1. STATE OF ARKANSAS OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR
1509 West Seventh Street, Suite 401
Department of Finance Post Office Box 3278
Little Rock, Arkansas 72203-3278
and Administration Phone: (501) 682-2242
Fax: (501) 682-1029
http://www.arkansas.gov/dfa
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Clarence Collins
Telephone: 501/682-1130
Fax: 501/682-1691
January 4, 2008
Impact of IRS processing delay on Arkansas tax filing
LITTLE ROCK, AR— The income tax filing season for Arkansas taxpayers’ begins January 1, 2008.
Some taxpayers have inquired whether the recent enactment of the Alternative Minimum Tax “Patch” by
the U.S. Congress will impact the filing of Arkansas tax returns. The IRS has said that this late change
will delay the filing of some federal returns.
Taxpayers who file paper returns for Arkansas should not expect any delays in the processing of their
returns, but a limited number of taxpayers filing electronic Arkansas returns could experience some delay
in processing. Arkansas participates with the IRS in the Fed-State Combined Electronic Filing program.
Under this program, all Arkansas electronic returns are first processed through the federal electronic filing
system. On December 27, 2007 the Internal Revenue Service announced that the upcoming tax season is
expected to start on time for everyone except those taxpayers who file electronically and use any of the
following forms:
Form 8863, Education Credits
Form 5695, Residential Energy Credits
Form 1040 A’s Schedule 2, Child and Dependent Care Expenses for Form 1040 A filers
Form 8396, Mortgage Interest Credit
Form 8859, District of Columbia First Time Homebuyer Credit
The IRS has targeted February 11 as the potential start date for taxpayers to begin filing electronic returns
using any of these five forms. Tax returns filed with these five forms will not be accepted until the IRS
has completed the process of updating its tax processing systems. Arkansas taxpayers who file
electronically will experience the same delay with their Arkansas income tax return if their Federal return
contains any of the five forms mentioned above. Based on prior years filing statistics, fewer than 1,000
Arkansas tax returns should be affected by this delay.
For electronic returns that do not involve any of these five forms, the IRS expects to begin processing on
January 14. The Department of Finance and Administration would like to encourage taxpayers to
continue to file electronically. Electronic filing is still the fastest method of filing and will reduce the
processing time for a refund to as little as 10 days if direct deposited. Paper return can take as long as five
to seven weeks depending on the time of the year the return is filed.
For more information on the delay, go to the IRS website at www.irs.gov.
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