My dad always told me that I shouldn’t mail my tax return until April 15th, because the IRS would be less likely to select me for an audit out of all the last-minute filings.
Any truth to this? Any other advantage to waiting?
The only advantage to waiting is if you know your going to owe the feds money.
I have filed by, on average, mid Feb since becoming a working adult (24 years or so). I have never been audited.
I can’t see why that would cause reason for concern. You’d think they’d be happy to get them out of the way before the 4/15 rush comes in. They only way I can see filing early triggering an audit is if you have a lot going on financially (lots of income from different places, lots of deductions) and you file before January 31. But that’s only becuase if you file to early, they might think that you don’t have your 1099/w-2/etc…
The last three years my company has offered getting our W-2’s online instead of waiting for the paper to show up in the mail. So I get mine about a week ortwo before my co-workers. I file the day I can access my W-2’s which is usually mid-January and I have not had a problem. I filed this year and with direct deposit I got my refund in 7 business days.
Hmm, this site seems to say that your filing date doesn’t matter.
As my CPA explained it, the more money you make, the greater the chance you’ll be audited.