Free Republic

The IRS said this week it is delaying the start of the tax filing season, leading Republicans to argue that the agency is putting its focus on implementing Obamacare at the expense of helping average taxpayers. The IRS blamed the government shutdown, saying that when it furloughed 90 percent of its employees it lost too many work days to begin processing returns on time in January. But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp said the IRS this year was able to begin processing returns on time despite major changes to tax laws in the "fiscal cliff" deal Congress...

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service plans to delay the start of tax-filing season by a week or two because of the government shutdown, the agency said on Tuesday. But taxpayers will still have to turn in their 2013 returns by April 15 as usual. “Readying our systems to handle the tax season is an intricate, detailed process, and we must take the time to get it right,” Daniel I. Werfel, the acting I.R.S. commissioner, said in a statement. “The adjustment to the start of the filing season provides us the necessary time to program, test and validate our systems...