It only feels like you just filed your federal income taxes yesterday — most US taxpayers filed their 2024 tax returns more than nine months ago, and it’s almost time to do it all over again for 2025.
The 2026 tax season (for reporting your 2025 income and taxes) kicks off Monday, and there’s no better time than the present to gather all of the essential tax documentation and information you need to finish your 2025 tax return and submit it to the IRS.
How early can you file taxes? And what’s the final deadline to complete and submit your 2025 tax return? Read on to find all of the deadlines and scheduling information you need for US federal income taxes in 2026.
How early can I file my 2025 tax return?
The IRS has officially announced that the first day for filing 2025 tax returns will be Monday. If you’re expecting a tax refund this year, there’s usually no reason not to file your income taxes as early as possible, and next Monday is your very first opportunity to do so.
You can start preparing your 2025 federal tax return for filing right now with any of CNET’s best tax software, but the IRS won’t accept or process your return until Jan. 26. If you’re expecting money back from the IRS this year, you should expect to receive your tax refund two to three weeks after your return is accepted.
However, if you claim the Earned Income Tax Credit or the Child Tax Credit and file early, you’ll need to allow extra time for additional verification. The IRS says that taxpayers who claim either tax credit and file electronically using direct deposit should expect to receive their tax refunds by March 3.
What’s the deadline for filing my 2025 tax return with the IRS?
The final date for completing and submitting your 2025 tax return to the IRS is April 15, the traditional deadline for federal income taxes in the US. Tax returns filed after April 15 may be subject to both fines and penalties if you owe the government money.
There are no local or state holidays that interfere with the tax deadline in 2026, so taxpayers in all 50 states and Washington, DC should be prepared to finish and submit their 2025 tax return or file a tax extension by April 15.
What’s the deadline to file for a tax extension in 2026?
If you want to extend your deadline for filing your 2025 tax return by six months, you’ll need to file a tax extension by the same deadline — April 15. To do so, you’ll need to complete and submit IRS Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time to File US Individual Income Tax Return.
Any US taxpayer can file an extension to push back their federal income tax deadline to Oct. 15, but if you owe the IRS money, you’ll need to pay an estimated amount due by April 15. If you pay less than 90% of what you ultimately owe in federal taxes, you could be subject to fines and penalties.
US states with exceptions to the April 15 tax-filing deadline
Eight states — Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming — don’t levy any income taxes on residents, and Washington taxes only capital gains for high-income taxpayers. Residents in those states generally won’t need to file state income taxes.
The majority of the other 41 states and Washington, DC have state and local tax filing deadlines that match the federal April 15 deadline, but five of them buck that trend with their own unique dates for filing state taxes.
Even though those states have later state income tax deadlines, federal 2025 tax returns are still due to the IRS by April 15.
Because of natural disasters, two locales in the US have received automatic extensions for filing 2025 federal income tax returns. Taxpayers in the state of Washington who were affected by storms, flooding or mudslides that began on Dec. 9, 2025, will have until May 1 to file federal income taxes. And Alaskan taxpayers in Lower Kuskokwim Regional Educational Attendance Area, Lower Yukon Regional Educational Attendance Area and Northwest Arctic Borough who were affected by the Typhoon Halong that started Oct. 8, 2025, also have a May 1 deadline for federal taxes.
