The IRS has announced a delay of one or two weeks to the start of the 2014 filing season to allow adequate time to program and test tax processing systems following the 16-day federal government closure.
The agency said it is exploring options to shorten the expected delay and will announce a final decision on the start of the 2014 filing season in December, although it is expected to begin before February 4.
The shutdown coincided with the peak period for preparing IRS systems for the 2014 filing season, with programming, testing and deployment of more than 50 IRS systems needed to handle processing of nearly 150 million tax returns having been interrupted on some level, according to the IRS. It added that updating these core systems is a complex, year-round process with the majority of the work beginning in the fall of each year.
