January 24th is actually the first day you can file your 2021 federal tax return. And it’s going to be another challenging season for the Internal Revenue Service, as well as filers. The IRS is kicking off the season with an estimated backlog of at least 10-million unprocessed returns. Normally, there’d be fewer than a-million. The agency is continuing to play catch-up since the start of the pandemic. More than 20-percent of their customer service workforce has been unable to work, due to health reasons. Their budget has also been slashed a similar amount. So IRS spokesman David Tucker says electronic filing is being recommended even more strongly…

click to listen to David Tucker

And Tucker also urges you to make sure you wait until all the proper documents are received, to ensure an accurate return…

click to listen to David Tucker

And although last year’s third federal stimulus check is not taxable, filers shouldn’t fill out their returns before receiving a letter from the IRS about that. According to Treasury officials, the IRS workforce is now the same size as it was in 1970, despite a population growing by 60-percent. This year’s filing deadline is April 18th.