3 Tax Tips That Will Save Money and Stress

The longer you take to file your federal taxes, the more the likelihood that you will make a mistake. Despite this, one in four Americans wait until the last two weeks to file their IRS reports.

Keeping this in mind, here are 3 tax tips that can save you money and stress:

#1: Organization is key
Get all your documentation in place such as income and deduction related information. Ensure you have your Social Security number (including your spouse if you are filing jointly). You can look at last year’s return and ensure you have documents so as to support any claims for this year. Some of these include income, deductions and credits.

#2: Find a professional tax preparer
You have to find someone who can prepare your taxes. Now if you’ve $53000 or less last year, you qualify for free in-person preparation of tax forms through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. Alternatively, the IRS Free File website does offer brand name software for those people whose income is less than $60000. Apart from this, the IRS also provides assistance with finding tax preparers at their website or even using the application: IRS2Go.

#3: Avoid rushing
Mistakes can prove to be costly as the IRS explains and this can also lead to a delay in any refund that might be due. Some of the common errors that are found include basics such as wrong Social Security numbers, math errors and misstating address of filing status and so on and so forth. Unemployment payments, state tax refunds and dividends that are forgotten apart from declaring earnings from freelance work will cost you if the IRS finds out. Don’t forget to add items such as state and local income taxes paid, personal property and real estate taxes etc.