Skip to main content

Income Tax

Making Income Tax Season Even Worse? IRS to Require Refiling of All Tax Returns with a Schedule C

The Internal Revenue Service has announced that errors in its processing systems have caused the agency to require all taxpayers who filed income tax returns with a Schedule C prior to March 29, 2013, to resubmit their return for processing. This includes filers who have already received refunds or made payments based on previously submitted returns.

This was an April Fools’ Day article posted on April 1 – everything below is fiction.

WASHINGTON – Apr. 1, 2013 – With only two weeks left until April 15, the Internal Revenue Service has announced that errors in its processing systems have caused the agency to require all taxpayers who filed income tax returns with a Schedule C prior to March 29, 2013, to resubmit their return for processing. This includes filers who have already received refunds or made payments based on previously submitted returns.

Steven T. Miller, the Acting IRS Commissioner, said the errors were related to the last-minute changes to tax law enacted by Congress on January 2 of this year. Those changes, referred to as the “Fiscal Cliff” deal, resulted in a delayed start to tax season due to the late availability of many tax forms and schedules for credits and deductions.

This is the first time the agency has ever found it necessary to require a large group of taxpayers who had already filed returns to resubmit them. Around seven million Americans file a Schedule C as a part of their 1040 income tax return each year.

Schedule C is typically used by taxpayers who own a small business, have not incorporated and have no paid employees, or are an independent contractor with mostly 1099 income. While many of these taxpayers wait until the final weeks of tax season to file, or request an extension, this issue still may affect hundreds of thousands of filers.

According to various sources, today is APRIL FOOL’S DAY. And yes, all of the above is total fiction. We offer taxpayers and tax professionals our apology for this potentially painful prank, and hope you all make it through an already tough Tax Season.

More information is available online.