What do you pay for professional tax preparation and filing help?
Tax e-filing and Free File is now available for most taxpayers

Tax filing on hold for taxpayers who need 31 federal forms

Tax filing season 2013 finally begins tomorrow, Jan. 30, for most people.

But if you want to claim an education tax credit, you'll have to wait a bit longer to send your tax paperwork to the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS says its computers won't be able to accept Form 8863, which is required to claim the American Opportunity or Lifetime Learning tax credits, until mid-February.

And the wait gets longer for other forms.

The IRS says in the notice on its tax forms and publications Web page (and pictured below) that it's working as "quickly as possible" to update all necessary filing documents.

IRS forms and pubs page notice on form delays

But the tax agency gets a bit more specific in a special online announcement of the specific forms that aren't yet ready for filers.

In addition to telling students and their parents that they must wait a few more weeks for Form 8863, it has worse news for taxpayers who need 30 other tax forms.

You'll likely be waiting until March, says the IRS, if you need to file:

  1. Form 3800, General Business Credit
  2. Form 4136, Credit for Federal Tax Paid on Fuels
  3. Form 4562, Depreciation and Amortization (Including Information on Listed Property)
  4. Form 5074 Allocation of Individual Income Tax to Guam or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
  5. Form 5471, Information Return of U.S. Persons With Respect to Certain Foreign Corporations
  6. Form 5695, Residential Energy Credits
  7. Form 5735, American Samoa Economic Development Credit 
  8. Form 5884, Work Opportunity Credit
  9. Form 6478, Credit for Alcohol Used as Fuel
  10. Form 6765, Credit for Increasing Research Activities
  11. Form 8396, Mortgage Interest Credit
  12. Form 8582, Passive Activity Loss Limitations
  13. Form 8820, Orphan Drug Credit
  14. Form 8834, Qualified Plug-in Electric and Electric Vehicle Credit
  15. Form 8839, Qualified Adoption Expenses
  16. Form 8844, Empowerment Zone and Renewal Community Employment Credit
  17. Form 8845, Indian Employment Credit
  18. Form 8859, District of Columbia First-Time Homebuyer Credit
  19. Form 8864, Biodiesel and Renewable Diesel Fuels Credit
  20. Form 8874, New Markets Credits
  21. Form 8900, Qualified Railroad Track Maintenance Credit
  22. Form 8903, Domestic Production Activities Deduction
  23. Form 8908, Energy Efficient Home Credit
  24. Form 8909, Energy Efficient Appliance Credit
  25. Form 8910, Alternative Motor Vehicle Credit
  26. Form 8911, Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit
  27. Form 8912, Credit to Holders of Tax Credit Bonds
  28. Form 8923, Mine Rescue Team Training Credit
  29. Form 8932, Credit for Employer Differential Wage Payments
  30. Form 8936, Qualified Plug-in Electric Drive Motor Vehicle Credit 

Granted, most of these 30 pushed-into-March forms are very esoteric and affect relatively few taxpayers.

But if you bought a vehicle powered by a fuel cell, you'll want Form 8910 as soon as you can get it so you can claim the Alternative Motor Vehicle credit.

The best move while you wait for one or more of these 31 delayed forms is to get all the rest of your 2012 return in order. Then you can just plug in the missing forms as soon as the IRS finishes its computer system upgrades and releases the updated versions of the documents.

And here's hoping that IRS is downplaying its updating abilities and can get the job done before March arrives.

You also might find these items of interest:

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

The comments to this entry are closed.