What most people don't understand is that tax providers don't "push" tax returns to the IRS. The tax returns go to various data warehouses, and the IRS connects and downloads them according to their own schedule, timetable and priorities. Once a return is in the data warehouse, only the IRS can determine when to download it and begin processing. They always do some early tests, but it's not announced and we don't even know if it is dozens, hundreds, or thousands, or more.
