werfel said in a press call.
To find out how quickly you are likely to get your refund once you have submitted your return, you can use the agency’s Where’s My Refund tool. But, generally speaking, “filing electronically and selecting direct deposit is the best way to get your refund quickly,” Werfel said in a press call.
Some filers may also get a separate check from the IRS in the next several weeks. Just before Christmas, the agency announced that it is sending payments to 1 million filers who it determined were eligible for the 2021 recovery rebate credit but who didn’t claim it on their returns for that year.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
