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In December of 2010 the Congress and the Obama administration put in place a tax cut package that would allow the current tax rates to continue for 2 more years, in addition to passing a 2011 payroll tax holiday, extending $1000 child tax credit and the estate tax.

While I was happy for an extension of the current tax rates, no matter how temporary, I was dismayed to find out that the millions of people who itemize on their taxes, myself included, would have to wait until mid-February to file their taxes. Due to the tax filing delays a lot of people won't be getting their tax refunds as soon as they might like. Thankfully, that delay is now over, and itemizers can file their taxes as of today, February 14th, 2011.

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Tax Filing Delays For Those Who Itemize Ends Feb 14th

Because of how late in the year the tax bill was passed (December 17th, 2010), the IRS announced that the estimated 50 million taxpayers who itemize their deductions would not be able to file taxes until the IRS had a chance to update their software to account for the tax package. Sometime in late January the IRS announced that February 14th would be the first day that itemizers could file their taxes and have it accepted.

While the delay applied to an estimated 50 million taxpayers who itemize their taxes, of those only about 9 million would have actually filed in January in February anyway.

Tax Filing Deadline – For Procrastinators

If you don't plan on filing your taxes until the last moment, the tax filing deadline has been pushed back this year because of a government holiday on the 15th of April. Tax day will now be on Monday the 18th of April.

Remember, even if you can't pay your entire tax bill, you need to file!

Use Online Tax Software To E-File To Get A Faster Refund

Many or most of the tax filing software have been updated for the new tax law since the beginning of the year, and if you want to get your refund the fastest, I'd suggest e-filing your return through one of those online tax software packages. I usually file mine using TurboTax because I like it's ease of use, and how it tends to find me all the applicable tax deductions. There are a ton of other software out there as well, however, and any of them will probably work well.

Check out our article about filing your taxes for free for links to several popular tax software packages.

Checking The Status Of Your Refund

If you filed your taxes already, or if you itemize and you'll be filing this week, here's a post from a couple of weeks ago telling you where you can check the status of your refund, both for federal and for each of the states.

Are you itemizing your taxes this year, and will you be filing right away now that you can to get a refund?



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