Don’t Make These Five Tax Mistakes
When filing taxes, many make minor errors. When avoiding these top five tax mistakes, one should have no trouble filing a return and avoiding any delays.
Math calculations
In the computer age, some people still like to file their taxes with a pen and piece of paper. While it is possible to do so without errors, one must exercise caution. When a taxpayer makes a math error, they usually transpose the numbers or make a mistake with their addition or subtraction. To prevent this error, a person should double-check their work and use a calculator. If the error causes serious strife with the Internal Revenue Service, one can hire a Los Angeles tax attorney such as those with Bismark Tax to fix the problem.
Include income
A worker with a 9-to-5 job will not have a hard time doing taxes if they do not have other income. However, many receive dividends or interest payments from their bank and forget to include this in their tax return. Usually, a taxpayer will not suffer as they can submit their taxes again with the right information. Other times, when omitting a large amount of money from the return, one must pay interest fees to the IRS.
Filing status
In a haste to get started, some forget to put the correct filing status. Often, a newly divorced person will forget their new status and will make this mistake. Unfortunately, this is not an easy mistake to fix as the filing status will affect the entire return. If a taxpayer does not know his or her filing status, they should do their own research or contact a professional tax attorney to find the answer.
Forget to sign
Now, at the end of the process, some forget to sign their return. Whether you are filing online or via mail using paper, the government will reject a return without a signature. To avoid this issue, the tax preparer should inspect the document thoroughly to find any small errors such as a missing signature. This is especially important if you are filing with paper because it is much harder to catch the mistakes.
Charitable donations
When giving money to charity, one can write this off and gain a deduction. A taxpayer who is aggressive with this may receive an audit or extra scrutiny. To avoid a delay, one should make sure that they have all their information organized. One must realize that the IRS is now aggressively pursuing people claiming a lot of deductions, and it is up to a taxpayer to furnish all the information.
On Time
Probably the most common mistake when filing taxes is forgetting when the deadline is. If you wait to last minute to file it could cost you. Filing quickly may lead you to making other mistakes and failing to send it in by the date will incur a late fee.
When a person files their tax return, they must watch out for these five common mistakes.
Category: Taxes
