Why is Federal taking so long to appear as "Accepted"?

Last year (and previous years) my Federal status showed as "sent", and then about two days later showed as "accepted". Why is it that this year it is staying in a "pending" status and says that the IRS will not start processing it until Feb. 11. Why is it staying in a "pending" status so long this year? My state is already showing "accepted". Does this indicate something is wrong with my Federal or just that the govt has change processing proceedures?

(Asked 02/05/08, Views 132)

Because our government was too busy to think about us poor people who might be depending on our tax refund to make it through the upcoming recession!

(Posted 02/05/08)

Due to the very late decision of Congress regarding AMT credits any returns including any of the AMT credits will not start to be processed until Feb 11th, this is suppose to give the IRS time to update their systems, returns with the following forms are affected by the delay, this could be why your return is pending until Feb 11th,

Form 8863, Education Credits.
Form 5695, Residential Energy Credits.
Schedule 2, Form 1040A, Child and Dependent Care Expenses for Form 1040A Filers.
Form 8396, Mortgage Interest Credit.
Form 8859, District of Columbia First-Time Homebuyer Credit.

(Posted 02/05/08)