Filing your taxes can be a big deal. You want to make sure that you are filling out all the paperwork properly, but sometimes things get missed. There are a lot of rules to follow, paperwork to fill out, and with all the deductions and credits, it is sometimes easy to miss out on something that you need to put on your tax return. In some cases, you may have made a mistake on a past tax return, or even the one that you filed for this year, and you want to make some changes. This process is known as amending your tax return and it does take some time to get it all in place.
While amending a tax return is an option, you must keep in mind that there are some restrictions on how fat back you are allowed to amend the tax return; this restriction is in place whether you would be paying into the IRS more money or receiving a refund. When you want to file for this you will need to file the Form 1040X and you should only use it if you want to report certain kinds of changes; not everything is going to qualify and in most cases, if you just want to change some math calculations on the return, this is not necessary as the IRS will do it for you.
In most cases, you are only going to get three years form the original return in order to report your changes. If you would like to file an amended return and are unsure about whether you have missed this date or not, make sure to contact a tax professional who is going to be able to help you throughout the process.
What to Report
There are only a few things that you are going to be able to report when it comes to your tax return. For example, if you make a simple math mistake on the tax return, you are not required to do an amendment at all. The IRS goes through and checks the math on all the returns, so this error is going to be fixed on its own and you will just waste time to put it in. If the IRS does the math and finds out you are a bit off, they will just send out a note if needed. Usually, you will only need to file an amendment if you need to report some changes in your credits, deductions, income, or status.
You will also need to go through and send in all the schedules that are going to be affected by the changes you are reporting. This can end up with a lot of paper so make sure that you have your professional on hand to answer any questions and ensure that you are getting it all in through the mail at the right time.
Time to File
In most cases, you are going to have up to three years from when you filed your tax return in order to file the amendment. If you happened to file early, your due date is going to be April 15 rather than the exact date; this makes it a bit easier on the IRS to keep everything on track when they are looking at amendments. If you were able to get an extension on the tax return, your due date is going to be whatever the extension deadline was all about.
If you owed any taxes on the return that you are amending, you are going to get either two years from when you paid the taxes off or three years from the tax return, whichever of these is the latest date of the two. So you are going to need to keep some good records if you are interested in keeping things in line and ensuring that you are able to make the amended return if needed.
These dates are in line whether you owed money or you received a refund for that year in particular. This helps to keep things in order for the IRS and makes them more efficient. If they spent too much time going over old returns that are twenty or more years old, they would never be able to focus on all the things that are going on in the current year. In addition, you will not be able to be penalized after this amount of time so it is not that big of a deal.
Filing an amended tax return can seem like a complicated process. You already went through getting all of your paperwork done for taxes the first time around, and making sure that you do all the numbers properly and that the right forms get put in can seem like a nightmare. Don’t try to do this on your own. Instead, hire the right tax professional who is going to be able to help you get your tax amendment done properly without making things more difficult.
When you are ready to file your tax return or you would like some help with filing an amendment on your tax return, make sure to pick out our tax professionals. We can help you with these as well as many other tax issues so you can have the peace of mind of knowing that the taxes are done right.
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