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Save Your Money By Income Tax Tips
Do you prepare your own income tax return to save money on preparation? If you do, or you are planning on using this method on your next return, there are some things that you should know that will help you to avoid making costly income tax errors. Errors that can cost you some of your refund or that can cost you in time having to amend your return and send it in again. Here are some income tax tips to help you get started:
1. Make sure that you know which income tax form to use: 1040EZ (for single filers without itemized deductions), 1040A (for married filers without itemized deductions) or 1040 (for those who itemize deductions.)
2. Check for errors in your personal information on the income tax return such as your social security number(s), address, etc.
3. Take the most beneficial deduction. Depending on your circumstances, either the standard or itemized deduction may keep more money in your pocket. You should do the worksheet in your income tax instruction booklet to see which one would be best.
4. If you have a home office you can deduct a percentage of your mortgage interest as well as your utilities and other things you may have not thought of as business expenses.
5. Don’t forget to take any medical expense deductions that you have available. If your employer takes out your health insurance after taxes and it is more than 7 percent of your total income, you can take this deduction. Include dental and prescription costs as well.
6. Make sure that you have all of your forms before you file your income tax return. Think about any extra jobs or pay you may have received as well as interest you have accumulated.
7. Take your state and local income tax deduction from the previous year’s returns.
8. Check the return at least twice for any math errors even if you are using a calculator. These can be very costly and are easy to miss.
9. Don’t forget to get all of the necessary signatures on the return. If you are married filing jointly, you will need both spouses to sign.
10. Consider using tax preparation software. It is more accurate than self-preparation and it can be easy to use and understand and it will check your return for errors for you. You can also get free or low cost tax preparation through the IRS if you have a low or moderate income.
Tax help can come from an unlikely source-the IRS. You may know already that they have tax forms and instructions for tax forms and you may even know that they offer links to free tax preparation services for low income families, but you may not know about the tax help available through the Taxpayer Advocate Service. The TAS is an independent organization in the IRS that provides taxpayers free tax help to navigate through problems and issues that are not being resolved in a timely manner. Here are some of the conditions which will qualify you for the Taxpayer Advocate Service:
1. You have not had your issue resolved in the time frame that you were originally given, or within 30 days.
2. You can demonstrate that the issue will cause or is causing hardship or burden if you do not get tax help.
3. The problem will cause injury or irreparable damage.
You can look for more specifics on irs.gov.
If you feel that you would qualify for tax help from the TAS, then there are many ways that you can contact them. You can download a form 911 and fill it out or fax it in detailing your problem. Every state has a local office and you can contact them directly for tax help by phone or by e-mail or you can use regular mail. You will need to provide your social security or employee identification number along with an e-mail address or another way to reach you. You will be given the name and ID number of a case worker who you can contact for assistance on your particular case.
Although the TAS does offer tax help, they cannot go against the laws or policies and procedures of the IRS. They cannot overturn legal decisions or rewrite technical tax descriptions. But, they are not entirely powerless. They will help you in a respectful and courteous way to navigate the system and resolve your problem as soon as possible. They can make recommendations to the IRS or even make proposals to the federal government to make the system more taxpayer friendly.
If you have a suggestion or an issue that would affect a larger group of taxpayers other than just yourself, you can make that suggestion to the Systemic Advocacy branch. When they determine that it really is a system-wide issue, they will ask you for more information.
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