IRS Form 8863 Education Credits

On Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013, the IRS plans to start processing Tax Year 2012 returns that contain IRS Form 8863 Education Credits. That is, according to Katrina, one our of IGMR users spinning in circle to figure out when she will get her tax refund. It’s usually a great thing if you qualify for education tax credits or deductions, and many students get to bump their refunds or reduce their tax debt a smidgen with this tax benefit. The early filers who flock to igotmyrefund.com and our Facebook page are starting to question whether this tax benefit was worth the hassle and say the hold up by the IRS this year for those who used the 8863 to file has put them through processing hell.

The official tax filing season began on January 30th this year and as many early bird filers  lined up to file their return in hopes of a quick refund, they learned that the higher education tax benefits will throw them into a line to have to wait longer for a refund.  The IRS announced a delay to taxpayers; however, this came unfortunately after many had already “pre-filed” with popular tax preparers such as TurboTax and H&R Block who “queued” the early filers returns until the IRS starts officially accepting e-files.  As part of the IRS system reviews and test in advance of the opening filing date they discovered taxpayers intending to file Form 8863 can’t do so until at least the middle of February.  Rut ro.  What about all those returns in queue.  In a perfect world, the IRS would have ran tests, oh maybe a few months ago with dummy returns.  Or, TurboTax could hold those taxpayers in queue until the IRS had time to make system modifications. Rut ro again.  To test, the IRS and some tax prepareers cooperated to test batches of our early filed returns.  These people seem to be in a holding pattern, which our users are calling “8863 Purgatory”.  As of today, the IRS seems to be still tinkering with their new system.  Who to blame?  Early taxpayers for jumping the gun?  IRS?  TurboTax?  H&R Block?  How about we look at the root:  the proverbial “fiscal cliff” negotiations drove changes to tax legislations, and it our leaders in the Congress dragging their feet.  Nonetheless, we are seeing thousands of taxpayers in a tizzy about the status of their refund.  According to the IRS, it estimates that more than 3 million taxpayers are affected by the delay if they filed using Form 8863.

The IRS is saying this officially on their site:

IRS To Accept Returns Claiming Education Credits by Mid-February

But taxpayers reporting back to the igotmyrefund.com grapevine that they are getting the run around and many different answers when they call and speak with representatives answering the phone at the IRS.  When they check with TurboTax or whomever they filed with, they are getting different answers their to.  We are trying to discern which way is up and when this group of taxpayers in ‘8863 Purgatory” will get their refunds.  Stop by and share your story with us or read what others are saying by staying tuned here at the OrigInal Internet Refund Grapevine Community.

Here is what some of our users are saying:

 

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