IRS Announces Start Date

And we officially have a start date to the 2023 tax season - January 29th. This is officially the first day the IRS will begin processing returns.

Every year the date is a little different (last year it was January 23rd), meaning tax season will be slightly more compressed for us tax preparers.

It’s been speculated that filing early in the tax season increases your chance for an audit since the IRS is pulling returns from a smaller pool, but there is no hard data to actually support this.

Usually, reasons I see for people filing early are 1) people who know they’re getting a refund and want that cash money flow and 2) people who have custody disagreements and want to claim the child first on their taxes to qualify for the child tax credit.

If you’re in the latter pool, please know this - just because a judge says your ex gets to claim your child, that doesn’t mean they’re eligible for the credit. The person claiming the credit has to follow the rules for said credit regardless. So if you had your child for the majority of the year, with your ex taking custody a few days here and there, they aren’t actually eligible for it! You may want to submit this fact to the court and see if you can claim it anyway… Additionally, if this is the common arrangement, submit that fact as well, and get your kid(s) an Identity Protection Pin (IPP) so that only you can claim them on your tax return - this number will be needed every year. Good luck!