Tax season: Tips for filing taxes in 2024

(NewsNation) — The IRS on Monday announced Jan. 29 as the official start date of the 2024 tax season and expects more than 128.7 million tax returns to be filed by the April 15 tax deadline.

The announcement comes as the agency undergoes a massive overhaul, attempting to improve its technology and customer service processes with tens of billions of dollars allocated to the agency through the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in August 2022.

“As our transformation efforts take hold, taxpayers will continue to see marked improvement in IRS operations in the upcoming filing season,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said in a news release. “IRS employees are working hard to make sure that new funding is used to help taxpayers by making the process of preparing and filing taxes easier.”

IRS tips to help file in 2024

Start preparing now.

Gather these records: Social Security numbers, Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, Adoption Identification Numbers and this year’s Identity Protection Personal Identification Numbers (IP PIN).

Plan to report all taxable income and wait to file until you’ve receive all income-related documents.

Plan to file electronically with direct deposit. This is the fastest and easiest way to file and receive a refund.

Avoid filing paper returns whenever possible.

Agency leadership says this year, more walk-in centers will be open to help taxpayers, enhanced paperless processing will help with IRS correspondence and enhanced individual online accounts will be available for taxpayers.

Additionally, eligible taxpayers will be able to file their 2023 returns online directly with the IRS through a new, electronic direct file pilot. The IRS says it will be rolled out in phases and is expected to be widely available in mid-March.

The IRS expects most refunds to be issued in less than 21 days.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.