It's that time of the year again—that time when hardworking people roll up their sleeves, sit down for the night, get a fresh stock of pens and file their taxes.

The tax season opened on Tuesday, Jan. 19 as scheduled. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) began taking in individual electronic returns and processing paper tax returns. More than 150 million returns are also expected to be submitted by taxpayers.

Security and protection from identity theft is one of the most important things that the IRS stressed and focused on during the tax filing season. To ensure this, the IRS made sure to closely work with state revenue departments as part of the Security Summit initiative.

During this time, the IRS has provided key reminders and guidelines that may be followed. Year-end statements, including Forms W-2, Forms 1099 and Form 1095-A, should be accomplished prior to filing.

"We encourage taxpayers to take full advantage of the expanding array of tools and information on IRS.gov to make their tax preparation easier," IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said.

With about a month to go before the deadline, the bureau also encourages taxpayers to take advantage of the e-file and direct deposit systems as a means to accurately file income tax returns and receive refunds. These two ways are reportedly the best methods, both safe and fast, of filing these. As a result, most taxpayers will receive their refunds in 21 days or less.

Of course, taxpayers are also advised to seek trusted professionals for help during filing season, especially since the tax codes change once in a while.

The deadline for filing 2015 tax returns is on Monday, April 18, which may come as a surprise since April 15 is the usual cutoff date. Since Washington, D.C. will be celebrating Emancipation Day on the 15th, the deadline has been pushed to the 18th. For Maine and Massachusetts, however, the due date will be on the 19th of April, given that Patriots Day will take place on the 18th.