Why are tax refunds being delayed?

On December 20, 2007, the US Congress passed a last-minute change to the tax code regarding the controversial Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Since tax software and paper forms were already created for the 2007 tax season, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced that it may take up to seven weeks to implement these changes. This means that the tax filing season, which normally begins on January 13th, would not begin before February 11th at the earliest. This delay in filing dates will result in taxpayer refunds being delayed by nearly two months. Its important to understand that although you not may be required to pay the actual AMT fee, your income tax refund may still be affected. What is the AMT? The AMT is a specific part of the tax code, passed in 1969, which was designed to properly tax only a select few of wealthy Americans. However, the law did not account for inflation and over the years has steadily begun to include middle-class taxpayers who were not the original ...  more