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.

So, you’re eager to get your tax return in so you can get that big refund. Or maybe you want to save yourself from stress of filing a last minute tax return. Well, good news, you can start filing your taxes as early as January 1. The leading tax software, TurboTax and H & R Block at Home, are now available for download.

In order to file your taxes, you’ll need your W2 or 1099 forms from all employers you’ve worked for in the past year. Businesses are required to mail these by the end of January — but you may receive these earlier if you employer’s accountant is really on top of things. Once you have these forms from your employer, you can efile your state and federal taxes online. Note that some efile programs (such as TaxAct), will not be available until the second week of January.