Tax mistakes happen. Let’s face it, you may have run into a time where you didn’t quite understand what was being asked and you answered it the best way you knew how. Often times, you are not answering the question correctly and this leads to errors, especially on your tax documents.
Although mistakes are common and part of life, a simple mistake on your tax return can end up causing you a headache and a loss of money as a result. Consider the following common mistakes and determine whether you are making them or not.
April 15th of every year is the deadline to file your taxes. If you forget this date and miss it, you will incur some hefty penalties when you do finally file your taxes. Most Americans wait until the days leading up to the deadline to file and this can be a huge mistake, especially if you cannot locate all of the paperwork you need.
If you do need an extension, talk to your tax professional as he or she can help you file for an extension.
Believe it or not, people tend to write down the wrong information. Before you submit your tax return online or drop it in the mail, double and triple check to make sure you wrote your name, address, and social security number correctly. A mistake in any of these can slow down your tax return and lead to a rejection of the paperwork.
When it comes time to add up all of your income and deductions on your tax return, make sure you triple check your math. Placing a zero, or any number, in the wrong spot can lead to an overpayment or underpayment in taxes. Making an error such as this can result in you owing the IRS later on down the road.
If you do not wait for all of your 1099s, W-2s, and other tax documents to come, you will find out the hard way that you may owe the IRS some money. It is vital that you wait until all of your tax documents are received before you fill out and submit your return.
If the IRS receives a W-2 that you forgot to claim, you are going to hear about it at some point in time. Save yourself the headache and just wait until it arrives.
While deductions help you on your tax return, there is not necessarily a penalty to forgetting them, but when you do forget to claim them, you end up paying more in taxes than you actually needed to. Instead of sending the money away, you could keep more of it by making sure that you are filling out your deduction section carefully.
One of the worst things you could possibly do would be to not file your taxes at all. Of course, if you did not make any money for the current tax year, then you do not need to file one, but if you did make money, FILE.
If you do not file your tax return, the IRS will hit you with a large penalty. Repeated behavior of not filing tax returns can lead to high fines and sometimes, even jail time.
Tax forms can be quite confusing since there are so many of them. The commonly used forms include the 1040EZ and the 1040 form. If you are self-employed, you are required to fill out a different form.
If you do fill out the wrong form, it will delay the refund process and you may not include all of the required information. If you have any questions about your taxes, consider talking to a tax professional to help you.
If you are counting on your tax refund, make sure you enter in the correct banking information. Often, people will miss one or two numbers or enter in a correct number. This can slow down the entire refund process and you will not receive the money in your bank as expected.
Filing your taxes is important and avoiding these eight mistakes will ensure that you do not run into any problems along the way. If you ever have trouble when it comes to your tax documents, speak with a professional tax agent, who can help you.
