Changes to the tax code resulted in the IRS receiving fewer tax returns during the 2013 filing season when compared to the same period last year – pushing the filing season back, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has said.
It said that enactment of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 on January 2 reduced the time it had to implement the tax changes the law contained, and that it began accepting most tax forms just eight days after the originally planned start of the filing season. Further, sequestration resulted in significant cuts in all major programmatic areas, including customer service, for the remainder of the fiscal year, TIGTA said.