The Internal Revenue Service will begin accepting and processing individual 1040 income tax returns on Jan. 30. By that date the IRS will have completed updating forms and programming and testing of its processing systems to comply with the tax law changes made by Congress under the American Taxpayer Relief Act.

By that date the IRS will be able to accept tax returns affected by the late Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) patch as well as the three major "extender" provisions for people claiming the state and local sales tax deduction, higher education tuition and fees deduction and educator expenses deduction.

As part of this effort, the IRS will be working closely with the tax software industry and tax professional community to minimize delays and ensure as smooth a tax season as possible under the circumstances.

The delay in opening the filing season is due to passage by Congress of an extensive set of tax changes under the ATRA on Jan. 1. Many of the changes will also affect tax returns for 2012.