W2s, 1099s, and other tax documents aren't required to be mailed until January 31st, I believe, so I usually do mine in the middle of Feb.

I tend to do mine right away to figure out what I'm getting or owe. If it's a refund, it gets sent out right away. Otherwise look for me in the background of the late news as the reporter is saying "As you can see, people are still coming in to mail their taxes as the post office stays open until midnight..."

I use my computer (TaxCut) and get started as soon as I have my final pay stub for the year. That has the same data as your W-2.

If you keep good records then 1099's don't change anything, they just move a couple figures from one box to another on your Schedule C.

You can count me as the sickest person you'll ever know, for you see, I like doing my taxes :)

Lonelymaytagguy, are you sure your paystubs have all the info? I have both a SIMPLE IRA and pre-tax medical stuff and I found that it wasn't possible to do my taxes without my W2 because some information wasn't presented on the paystubs.... I forget the exact problem but I definitely had to wait for the W2 to get the numbers right.

I agree with Greg P. You need a "2 months" option. I never get my W-2 until 2 or 3 postal days after the 31st. Then that's usually when I start working on my taxes. That would be about 2 months before tax day.

My stub shows what I need, but I guess I need to qualify myself. I work in the IT department and keep the W-2 program up to date, so I know which deductions do what to taxes.