If you are a teacher, student or someone who itemizes on their tax return, don’t plan on filing your tax return early. Because Congress waited so long in passing the Tax Relief Act of 2010, the Internal Revenue Service will be not be begin processing some tax returns until the middle or late February 2011.
Several deductions were reinstated under the Act, such as the deduction that teachers can claim for classroom expenses, the tuition deduction, and the optional sales tax deduction. Tax forms, instructions, and tax software will need to be revised, tested, and released to the public before the IRS can begin accepting tax returns claiming these benefits. The IRS’s announcement on December 23, 2010 stated: “People claiming any of these three items — involving the state and local sales tax deduction, higher education tuition and fees deduction and educator expenses deduction as well as those taxpayers who itemize deductions on Form 1040 Schedule A — will need to wait to file their tax returns until tax processing systems are ready, which the IRS estimates will be in mid- to late February.”