Charlie Dent's Law Office

The IRS opened the 2012 tax filing season by announcing that taxpayers have until April 17 to file their tax returns. The IRS encourages taxpayers to e-file as it is the best way to ensure accurate tax returns and get faster refunds.

The IRS also announced a number of improvements to help make this tax season easy for taxpayers. This includes new navigation features and helpful information on IRS.gov and a new pilot to allow taxpayers to use interactive video to get help with tax issues.

“At the IRS, we’re working hard to make the process of filing your taxes as quick and easy as possible,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “Providing quality service is one of our top priorities. It not only reduces the burden on taxpayers, but also helps in filing an accurate return right from the start.”

Taxpayers will have until Tuesday, April 17 to file their 2011 tax returns and pay any tax due because April 15 falls on a Sunday, and Emancipation Day, a holiday observed in the District of Columbia, falls this year on Monday, April 16. According to federal law, District of Columbia holidays impact tax deadlines in the same way that federal holidays do; therefore, all taxpayers will have two extra days to file this year. Taxpayers requesting an extension will have until Oct. 15 to file their 2011 tax returns.

The IRS expects to receive more than 144 million individual tax returns this year, with most of those being filed by the April 17 deadline.

In a vote of 81 to 19, the U.S. Senate has approved an amendment to H.R. 4853, “The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010″ and forwarded the measure to the House of Representatives for its consideration.
If enacted the bill would extend the Bush era tax cuts through 2012 and provide an AMT patch through 2011, reinstate unified estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer tax with a 35 percent top rate and inflation-indexed $5 million individual exemption and cut the Social Security payroll tax by 2 percent for 2011.

The bill would also increase of the valuation adjustment for donations for conservation easements, renew of the charitable IRA rollover, and extend enhanced charitable deductions for contributions of food inventory, book inventories to public schools, corporate contributions of computer equipment for educational purposes, and a special rule for S corporations making charitable contributions of property.

The House will now take up the measure; however, members of both parties have expressed concern with certain provisions. House Democrats would like to tighten the bill’s estate and gift tax provisions while Republicans have concerns regarding the lack of revenue offsets in connection with the bill’s extension of unemployment benefits.