- “How soon can I file my 2015 tax returns?”
- “What’s the earliest I can file?”
- “When does tax season start?”
These are common questions we hear at the beginning of the year. Generally speaking, a taxpayer can file a tax return as soon as he/she has all the relevant information and documents needed to prepare an accurate tax return.
On a practical level, however, the Internal Revenue Service will begin processing tax returns for the year 2015 on January 19, 2016.
January 19, 2016 is the day the IRS plans to begin accepting electronically filed tax returns and processing paper returns mailed to the agency. So any tax returns mailed in early January will sit in the queue, and the IRS will process them starting January 19th.
There is no advantage to people filing tax returns on paper in early January instead of waiting for e-file to begin.