Individuals who have not yet filed their 2016 federal tax return will be able to e-file only through November 18, 2017. The IRS will only accept paper-filed returns after that date, the IRS has announced. At the same time, the IRS reminds certain taxpayers living in a federal-declared disaster area who were on a six-month extension that would have ended on October 15, have until January 31, 2018 to file their 2016 federal tax return. These taxpayers include hurricane and tropical storm victims in Georgia, Florida, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and parts of Texas, Louisiana and South Carolina, as well as wildfire victims in parts of California.
2018 filing season. The IRS has also announced that it has not yet decided on the date it will begin accepting individual tax returns for the 2018 tax filing season. It has denied any credence to rumors that filing season would begin on January 22, 2018, or after the Martin Luther King, Jr Day holiday.
The IRS also must wait for any legislation that may impact 2017 tax year returns. These include a number of “extender” tax provisions that expired at the end of 2016 that could be renewed by Congress for tax year 2017; as well as proposed provisions in current tax reform legislation impacting 2017, including, for example, a limitation on the interest deductions for mortgage indebtedness incurred after November 2, 2017, and full expensing on assets acquired and placed in service after September 27, 2017.