The latest wrinkle in tax filing is that a new law requires the IRS to hold refunds claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Additional Child Tax Credit until February 15. Adding in time for releasing and processing these through financial institutions, refunds for many affected taxpayers will not be available to taxpayers until the week of February 27.

The IRS expects that four out of five returns will be prepared via software.
Many software companies and tax preparers will begin accepting returns before January 23 and then will submit the returns when the IRS systems open.