Ask Lemmy

The paperwork is supposed to be available by the end of January, so not usually before then.

So yeah, I stated a couple hours ago and spent most of that time fighting secure logins for online services I use once a year

I don't think it's possible to do taxes in January, most places don't have documents ready before the end of the month. I had to wait a few extra weeks for the documents from my investment account too, so not everything is always available on Jan 31.

I did mine in February this year. I'll probably wait and do it later next year, like mid-March, as I ended up missing a document that would have slightly increased my state return (not enough to go through the headache of fixing it).

Last year, I needed an extension, as it was first time doing it myself and my situation was fairly complex.

For me, it depends if I'm getting a refund or not. If I'm getting a refund, usually by mid February after all my paperwork gets in. If I owe money, I'm waiting until April.

I do mine as soon as I have all my W-2s. It takes like 10 minutes. I don't know why there is a trope about them being hard or confusing. They're not, unless you're trying to itemize everything.

Right about now is when I start looking for the tax documents I need that are somewhere in the multiple stacks of unopened mail littering my office.

ADHD is fun.

The issue is you have to wait to get your tax docs in the mail. I got my W-2s (proof of wages/income from employment) sometime in mid-January, and I filed my state and federal taxes 3rd week of January.

However, my municipal taxes require me to receive a paper from them through the mail. I didn't get it until march. It had errors (as usual), and I've just been like, I'm not dealing with that. Last year it was also months late because I didn't want to deal with them.

I remember growing up my parents would procrastinate and then crunch to get them done on 4/15. It seemed like they did this every damn year.

Me? I usually do end of February or maybe the beginning of March. Takes a bit to get all my documentation, so no point in dealing with it much before that.

If you're wanting like my friend was, you'll keep asking for extensions and missing deadlines until you're assigned an auditor, at which point you'll finally submit paperwork covering your two tax documents, and then complain that the IRS is being unreasonable.

Now, she just does things on time.

We did ours as soon as we had the documents, around mid Feb. Despite how incredibly awful everything is lately, there's still child tax credits and daycare credits from smarter times. No reason to procrastinate that, especially as we can invest it in a long term fund for the kids.

For me, it depends on when all of our paperwork is in.

Generally, the W-2s from the employers don't come in until the end of January, then I have to wait on my stock account. My wife had unemployment last year, and dividends from an oil field.

All of that has to be in before we can file.

Technically we were ready mid-February but got laid out by hospitalizations. I think we filed mid-March?

Before I had to wait on slow 1099s: as soon as the IRS and the software I used had the forms all set up.

Now: whenever the last slow-assed company sends me a 1099 which is sometime in March null

I want to do things ASAP and have them done, so that's hard. As an overseas citizen, I do get an automatic 6-month extension, but I've never had to come anywhere close to the normal deadline, even.

Honestly really surprised to find everyone here all do their taxes so quickly. I also did all of mine as early as I could (mid-Feb) but...

The only few American friends whom I'm close enough to talk about this, they all ignore it until the very last minute. So either late March/April, or not at all

Mine are simple, I do them as soon as I get a W2. Partner does then midnight day before due.

@DeathByBigSad I usually try and do them early. Not Jan 1, it's near impossible to get your paperwork before mid-January, but usually it's late January/early February. I did wait until April this year, though

Did mine early March and I'm still waiting for the Feds to give me my money. Where's my money?!

i set things up so I'm close to net zero, owe the state a tiny amount, tiny refund from the feis. There is no hurry, but I want them done late March just in case there is something weird I need to figure out (which has happened a couple times over the decades I've been eoing them.)

You can't do them in January let alone New Year's Day as most tax forms have until the end of January to be sent to taxpayers.

I'm still fighting my old company for tax documents that are due in 4 days, and I don't even live in the US

For my family, normally early March after all the paperwork has been received and I find time to sit and look at boring shit.

This year, I started around then and saw that we owed federal a bunch and I stopped as that fragile motivation was now gone and I wasn't in a hurry to send trumpy money for ballrooms, legal defense, bombs, ice, etc.

Finally went back to it last night and finished up tonight. I'm getting roughly the same amount back from my state.

Usually in February

I did mine earlier this week. Normally I do them in March, but time kinda got away from me this year. My parents still haven't done theirs yet lol.

Better get going on those taxes Neddy!

When I did them myself I would get them done by March at the latest. Now that I have a financial advisor that also does my taxes, I get the documents to them ASAP (assuming ADHD isn't getting in my way), and they tend to have them filed around the time I would've gotten them filed. Also nice to see that I didy taxes pretty accurately as how much I owed/was owed were effectively the se amount. Really wish the tax system was simplified for at least regular W2 employees where the taxes are basically all boilerplate with some numbers filled in.

I'm doing mine today.

I usually do February or March.

I'm Canadian (so North American) and I do them first week of April now. When all I had was a minimum wage retail job it was easy enough to get my one or two forms and file really early, but now I have to wait for companies to get me the forms and some of them send them out as late as April 1st.

Usually early February, as my employers generally wait until the latest allowed day (Jan 31) to actually process/mail my documents.

I try to do it as soon as I get my W2, I still haven't done my taxes...However, I will be doing that on Saturday!

4/24 is the day for this chore

Is the US tax year just.... The year?

The UK tax year is the 6th-5th of April. I wonder how that happened....

(... Quarter days? And switching between the Julian and gregorian calendars apparently)

Wait, we're supposed to do taxes??