Whether you can "submit" your return tomorrow or not depends on what forms you need. Some forms will not be available until Jan 25, but nobody can actually "file" until the IRS opens for business on Jan 29. Returns submitted before that will sit on the TurboTax server until the IRS polls them. There will be a few test polls, but those returns will not be sent to the IRS main processor until Jan 31. There is no advantage whatsoever to file before Jan 29, but there are disadvantages.
1) If you discover something that is wrong on your return, receive a W-2 that is different, receive some other tax document that was not on the return that you filed then there is NOTHING that you can do about it other than wait to see if the IRS accepts or rejects the return after Jan 29. If rejected you can correct and file again, but if accepted then the only remedy is to amend which can take 4 months to process.
2) You must remember to check back after Jan 29 (or check for an e-mail) to confirm that the IRS has accepted or rejected the return. If rejected, then it was never filed at all and must be corrected and re-filed. Every year many taxpayers that file early, forget to check back and only discover months later that they never actually filed because if was rejected by the IRS but they had forgotten about checking back after filing with TurboTax.
3) While the IRS does conduct some pre-Jan 29 polling tests and does accept some returns early, they will not process those until Jan 29. There is a reason to test and that is to discover any problems with it's systems. A couple of years ago a test went bad and several thousand "test" returns were lost. The IRS was able to recover those but it delayed refunds for some by months.
**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**
