File Your Taxes Electronically For A Faster Refund
The Internal Revenue Service urges you to file your taxes electronically rather than mailing in paper forms. If you file paper forms, they will be placed in the dreaded backlog of unprocessed tax returns. According to experts, in late 2022, the IRS had a backlog of approximately 9 million unprocessed tax returns, and 7 million of those were paper returns.
According to an article by Bill Chappell on NPR.org, “The IRS says people who file electronically should expect to get their refund within around 21 days if they choose direct deposit and their return has no issues.”
This year, April 15th falls on a Saturday, and Monday, April 17th is Washington, D.C.’s Emancipation Day holiday, so the general deadline to file your tax return is Tuesday, April 18th. If you don’t think you are going to be able to file by the deadline, take the advice of financial expert Lynette Khalfani-Cox, who was quoted in the NPR.org article as saying: “I can’t stress this enough to people, but if you need an extension, just go ahead and file that form 4868 with the IRS. That will give you an extra six months and then you’ll have until Monday, October 16, to actually submit your taxes.”
Chappell’s article goes on to report that there is free help for you in preparing your tax return. If you earned less than $73,000 dollars in 2022, you can go to IRS.gov and they will complete your federal tax return for free. Some of the other ways to access free help with your tax preparation are with AARP, and you can be any age to get their advice or to have your tax questions answered by trained experts. You can also try to find a local community based organization which offers free tax preparation by doing a Google search.
The Internal Revenue Service has already begun accepting 2022 tax returns, so get going on this project, and be sure to file your taxes electronically for the quickest refund.
