I have an appointment with my tax guy on Feb 8th... I really hope my w2 and 1099 are in by then. We received the documents for the mortgage already, which actually surprised me. (The mortgage people that I've talked to don't seem very bright.
) My accountant's office was pro-active this year... they called me back in November to set up my tax appointment. I just hope I don't have to reschedule now.
You know...I gotta stop getting hopeful every year. The past 3 years I've had to pay Federal, but get a big return from state...it doesn't even out, because the state return in still less then what I have to pay for the Feds.
I chose to do mine through HRBlock's online system. I had two states to do, along with Federal. I had to do California along with Illinois because I took part in a class action lawsuit against a former employer... so some of the money was taxable... If you do HRB's online system, you can choose to have the federal put into an HRBlock 'Check card' type of thing... has a Visa logo and your federal refund goes into that card. handy. Because I did that, BOTH of my state filings were free.
I filed online at www.taxengine.com on January 13, the first day it was possible to file.
I had to wait until I got my W-2s to do my state because I work two jobs and the second one doesn't take out any federal, but they do take out some state and I needed the paperwork to verify it.
Usually I sit down with my last two paychecks in a year, around New Year's, and figure the taxes in pencil. I hate doing it so much I try to get it out of the way ASAP.
I expect I'll get my state refund in the next couple of weeks.