Three Popular Tax Benefits Retroactively Renewed for 2017; IRS Ready to Accept Returns Claiming These Benefits; e-file for Fastest Refunds

The Internal Revenue Service said that it is ready to process tax year 2017 returns claiming three popular tax benefits recently renewed retroactively into law.

The Bipartisan Budget Act, enacted on Feb. 9, renewed for tax year 2017 a wide range of individual and business tax benefits that had expired at the end of 2016. The IRS has now reprogrammed its processing systems to handle the three benefits most likely to be claimed on returns filed early in the tax season.

As a result, taxpayers can now file returns claiming:

• Exclusion from gross income of discharge of qualified principal residence indebtedness (often, foreclosure-related debt forgiveness), claimed on Form 982,
• Mortgage insurance premiums treated as qualified residence interest, generally claimed by low- and middle-income filers on Schedule A, and
• Deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses claimed on Form 8917.

Issue number: IR-2018-33