If you still haven’t filed your tax return, then now is the time to do it. While you technically have almost two full months to file your return without worrying about a late fee, there are several important benefits to filing your return earlier in the tax season. Here are just 5 of them.
1. Get Your Refund Faster
If you’re expecting a refund, filing earlier in the year will get your return back to you much more quickly. The later into tax season we get, the longer the line of returns and refunds waiting to be processed by the IRS, and the longer you’ll have to wait. Filing earlier greatly reduces your turnaround time for getting your refund, because there’s currently a lot less demand on the IRS’s time than there will be closer to the deadline.
2. Know What You Owe
For those who know they’ll be making a tax payment when they file, it may be tempting to wait until closer to the deadline to file your return. But if you do this, you may find yourself scrambling to put together enough funds to pay the IRS on time, should you end up owing more than you initially expected.
If you file your return now, you don’t have to pay your UT taxes in full until the April filing deadline. This gives you more time to make a plan and move funds around so that you can pay off your tax debt on time.
3. Don’t Rush It
We all know that rushing things makes it more likely for an error to occur. If you wait until the tax deadline is bearing down on you, you might feel rushed to get your tax documents together, and you could end up overlooking important information like charitable contributions and other deductions.
If you work with our Provo tax preparers early on in the tax season, you can take a little extra time to ensure you’ve given us all the right information, and we can ensure that you get every possible deduction to give you the optimal outcome on your return when you file it. And, more importantly, you could potentially avoid a stressful audit from the IRS, which is more likely to happen if you accidentally leave out important information on your return.
4. Reduce the Stress
Any time you put off an important (though potentially unpleasant) task, you’re putting additional stress on your own shoulders. You know your taxes need to be filed eventually, and no amount of procrastinating is going to do that. It’s best to simply get the task done early, so that you can relax while everyone else stresses about filing their taxes on time.
5. Get an Appointment More Easily
This is the busiest time of year for your CPA. And, like the IRS, we continue to get busier as the tax season progresses. So, if you want to have an opportunity to sit down and go over your taxes in detail, it is always best to work on your return as early in the season as you possibly can. You’ll face a lot less competition for access to your tax professional, and be more likely to get an appointment at a convenient time for you.
If you want to reap the benefits of filing early, meet with one of our Provo tax preparers as soon as you can. Give us a call to set up an appointment today.