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When Does Tax Filing Start?

Individual → Compliance & Procedures

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Wajiha Danish

Wajiha Danish is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CGA) and the Director at Monily Finance and Accounting LLC. With over 20 years of experience in accounting, financial reporting, audit, and finance operations, she has held senior roles across multinational, energy-sector finance teams, and public accounting. Wajiha is proficient in both US GAAP and IFRS, enabling her to support businesses with complex reporting and compliance requirements.

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For federal individual income tax returns, tax filing starts when the IRS begins accepting and processing returns for that filing season.

It usually starts in January. For the most recent filing season, the 2026 tax filing season began on January 26, 2026, when the IRS started accepting and processing 2025 federal individual income tax returns.

The IRS also announced that some filing tools, such as certain IRS Free File options, became available earlier, but the official filing season start date for return acceptance was January 26, 2026.

State Law Note

State income tax filing seasons are administered at the state level and may begin on different dates from the federal filing season. The controlling authority is the applicable state revenue department or tax agency.

Sources

IRS — IRS opens 2026 filing season

IRS — IRS announces first day of 2026 filing season; online tools and resources help with tax filing

IRS — Next steps to Get Ready for 2026 tax filing season

IRS — When to file

IRS — Use IRS Free File to conveniently file your return at no cost

This information provided does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice.