(NEW YORK) — Tax filing season kicked off on Monday as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service began accepting completed tax forms.
Americans can file anytime before April 15. The IRS said earlier this month that it expects more than 140 million individual tax returns to be filed by that deadline.
Refunds are typically sent within 21 days, the agency says. For paper returns, the IRS says turnaround time can last more than four weeks.
The IRS is expanding a system that allows taxpayers to file directly with the agency, bypassing intermediary firms that often charge fees.
The initiative, Direct File, will be made available to taxpayers in 25 states, more than doubling from 12 states last year, the IRS said.
States newly offering Direct File include Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
For the first time, the Direct File program will feature a “data-import tool” that allows tax filers to automatically enter information available in their IRS account, the agency said. Direct File works on mobile phones, laptops, tablets or desktop computers, the IRS said.
Up to one in three Americans waits until the last minute to file their taxes, according to a 2021 survey by IPX 1031. That amounts to tens of millions of people.
Taxpayers can typically file an extension that lasts six months, meaning those who obtain an extension will be allowed to submit their tax forms without penalty until Oct. 15.
If a filer forgoes an extension and files late, the person risks additional fees for the tardy submission. The penalty amounts to 5% of the taxes owed for each month that the filing is late, up to a maximum of 25%.
Under such circumstances, the IRS mails a letter or notice alerting the filer of a late fee.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal appeals court is hearing arguments Monday over the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act last week to deport more than 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador with no due process.
The hearing comes hours after a federal judge ruled that the migrants deserved to have a court hearing before their deportations to determine whether they belonged to the Tren de Aragua gang.
In a ruling denying the Trump administration’s request to dissolve his order blocking the deportations, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote that Trump’s “unprecedented use” of the Alien Enemies Act does not remove the government’s responsibility to ensure the men removed could contest their designation as alleged gang members.
Trump last week invoked the Alien Enemies Act — a wartime authority used to deport noncitizens with little-to-no due process — by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States. Boasberg temporarily blocked the president’s use of the law to deport more than 200 alleged gang members to El Salvador, calling the removals “awfully frightening” and “incredibly troublesome.”
An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement subsequently acknowledged in a sworn declaration that “many” of the noncitizens deported last week under the Alien Enemies Act did not have criminal records in the United States.
“The Court need not resolve the thorny question of whether the judiciary has the authority to assess this claim in the first place. That is because Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on another equally fundamental theory: before they may be deported, they are entitled to individualized hearings to determine whether the Act applies to them at all,” Judge Boasberg wrote in his ruling Monday, adding the men were likely to win their case.
Judge Boasberg acknowledged that the use of the Alien Enemies Act “implicates a host of complicated legal issues” but sidestepped the larger question of whether the law was properly invoked, instead focusing on the due process deserved by the men. He added that the men have been irreparably harmed by their removal to an El Salvadoran prison where they face “torture, beatings, and even death.”
“Federal courts are equipped to adjudicate that question when individuals threatened with detention and removal challenge their designation as such. Because the named Plaintiffs dispute that they are members of Tren de Aragua, they may not be deported until a court has been able to decide the merits of their challenge,” he wrote.
Judge Boasberg also cast doubt on the Trump administration’s allegation that the decision risks national security, noting that the men would still be detained within the United States if they had not been deported.
During a court hearing on Friday, DOJ lawyers acknowledged that the men deported on the Alien Enemies Act have the right to a habeas hearing — where they could contest their alleged membership in Tren de Aragua — but declined to vow that each man would be given a hearing before they were removed from the country.
A three-judge appeals panel is hearing arguments Monday over the Trump administration’s request to overturn Judge Boasberg’s ruling blocking the deportations.
If the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns Boasberg’s blocking of the president’s use of the centuries-old wartime law, the Trump administration could exercise the authority to deport any suspected migrant gang member with little-to-no due process.
Lawyers representing the Venezuelan men targeted under Trump’s proclamation have argued that the president exceeded his authority by using the Alien Enemies Act against a gang — rather than a state actor — outside of wartime.
“The President is trying to write Congress’s limits out of the act,” the plaintiffs argued, adding that U.S. presidents have used the law three other times during or immediately preceding a war.
But the Trump administration has argued that the judiciary does not have the right to review the use of the Alien Enemies Act, alleging the deportations fall under the president’s Article II powers to remove alleged terrorists and execute the country’s foreign policy.
“The President’s action is lawful and based upon a long history of using war authorities against organizations connected to foreign states and national security judgments, which are not subject to judicial second guessing,” DOJ lawyers have argued in court filings.
The Trump administration is asking the appeals court to overturn Boasberg’s temporary restraining order blocking the deportations, while Judge Boasberg continues to examine whether the Trump administration deliberately defied his order by sending the men to an El Salvadoran prison rather than returning them to the United States as he directed.
“The government’s not being terribly cooperative at this point, but I will get to the bottom of whether they violated my order and who ordered this and what’s the consequence,” Boasberg said on Friday.
With deportations under the Alien Enemies Act temporarily blocked, the Trump administration has vowed to use other authorities to deport noncitizens. Over the weekend, Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez announced that the country had reached an agreement to resume repatriation flights of Venezuelan migrants from the U.S.
“We’re going to keep targeting the worst of the worst, which we’ve been doing since day one, and deporting from the United States through the various laws on the books,” border czar Tom Homan told ABC’s Jon Karl on Sunday.
The three-person panel hearing today’s arguments includes two judges nominated by Republican presidents, including one nominated by Trump himself. The D.C. Circuit is the last stop before the Trump administration could take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Trump nominated three judges during his last term, solidifying the court’s conservative majority.
(NEW YORK) — The Justice Department on Friday put three federal prosecutors in Manhattan on leave, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Two of the prosecutors — Andrew Rohrbach and Celia Cohen — worked on the prosecution of New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Rohrbach also worked on the successful prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, former crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried and lawyer Michael Avenatti.
Cohen worked on multiple mob cases and prosecutions of violent street gangs.
The third individual placed on leave — a member of the office’s civil division — posted about Elon Musk and Ed Martin, a leader of the Stop the Steal movement and President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., the sources said.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment.
The Justice Department moved to dismiss corruption charges against Adams, prompting the resignations of several prosecutors in New York and Washington, including Danielle Sassoon, the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, who accused the mayor and the Justice Department of negotiating a quid pro quo.
(PHILADELPHIA) — A Philadelphia man who requested medical help died after emergency services personnel responded to his home but left without attempting to forcibly enter it, a new lawsuit alleges.
Roberto Santiago Sr., 57, activated a medical device requesting EMS to respond to his home in the early hours of April 24, 2024, while in medical distress, according to a complaint filed this week against the city of Philadelphia.
When EMS personnel arrived around 2:55 a.m. that day, a neighbor on the second floor of the residence informed them Santiago was home and directed them to his residence, according to the Igwe Firm, which filed the complaint on behalf of Santiago’s family.
EMS personnel knocked on his door at 3:01 a.m. but there was no response because Santiago was incapacitated, according to the law firm. They left several minutes later without attempting to forcibly enter his home, the Igwe Firm said.
Santiago died due to cardiac arrest, according to the law firm. His son, Roberto Santiago Jr., said he discovered his father’s body on the floor of his home later that day, still holding onto the medical device.
“There’s no price you can put on a life, there really isn’t, and especially someone like my dad,” Santiago Jr. said during a press event at the Igwe Firm office on Tuesday. “That was like my best friend. I loved him to death, I really did. I was with him all the time, he knew everything about me.”
The lawsuit alleges negligence and wrongful death, claiming that Santiago Sr.’s death “was caused solely by the negligence and carelessness” of the city. It is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
The family began investigating his death after the neighbor told them that EMS had arrived but then left, the law firm said. Surveillance footage captured EMS personnel knocking on his door and then leaving when he didn’t answer, according to the law firm.
The family is calling on the city to conduct an investigation into its EMS protocols for when there is a failure to provide aid. The law firm said it is hoping to learn more about the city’s EMS protocols through its litigation and any potential city investigation. ABC News has reached out to the state’s health department for more information regarding EMS protocols.
“We all pay for these services, and to simply walk away without trying to do any lifesaving procedures, without trying to gain forceful entry, for people who are more than likely incapacitated due to their medical distress, is simply unacceptable,” Emeka Igwe, the attorney who filed the lawsuit, said at the press event.
Santiago Jr. said he would like an apology and “some change to be had, something where this doesn’t happen to no one else.”
This is the second such lawsuit filed by Igwe against the city this month over an EMS response alleging negligence and wrongful death.
Geneva Mackrides, 74, activated her Life Alert medical device while experiencing a medical emergency in her apartment on Dec. 23, 2023, according to a complaint filed earlier this month. Philadelphia EMS personnel responded to her apartment building but left after several attempts to reach her, the complaint alleges.
Several hours later, her son received a call from Life Alert that his mother had activated her emergency distress signal but there had been no follow-up, according to the complaint. He checked a Ring camera in her home and, after seeing his mother lying on her kitchen floor, contacted Life Alert to dispatch EMS personnel again, though she was dead, according to the complaint.
The city of Philadelphia declined to comment on both lawsuits because they remain active, a spokesperson for the city’s law department told ABC News.
