The Internal Revenue Service has announced that tax season will start on January 31. The opening date for the agency to receive returns was postponed earlier as a result of the 16-day federal government closure, which delayed the updating of IRS systems. The IRS this week says the new date gives it time to program and test tax processing systems.

Intuit has yet to offer a portal for its tax preparation software. Although they don't appear likely for the coming tax season, beta testing is planned for next year. And Intuit will get there – expanding through other related applications – via working with third parties to provide new functionality that could involve opening up the tax software code for use by developers.

Members of the Electronic Tax Administration Advisory Committee has elected Cyrus Daftary of Newton, Mass., as committee chairperson for 2013-14. A partner with the law firm, Burt, Staples & Maner, Daftary is responsible for developing and implementing tax software solutions for withholding and information return reporting.