2023 Tax Alert

2023 Tax Season Alert

As the tax season gets rolling, we wanted to share a few new developments and reminders

E-FILE Dates announced

Federal - Jan 29th is the earliest date the IRS will start accepting tax returns

Colorado - Feb 12th is the earliest date the CO Department of Revenue will start accepting tax returns. In addition, several CO forms have still not been released for use yet.

Many of our clients used the links we provided in our last newsletter to the client portal and blank organizer for 2023. For your convenience, we are providing them again below

Client Portal

Organizer

United States Capitol Building in Washington_ DC with Shutdown stamp effect

Potential Government Shutdown

Although we hope there is not a shutdown, it is difficult to predict anything in Washington these days.

The latest stop gap funding that was approved will keep the government fully funded through the end of February. If no deal is reached, on March 1st certain non-essential functions would shut down. The current view is that the IRS would actually remain open through March 8th.

This is obviously not ideal as it would delay processing of tax returns (and refunds) already e-filed. In addition, it is not clear if there would be an automatic push in the filing deadlines - March 15th (for busienss returns) and April 15th (for personal returns) or due dates for taxes owed.

Employee Retention Credit ERC is shown on a business photo using the text

ERC Program Likely Ending

As part of the most recent negotiations to keep the government funded, one of the biggest items to help close the budget gap is to terminate the ERC program early on Jan 31st, 2024. One report indicated that due to aggressive marketing by certain "ERC Mills", the IRS is receiving approximately $3B in new ERC claims a day....

To be clear, the potential program end date of January 31st is the date that the IRS would stop accepting new ERC claims. Any ERC claims that have already been filed but have been on hold (per the earlier processing moratorium) will still be processed although they will take longer (9-12 months) and will be subject to more scrutiny.

Finally, the IRS is extending the statute of limitations on potential audits of ERC claims to 6 years so make sure you keep all ERC supporting documentation if you received an ERC rebate.

Balcerzak Financial Services