Mark your calendars! Monday, Jan. 27, is the official start to the 2025 tax season, the IRS said.
That’s the first day the IRS will begin accepting tax returns for the 2024 tax year, but Americans can file their taxes even earlier to ensure their return is in the queue and among the first to be processed by the IRS come opening day, the IRS said.
If there aren’t any problems on the tax return, you’ll be among the first to get your refund check, said Mark Steber, chief tax officer at tax preparer Jackson Hewitt.
“Tax refunds, for most Americans, are the single largest pay day of the year,” Steber said. The average tax refund last year through the third week of October was $3,004, up 0.9% from the previous year, IRS data showed.
Most refunds are in less than 21 calendar days, the IRS said.
The best way to track refunds is to use the Where’s My Refund? tool within 24 hours of e-filing and updated once each night. Refund information is normally available after four weeks for taxpayers who filed a paper return.
When is Tax Day 2025? All about deductions, income brackets, credits and deadlines
The easiest, safest and fastest way to receive a refund is to file electronically (e-file) and select direct deposit. According to Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, paper refund checks are 16 times more likely to have an issue, like the check being lost, misdirected, stolen or uncashed.
If your taxes are simple, you can DIY your returns today using tax preparation software either through a company like TaxAct, H&R Block, Jackson Hewitt or Intuit or on the IRS website.
Almost everyone can file electronically for free using IRS Free File, available only on IRS.gov, the IRS said. Free File offers free tax preparation software from eight companies in the public-private partnership between the IRS and Free File Inc. As part of this partnership, tax preparation and filing software partners offer their online guided tax software products for free to taxpayers with an Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) of $84,000 or less in 2024. Additionally, one partner will offer a product in Spanish.
Other free filing options for certain groups include:
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance/Tax Counseling for the Elderly. Community organizations with IRS certified volunteers provide free tax help for eligible taxpayers including working families, the elderly, the disabled and people who speak limited English.
MilTax. A Department of Defense program, MilTax generally offers free return preparation and electronic filing software for federal income tax returns and up to three state income tax returns for all military members, and some veterans.
The Internal Revenue Service has announced that IRS Free File will begin accepting individual tax returns as of Jan. 10, 2025, for the 2024 tax season.
Direct File is the IRS’ free web-based filing system that works on mobile phones, laptops, tablets or desktop computers that debuted last year for taxpayers in 13 states. It will open on Jan. 27 to taxpayers this year in 25 states, the IRS said.
States include Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Direct File includes a live chat tool in English and Spanish that lets users to opt into additional authentication and verification, which will allow customer service representatives to provide more information. Once the federal return is completed, the software also guides taxpayers to state sites to complete state tax returns.
Expanded features this year include:
Data import tool to allow taxpayers to opt-in to automatically import data from their IRS account, including personal information, the taxpayer’s identity protection PIN and some information from the taxpayer’s W-2.
Chat bot to help guide taxpayers through the eligibility checker.
More tax situations. Direct File can now support taxpayers claiming the child and dependent care credit, premium tax credit, credit for the elderly and disabled and retirement savings contribution credits, health savings accounts deductions. These are in addition to support last year for those claiming the earned income tax credit, child tax credit and credit for other dependents, standard deduction and deductions for student loan interest and educator expenses.
More help will be available this year, the IRS said. It plans to expand help in-person through more hours at Taxpayer Assistance Centers nationwide and improve phone help line service.
The IRS said it also added functionality to individual accounts online, including scam alerts; virtual assistants to help answer questions about refunds and other things; and “save and draft” capabilities for forms on mobile that allow people to start a form, save it and return to it later.
“This has been a historic period of improvement for the IRS, and people will see additional tools and features to help them with filing their taxes this tax season,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel in a release.
Starting this year, people will no longer be able to buy paper Series I savings bonds with their tax refund, IRS said. Instead, Series I bonds are available in electronic format in TreasuryDirect, it said.
Remember I bonds?: Those I bonds you bought when inflation soared? Here’s why you may want to sell them.
The IRS said expects more than 140 million individual tax returns for tax year 2024 to be filed ahead of the Tuesday, April 15 federal deadline. More than half of all tax returns are expected to be filed this year with the help of a tax professional, it said.
With that in mind, the IRS warned people to make sure the tax professional is legit by reviewing tips for choosing a tax preparer and learning how to avoid unethical “ghost” return preparers who disappear on you.
Taxpayers can also use the IRS Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers with Credentials and Select Qualifications to find trusted professionals or choose someone affiliated with a recognized national tax association. Tax professionals accepted into the IRS electronic filing program are authorized IRS e-file providers, qualified to prepare, transmit and process electronically filed tax returns, it said.
Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at [email protected] and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday morning.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tax season 2025 starts Jan 27. File now for one of the first refunds.
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