Did You Get Your Tax Return? 5 Common Tax Mistakes
It’s the first of April and if you haven’t filed your taxes yet this year, here is a quick checklist to make sure you’re not making some of these common errors. One small mistake on your tax file can end up costing you money. Either you could get fined for the error, or you can end up not getting the maximum tax return you deserve.
Why pay Uncle Sam any more money than you have to? Use Turbo Tax’s free filing program, which guarantees the maximum tax return and protects you from an audit.
Mistake #1 - Miscalculating
Those who still do their taxes the old school way run the risk of making an error somewhere on their tax forms. Whether it is entering the wrong number or doing the math incorrectly, improper calculations are the most common tax return error. It’s easy to do with so many tax forms and the requisite transferring of numbers from one document to another.
Not only could this cause you to overpay on your taxes, but it could result in additional fees and payments. Turbo Tax eliminates the need to do your own math, as the program has a built in calculator and can pull all of your numbers from last year’s tax return and your financial accounts. They also guarantee your tax return will be correct (assuming of course the information you enter is correct), or they will pay all fees, charges and interest you may occur from an inaccurate tax return.
Mistake #2 - Filing Late
We might get an extra day this year to file taxes due to Leap Year, but chances are you have a tax return waiting for you, you just need to ask for what’s yours by filing. According to the IRS, the average tax return is $2,287. Why let Uncle Sam keep your money? The longer you put off your returns, the longer it takes for you to get your money back, and the longer you have to wait to put your money to work for you.
And if you end up not filing on time, you face even more costs in late-filing penalty and interest fees on any taxes that you owe.
Mistake #3 - Inaccurate Chartable Contributions
If you gave a donation last year, you can deduct the value of that charitable contribution from your taxable income. Remember to include all donations when filing your taxes: cars, cash, clothes, and so on. But make sure you have a receipt to backup your claim. Be sure you are accurately reporting the value of your donation or you could be raising red flags for an audit.
TurboTax has a program that will automatically calculate the value of these items for you by comparing the average sale price on eBay.
Mistake #3 - Not Reporting All Income Sources
Did you earn income in ways other than a paycheck from your employer last year? If you did and it wasn’t paid to you in cash, the IRS knows about it. Remember to include any additional unearned income you may have received when filing your taxes to avoid being audited and having to pay unnecessary fees.
Mistake #5 - Forgetting to Sign Your Tax File
If you forget to sign and date your tax form before sending it to the IRS, it will not be processed. By filing with Turbo Tax, you avoid this mistake all together since a handwritten signature is not required, and there are several checks to make sure the total package is complete before they send your tax file off to the IRS.
Millionaire Money Habit: Improperly filing your taxes can trigger an audit and reduce your tax return. Get them done sooner rather than later so you can get your tax return and put it to work for you, but don’t be sloppy. File your taxes online to avoid these costly mistakes.
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