https://www.irs.gov/ January. 10, 2025 

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service announced today tax relief for individuals and businesses in southern California affected by wildfires and straight-line winds that began on Jan. 7, 2025.

These taxpayers now have until Oct. 15, 2025, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments.

The IRS is offering relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Currently, individuals and households that reside or have a business in Los Angeles County qualify for tax relief.

The same relief will be available to any other counties added later to the disaster area. The current list of eligible localities is always available on the Tax relief in disaster situations page on IRS.gov.

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https://www.irs.gov/ Jan. 10, 2025 

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced that the nation’s 2025 tax season will start on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, and will feature expanded and enhanced tools to help taxpayers as a result of the agency’s historic modernization efforts.

The IRS 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, and the IRS urges people to use a trusted tax pro to avoid potential scams and schemes.

The 2025 tax filing season will reflect continued IRS progress to modernize and add new tools and features to help taxpayers. Since last tax season, the improvements include more access to tax account information from text and voice virtual assistants, expanded features on the IRS Individual Online Account, more access to dozens of tax forms through cell phones and tablets and expanded alerts for scams and schemes that threaten taxpayers.

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https://www.irs.gov/ December. 20, 2024 

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service today issued proposed regulations to update the rules for certain tax professionals who can practice before the IRS; these rules are contained in Treasury Department Circular 230.

The IRS Office of Professional Responsibility generally has responsibility for matters related to practitioner conduct, and exclusive responsibility for discipline, including disciplinary proceedings and sanctions. The proposed regulations, if finalized, would amend Circular 230 in various ways to account for changes in the law and the evolving nature of tax practice.

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https://www.irs.gov/ December. 12, 2024 

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today provided the regular quarterly update to the Strategic Operating Plan, outlining key milestones in criminal investigations, improvements to taxpayer services and advancements in digital modernization that have transformed agency operations while protecting billions of taxpayer dollars.

The IRS has now recovered $4.7 billion from new initiatives underway. This includes more than $1.3 billion from high-income, high-wealth individuals who have not paid overdue tax debt or filed tax returns, $2.9 billion related to IRS Criminal Investigation work into tax and financial crimes, including drug trafficking, cybercrime and terrorist financing, and $475 million in proceeds from criminal and civil cases attributable to whistleblower information.

The IRS also announced today new results from the focus on high-income non-filers who have not filed taxes since 2017. The IRS has now collected an initial $292 million from more than 28,000 non-filers, an increase of $120 million since September 2024. These are cases where IRS has received third party information—such as through Forms W-2 and 1099s—indicating these people received income between $400,000 and $1 million or more than $1 million, but failed to file a tax return. The non-filer program ran sporadically since 2016 due to severe budget and staff limitations that did not allow these cases to be pursued. With additional funding, the IRS had the capacity to resume this core tax administration work earlier this year.

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https://www.irs.gov/ December. 7, 2024 

WASHINGTON – On the final day of National Tax Security Awareness Week, the Internal Revenue Service and its Security Summit partners urged tax professionals to reassess their plans for protecting themselves and their clients’ sensitive information amid increasing attempts by identity thieves to steal tax data.

Identity thieves on the hunt for taxpayer data aren’t just targeting taxpayers, they’re going after the tax professionals, who hold enormous amounts of sensitive taxpayer data, in hopes of filing fraudulent tax returns. This year, the IRS has already received more than 250 reports of data breach incidents from tax professionals affecting approximately 200,000 clients.

Amid these continuing reports of tax professionals encountering data breaches, the Security Summit partners urged practitioners to review the newly updated Written Information Security Plan (WISP)  Read More 

https://www.irs.gov/ December. 4, 2024 

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service and the Security Summit partners today encouraged taxpayers to add an extra layer of protection between their tax returns and identity thieves by joining the Identity protection personal identification number (IP PIN) program at the start of the 2025 tax season.

More than 10.4 million taxpayers already have their IRS IP PIN, a unique six-digit number used to verify their identity when filing a return. It’s available to anyone with a Social Security number (SSN) or an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN).

To get one, taxpayers must create an IRS Online Account, which also allows taxpayers to securely access their tax and return information from previous years, including information from their forms W-2 and 1099. The Online Account is taking on increasing importance as the IRS transforms with the use of new digital tools and features as part of the agency’s transformation work.

“This PIN isn’t just another number for taxpayers to memorize. In a sense, it’s a secret number between the taxpayer and the IRS that freezes out fraudsters and identity thieves looking to file bogus returns,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “The PIN provides an extra layer of protection for people’s tax returns and a speedy refund.” Read More 

https://www.irs.gov/ Oct. 15, 2024 

WASHINGTON — In the aftermath of Hurricanes Milton and Helene, the Internal Revenue Service today cautioned taxpayers of scammers who use fake charities to gather sensitive personal and financial data from unsuspecting donors.

Scammers commonly set up fake charities to take advantage of peoples’ generosity during natural disasters and other tragic events.

“Many people want to help survivors and their families by donating to charities,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “Too often, criminals take advantage of would-be donors’ kindness by stealing money and personal information from well-meaning taxpayers. You should never feel pressured by solicitors to immediately give to a charity. It’s important to do the research to verify if they’re authentic first.” Read More 

https://www.irs.gov/ Oct. 3, 2024 

For the 2025 tax filing season, eligible taxpayers in 24 states will be able to use Direct File: 12 states that were part of the pilot last year, plus 12 new states where Direct File will be available in the upcoming filing season.

During the pilot last year, Direct File was available in Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington State and Wyoming. For the 2025 tax filing season, Direct File will also be available in Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In 2025, more than 30 million taxpayers in those 24 states will be eligible to use Direct File. Additional states could still join Direct File in 2025, and several states have expressed interest or announced that they will participate in Direct File in 2026. Read More 

https://www.irs.gov/ Oct. 2, 2024 

As part of efforts to help victims of Hurricane Helene, the Internal Revenue Service is taking special steps to provide more than 500 employees to help with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) disaster relief call lines and sending IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) agents into devastated areas to help with search and rescue efforts and other relief work.

Earlier this week, the IRS assigned more than 500 customer service representatives from Dallas and Philadelphia to help FEMA phone operations. The IRS employees answer the FEMA calls and intake initial information to help disaster victims get federal relief.

For nearly 20 years, the IRS has stepped in to help FEMA during national emergencies by providing help on phone lines during peak demand periods following hurricanes and other disasters. During the past decade, more than 10,000 IRS phone assistors have helped FEMA call centers, answering more than 1.6 million calls from storm survivors seeking help. Read More