When Should I Start My Taxes? A Month-by-Month Answer
Short answer: When should I start my taxes? Start gathering records in January, prepare the return as your forms arrive, and file once every W-2 and 1099 is in hand. For most people that is between mid-February and mid-March. The federal deadline is generally April 15.
If you are self-employed the honest answer is earlier than that. Your tax year comes with four payment dates of its own, and the first one arrives before most people have thought about the return at all.
It’s the evening of January 27 and Wes — I’ll call him Wes — has a W-2 from his day job, a 1099 from the weekend sound work he does for a wedding band, and a strong feeling that there is a refund in there somewhere. The filing season opened yesterday. He is done by 9:40pm and tells two separate people about it.
On February 16 an envelope arrives from an investing app he opened two summers ago and forgot. Inside is a form reporting $212 of gains. It is, technically, income. It is not on his return.
Wes wasn’t careless. He was early, which everyone had told him was the responsible thing to be.
The trouble is that “start your taxes” and “file your taxes” are two different instructions with two different right answers. Here are both, checked against the IRS’s own pages.
Starting your taxes and filing them are two different dates
Filing is the last ten minutes. Starting is everything before it. Treating them as one job is like saying dinner takes three minutes because that is how long the microwave ran.
So the question splits into three, and each has its own date:
- 1. Gathering starts in January. One folder, paper or digital, where every tax form goes the day it arrives. This is the only step with no downside to doing early.
- 2. Preparing starts when the first forms land. You can enter a W-2 into software in late January and leave the return open. A half-finished return sitting in a draft costs nothing.
- 3. Filing waits for the last form. Not the first one. The IRS’s own get-ready checklist says to wait to file until you have your tax records, and lists Forms W-2, the 1099 family and records of digital asset transactions.
Wes did step three on the date meant for step two. Everything that follows is about putting the right job on the right date.
The tax calendar, month by month
The tax year has more fixed dates than a school calendar, and nobody sends a newsletter home. These are the ones that matter for an individual return. When a date lands on a weekend or a legal holiday, it moves to the next business day.
- Mid-January. The last estimated tax payment for the year just ended is due January 15. Only relevant if you pay estimated tax; more on that below.
- Late January. The IRS opens the filing season on a date it announces each winter. In 2026 that was January 26. W-2s are due to employees by the end of the month.
- Mid-February. Brokerage statements arrive. For the 2025 tax year, the IRS gave brokers until February 17, 2026 to send Forms 1099-B, and the same date applies to consolidated statements. This is also when refunds that include the Earned Income Tax Credit can first be released.
- End of February. If a W-2 still hasn’t shown up, the IRS says you can now call them about it. Our guide to doing your taxes without a W-2 covers what happens next.
- April 15. The return is due, and so is any tax you owe. It is also the first estimated payment date for the new year, which is an unkind piece of scheduling.
- October 15. The extended deadline, if you filed Form 4868 back in April. An extension to file. Not to pay.
Read down that list and the sensible window shows itself. After the mid-February forms, comfortably before April. For most households that is four or five calm weeks that almost nobody uses.
Why the first week of the season is usually too early
Filing on opening day feels like being first in the queue. In practice it is more like leaving for the airport before checking which terminal. Three things tend to go wrong.
- Some forms are not due to you yet. A brokerage or investing app has until mid-February. That form turns up like a guest who replies to the invitation after the wedding, and it still counts.
- You forget accounts you barely use. The savings account paying a few dollars of interest. The payment app. The investing app from two summers ago. Each can generate a form, and each form is also sent to the IRS.
- Fixing it is slow. A return that left something out is corrected with Form 1040-X, the amended return. The IRS says to allow 8 to 12 weeks for it to be processed, and that it can take up to 16.
There is also less reward for the rush than people think. If your return claims the Earned Income Tax Credit, the IRS says that by law the refund is held until mid-February. Filing on day one does not move that date by an hour.
A quick test before you file: open last year’s return and count the forms attached to it. If you have fewer this year, find out why before you press the button.
The case for filing as soon as the last form is in
None of that is an argument for April. Once the last form has arrived, every extra week of waiting buys you nothing. It is like finishing a crossword and then carrying it around in your bag for a month.
- The refund clock starts when you file. The IRS’s refunds page puts an e-filed return at about three weeks and a mailed one at six weeks or more. A refund is your own money on a long holiday. You decide when it comes home.
- You find out what you owe while there is time to plan. Filing in March does not mean paying in March. You can file early and still pay on April 15. Learning the number six weeks ahead is the difference between a budget and a bad Tuesday.
- It closes the door on someone filing as you. The IRS offers an Identity Protection PIN, a six-digit number that prevents someone else from filing a federal return with your Social Security number. A return already filed in your name does a similar job.
- Preparers have time for you. In early March an accountant can think about your return. In the second week of April they can mostly just process it. We say this with affection for our April selves.
So the rule is neither “early” nor “late.” It is: the week after your last form arrives.
If you are self-employed, you started in April
An employee’s tax is taken out of every paycheck by somebody else. When you work for yourself, you are the payroll department, and it is staffed by the same person who does the sales, the deliveries and the bins.
The IRS says individuals, including sole proprietors, partners and S corporation shareholders, generally have to make estimated tax payments if they expect to owe $1,000 or more when the return is filed. The year is cut into four uneven pieces:
- January 1 to March 31. Payment due April 15.
- April 1 to May 31. Payment due June 15.
- June 1 to August 31. Payment due September 15.
- September 1 to December 31. Payment due January 15 of the following year.
Yes, the second “quarter” is two months long and the last one is four. Nobody at the IRS has ever explained this to our satisfaction.
You generally avoid an underpayment penalty if what you paid in covers the smaller of 90% of this year’s tax or 100% of the tax shown on last year’s return. That second figure becomes 110% if last year’s adjusted gross income was above $150,000. In practice, last year’s return is the starting point for this year’s payments, which is one more reason to have finished it in March.
Wes sits in the middle. His day job withholds; his weekend sound work doesn’t. Whether he needs estimated payments depends on whether the withholding covers both, and that takes about ten minutes with last year’s return to work out.
What to do before December 31, and when you can do this yourself
Some of next spring’s return can only be changed this year. Once the calendar turns, the year’s income and most of its expenses are fixed, and the return becomes a report on decisions already made. Three things are worth an hour before then.
- Bring your records up to date now. Mileage, receipts, who paid you and when. A mileage log written in March from memory is a creative-writing exercise.
- Know which side of the line a payment falls on. Most small businesses count income when it is received and expenses when they are paid, so the date matters. Our explainer on cash basis accounting shows how that works.
- Check your withholding or your last estimated payment. If you have under-paid during the year, the January 15 payment is the last chance to narrow the gap.
Not everything closes on December 31. IRA contributions for a year can be made up to the April filing deadline; the IRS’s IRA year-end reminders say, for example, that 2024 contributions could be made until April 15, 2025. That is one decision you can reasonably leave until you have seen the draft return.
Now the part an accounting firm is not supposed to say. If you have one job, a W-2 and nothing unusual, you do not need us. You need a folder and one free evening in early March. Our breakdown of how much it costs to do your taxes lists the free filing options and who qualifies.
Help earns its fee when the calendar is the hard part: several income streams, estimated payments, or a business whose books are not current by January. That is what our bookkeeping and tax services are for, at flat, published prices. Njock is an accountant, not a CPA; if your situation needs one, we will say so.
What starting on April 14 actually costs
Starting late rarely ends in disaster. It ends in a missed deadline, and the IRS prices those differently. Suppose you owe $3,000. File on time and pay a month late, and the failure-to-pay penalty is 0.5% for the month: $15. File a month late, and the IRS’s failure-to-file penalty brings the total to 5% for the month: $150. Same debt, same month, ten times the price. Interest is extra in both cases.
Let it run past 60 days and a minimum applies. For returns due after December 31, 2025, it is $525 or 100% of the tax owed, whichever is less. Form 4868 avoids the late-filing penalty if you send it by the original due date, but the IRS is plain that an extension of time to file is not an extension of time to pay. If the year has already got away from you, our guide to what happens if you didn’t file last year’s taxes picks up from there.
The other end of the calendar has a price too, though a smaller one. Wes amended. It took one more form, a small additional payment on $212 of gains, and a wait measured in weeks. He now keeps a folder, and the first thing in it is a sticky note that says “investing app” in capital letters. He files in the first week of March. He still tells two people.
Frequently asked questions
- When should I start my taxes?
- Start gathering records in January and prepare the return as your forms arrive. File once every W-2 and 1099 is in hand, which for most people is between mid-February and mid-March. The federal deadline is generally April 15. If you are self-employed, the work starts earlier, because estimated tax payments are due through the year.
- When can I start filing taxes?
- You can file once the IRS opens the filing season, which it announces each winter. In 2026 the IRS opened the season on January 26. You can prepare your return before that date, but the IRS does not begin processing returns until the season opens.
- Is it better to file taxes early or wait?
- File as early as you can file accurately. Filing early gets a refund sooner, tells you sooner what you owe, and leaves less time for someone else to file a return using your Social Security number. Filing before all your forms have arrived usually means filing an amended return later, so wait for the last form.
- What happens if I file before I get all my tax forms?
- If a form arrives later and changes your income, deductions or credits, you correct the return by filing Form 1040-X, the amended return. The IRS says to allow 8 to 12 weeks for an amended return to be processed, and that it can take up to 16 weeks.
- When is the deadline to file taxes?
- The due date for a federal individual income tax return is generally April 15. If that date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, the due date moves to the next business day. Filing Form 4868 by the original due date gives an automatic six-month extension of time to file.
- Does filing early get my refund faster?
- Yes, because the clock starts when you file. The IRS says an e-filed return typically produces a refund about three weeks after filing, and a mailed return takes six weeks or more. By law, refunds on returns that claim the Earned Income Tax Credit are held until mid-February, however early the return was filed.
- When should self-employed people start their taxes?
- During the tax year, not after it. Self-employed people generally have to make estimated tax payments if they expect to owe $1,000 or more. The payments are due April 15, June 15, September 15 and January 15 of the following year, so the first one for a tax year falls about a year before the return itself is due.
- Does a tax extension give me more time to pay?
- No. The IRS states that an extension of time to file is not an extension of time to pay. Form 4868 gives up to six more months to file the return, but interest is charged on any tax not paid by the original due date.
More plain-English answers.
- Blog
Can You Do Taxes Without a W-2?
What to do when the form you were waiting for never arrives.
Read more - Blog
How Much Does It Cost to Do Your Taxes?
IRS averages, the free filing options and how preparers actually bill.
Read more - Services
Bookkeeping, tax and compliance for small businesses
Monthly books, returns and filings handled remotely, with a 4-business-hour email reply.
Read more
Want next spring to be a quiet one?
Book a free 15-minute discovery call with Njock. No pitch. We just listen, look at what you have, and tell you honestly whether we’re a fit.
Prefer to read on your own? More posts from the blog.