Tax season begins Monday, Jan. 29, file early

Its time to get your taxes ready again. The new tax season officially starts Monday. The big advice being given this year is to file early.

Since the usual April 15 tax deadline lands on a Sunday, taxes are due April 17 this year. But you can submit your taxes as early as Monday. Financial experts are telling us to do so for a couple of reasons.

You will get your money sooner.

“The sooner you get in line, the sooner you can get your refund. Also, if you are expediting your refund filing electronically, then that will even get your refund in your hands sooner,” said Jennifer Landon, a financial advisor with Journey Financial Services, Inc. in Idaho Falls.

You will give yourself more time to address an underpayment, for example, if you happen to owe money.

“On the other hand, if you’re one of the people who is not going to be receiving a refund this tax season, it’s also nice to know ahead of time how much you need to plan on for taxes. And it gives you a little bit more time to put your ducks in a row,” Landon said.

You can avoid tax fraud.

“A lot of people who are trying to take advantage of people getting refunds are aware that this is a tax season where there’s a lot of checks in the mail. There’s a lot of filings going on. And if you get your filing in sooner, you’re less apt to have your identity taken,” Landon said.

And you can still make contributions to an Individual Retirement Account until the deadline, for it to count toward your 2017 taxes.

Though there are plenty of good reasons to file your taxes early this year, the one good reason not to is if you’re missing key information that could compromise the accuracy of your return.