2011 Income Tax Filing Dates
Earliest Date to Efile 
January 14, 2011 is the earliest date to efile your federal 1040 this year. This should be fine for many of the simple returns. However, read on for a disappointing delay for more complex returns.
Delays, Delays
If you itemize deductions on your federal income tax return, be prepared to wait this year. IRS has stated they will not be able to process ANY returns using Schedule A, Itemized Deductions, until mid to late February, 2011. Also, if you are claiming the $250 teacher's deduction for classroom supplies or the College Tuition Deduction, casualty and theft losses, or certain other items, you will also have to wait until then. (Note: The College Tax Credits may not delay your return, but the Deduction will.)
Why me?
Why the delay, you may ask? Don't blame your tax preparer, don't blame the IRS (well, maybe a little), but squarely place the blame on the shoulders of Congress, as they were unable to agree on an important tax bill until the last minute this year. On December 17, 2010, President Obama signed the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 to extend the 2001 and 2003 "Bush tax cuts." (More on that in a later blog.) The late passage of this bill, which has major effects on your 2010 tax returns, means the IRS and tax software companies are all scrambling to revise their tax software, forms and instructions to reflect these changes.
This is one more good reason to file electronically this year. Efiled returns will flow directly into IRS computers once they notify us they are ready to accept these returns. Returns which are mailed to IRS on paper will be set aside in gigantic stacks until the IRS computers are able to process them. At that time, they will be slowly and methodically entered by IRS employees into their system. Hmmm...I wonder if we will crash their system when the huge backlog of returns is filed all at once?
Last Date to File on Time
Another date change is the 2011 deadline for filing your Form 1040. The normal date of April 15th falls on Emancipation Day this year, which is a holiday celebrated in Washington, D.C. Because of this holiday, the entire country has until Monday, April 18, 2011 for timely filing. If you request an extension to file later, that deadline of October 15, 2011 falls on a Saturday. This gives you until Monday, October 17th for extended returns. Is your head spinning yet?
