Filing taxes is something that people like to put off until the last minute. When you have to pay in at the end of the year you want to buy time but there are reasons that you should file early. Why would you want to file early?
When you file early you get your refund sooner. The sooner you get your refund the sooner you can get ready for the year ahead of you or what’s left of it. It can take up to a month to get an electronic refund back and much longer to get a paper return in and processed. The more organized you are the earlier you can file your return.
Filing early allows you to avoid the need to file for an extension. When you have to pay you avoid the possibility of having to pay additional fees. Filing early can also eliminate the need to spend money on tax filing. It allows you time to thoroughly go over your return so that you can catch any errors in calculations and make sure that all of your deductions are there. When you miss a deduction you have to file an amended return.
When you have to file an amended return in order to get all of the money that you are owed in the form of a refund you are doing without your money. Filing early gives and avoiding the amended return gives you a head start on savings goals. When you wait you might end up having to pay extra for your filing to have someone else do it electronically and give you an advance against your return.
Putting off filing taxes only delays the inevitable. It can cause you stress as you begin to worry about whether or not that precious stamp that say April 15th is on the envelope. What if you are on your way to the post office on the last day and you break down? The IRS isn’t going to take that your car broke down as an excuse for why your taxes are late.
The reasons that you should file early are virtually endless. When you file early you get your refund sooner, have more time to avoid mistakes and can avoid having to pay additional costs associated with someone else filing for you. When you file early you find it easier to wait until your refund reaches you instead of taking out loans that you have to repay with the refund that you receive.
Filing early also makes it easier for you to figure out which electronic filing service meets your needs in order to file your federal return for free. Once the federal return is done you can file the state return. If you owe the state you can get your federal return and use it to pay the state. There are a million reasons to file taxes early, and no reason that comes to mind for filing them later.