Hello. I would like to start my 2021 federal tax return using TurboTax Self-Employed full service platform. How can I start my return instead of waiting for next year?

[DoninGA]

The TurboTax online editions for tax year 2021 will not be available until early December 2021. 

The software will not be totally finalized until after the IRS releases the final version of the federal forms and schedules which usually occurs in late January or early February.

[GeorgeDenseff · Accepted solution]

The software for 2021 is being written and will not be released until sometime in November at the earliest.  

Getting started on your 2021 taxes now is an excellent plan.  The easiest way to do that is to use Intuit Quickbooks to set up your business accounting.  With Online Quickbooks, you track your income and expenses through the year and determine which will be used for your income tax.

Then when it is time to do your taxes, you just tell Quickbooks to send your information to TurboTax Self-Employed and it fills in your Schedule C in the correct format.

Quickbooks costs about $15 a month and an additional $10 a month for the Tax Bundle which includes TurboTax.  But there are always specials and introductory offers.

[Critter-3]

Correct ... what you need to use is a bookkeeping program for the day to day entries as the year progresses.