File federal income taxes

Please see IRS Publication for additional information. Although your income may be below the minimum income to file taxes as shown above, you may not have to file taxes, but there may be times when you want to file a return. Have questions about taxes and retirement? If a stay-at-home mom earned a salary, what would it be? The latest relief bill gives some filers with unemployment income a break on their taxes. By law, Washington, D. The due date is April 18, instead of April 15, because of the Emancipation Day holiday in the District of Columbia for everyone except taxpayers who live in Maine or Massachusetts.

Taxpayers in Maine or Massachusetts have until April 19, , to file their returns due to the Patriots' Day holiday in those states. Taxpayers requesting an extension will have until Monday, October 17, , to file. Rettig noted that IRS employees continue to work hard on critical areas affected by the pandemic, including processing of tax returns from last year and record levels of phone calls coming in. This is frustrating for taxpayers, for IRS employees and for me," Rettig said.

And we will continue to look for ways to improve. We want to deliver as much as possible while also protecting the health and safety of our employees and taxpayers. Additional resources are essential to helping our employees do more in — and beyond. The IRS continues to reduce the inventory of prior-year individual tax returns that have not been fully processed. As of December 3, , the IRS has processed nearly million tax returns. All paper and electronic individual refund returns received prior to April have been processed if the return had no errors or did not require further review.

Taxpayers generally will not need to wait for their return to be fully processed to file their tax returns and can file when they are ready. The IRS encourages people to use online resources before calling. Last filing season, as a result of COVID-era tax changes and broader pandemic challenges, the IRS phone systems received more than million calls from January 1 — May 17, more than four times more calls than in an average year.

In addition to IRS. We have invested in developing new online capacities to make this a quick and easy way for taxpayers to get the information they need. More than million individual tax returns for the tax year are expected to be filed, with the vast majority of those coming before the traditional April tax deadline.

Overall, the IRS anticipates most taxpayers will receive their refund within 21 days of when they file electronically if they choose direct deposit and there are no issues with their tax return. The IRS urges taxpayers and tax professionals to file electronically.

To avoid delays in processing, people should avoid filing paper returns wherever possible. The law provides this additional time to help the IRS stop fraudulent refunds from being issued. Some returns, filed electronically or on paper, may need manual review, which delays the processing, if our systems detect a possible error or missing information, or there is suspected identity theft or fraud. Some of these situations require us to correspond with taxpayers, but some do not.

This work does require special handling by an IRS employee so, in these instances, it may take the IRS more than the normal 21 days to issue any related refund. In those cases where IRS is able to correct the return without corresponding, the IRS will send an explanation to the taxpayer. If you lost your job and qualified for compensation, the unemployment benefit payments you received are considered taxable income.

You should have received Form G which will show you the amount of unemployment funds you received during the year. Use this form to report income from unemployment benefits on your federal tax return. Tax ID theft occurs when someone steals your personal information to file a tax return using your personal data. Usually, the fraudulent tax filer will use your Social Security number to file your return in order to collect a refund.

For the fastest information, the IRS recommends finding answers to your questions online. You can also call the IRS , but the wait time to speak with a representative may be very long. This option works best for less complex questions. This does not grant you more time to pay your taxes. To avoid possible penalties, estimate and pay the taxes you owe by the tax deadline of April 19, , if you live in Maine or Massachusetts or April 18, , for the rest of the country.

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