Happy New Year! Happy Tax Season! For you go-getters ready to tackle your taxes, a lot of you want to know what the earliest you can get this headache out of the way. Well…that depends.
Officially, you may start filing your taxes on January 1st, however E-filing will not be available until January 11th (unless you decide to pay the money to go to H&R Block who can start E-filing on January 4th.)
But first thing’s first. You must have acquired all of your paperwork. For some of you with nice considerate employers, you should hopefully have all your W2’s and 1099’s very soon. Once you have these papers, it’s just a matter of plugging in the numbers. For others who have to wait, that’s what you must do…wait. You can attempt to “create” your W2’s using your last paycheck and the information from your prior year’s W2, but this is risky. Miscalculations could cost you dearly. So, just relax.
If you haven’t received your W2’s by February 15th, that’s when you should start to worry and contact the IRS for more information about acquiring those papers.