IRS to begin accepting some business tax returns February 4, 2013

I received this email from the IRS this afternoon.


Many businesses will be able to file their 2012 federal income tax returns starting Monday, Feb. 4. Filers of forms affected by January tax law changes will need to wait until late February or early March.
The Monday opening covers non-1040 series business returns for calendar year 2012, including  Form 1120  filed by corporations, Form 1120S filed by S corporations, Form 1065  filed by partnerships, Form 990 filed by exempt organizations and most users of Form 720 , Quarterly Excise Tax Return. This includes both electronic filers and paper filers.

While many businesses will be able to file starting Feb. 4, there are a number of business forms still being updated for 2012. The IRS will announce soon when individual and business taxpayers can begin filing returns that include any of the delayed forms. Processing of these forms were delayed while the IRS completes programming and testing of its processing systems to reflect changes made by the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) enacted by Congress on Jan. 2.

 Our emphasis.

A full list of the affected forms is available on IRS.gov.

In addition to the forms listed on IRS.gov, filing of two other business forms is affected by the delay, but only for electronic filers. Businesses using Form 720 and filling out lines 13 and 14 cannot file yet electronically, but they can file on paper. Other Forms 720 are being accepted electronically. In addition, Form 8849 Schedule 3, Claim for Refund of Excise Taxes, is not currently being accepted electronically, but it can be filed on paper.

Additional information will be posted soon on IRS.gov.



Good news and still kind of bad news.  We already have prepared some corporate returns. Unfortunately they still sit on our computers ready to get the go ahead and file the return signal from mother IRS.  Obviously we received the go ahead today.  Unfortunately the delay in updating the depreciation forms
(that is one of the delayed business forms mentioned above) means that the vast majority of business tax returns cannot be filed until February or even March.  That means the delay still exists for the vast majority of our clients business and corporate tax returns.

This delay has left our poor software developer in a catch 22 position.  How do they build the last minute changes into the software and still satisfy....the chomping at the bit clients and tax preparers anxious to find out their results....IRS seemingly ignoring the pressure the already too short filing season has placed and still no notice of extending the due for taxes this year.