Here’s when taxpayers can start filing their 2023 tax returns — and which states have different tax deadlines

Americans can start filing their income-tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service on Monday, Jan. 29, the federal tax collector announced Monday.

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Monday, April 15, is the deadline to pay any taxes owed, and it’s also the deadline to either file a return or get an extension until Oct. 15. Taxpayers in Maine and Massachusetts have an April 17 deadline due to the observance of Patriot’s Day and Emancipation Day in those states.

By April 15, the IRS expects to have received 128.7 million income-tax returns.

This year will be another closely-watched tax-filing season.

Millions of Americans are seeking their largest possible tax refund — or their smallest possible tax bill — as they try to move past red-hot inflation.

The IRS issued 105.7 million refunds last year, paying an average of $3,167.

This tax season will include some new developments, including the IRS’s effort to launch its own “direct file” tax-filing platform, which would be a free alternative to paid tax-prep platforms such as Intuit’s INTU TurboTax and H&R Block HRB.

The pilot version of the IRS Direct File platform will be available in 12 states to start, and will serve an estimated several hundred thousand taxpayers, the IRS said. But it’s not expected to be widely available in those states until mid-March, the IRS said Monday.

The states are Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington state and Wyoming.

The IRS is preparing for tax-filing season as lawmakers wrangle over how to avoid a partial government shutdown beginning Jan. 19.

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One bargaining chip in the negotiations is a multibillion-dollar chunk of IRS funding for more audits of rich taxpayers and corporations. The $20 billion in question was part of $80 billion destined for an IRS overhaul in the Inflation Reduction Act, which…