What to Keep in Mind When Preparing for the Coming Tax Period

Tax season comes once a year, and you need to get ready for it to avoid issues with the IRS. The tax agency expects you to submit your tax returns and pay your tax bill on time. As such, you should prepare in advance for the tax season. This will ensure you don’t submit your taxes late as that comes with a cost. When you are late to submit or pay your tax liabilities, you can be fined by the tax collection authority. Read on to learn what you should keep in mind when preparing for tax season.

Know the important dates

Before you start planning for the tax season, you need to know important dates. You need to know when the tax period begins and when it closes. In most cases, tax filing period starts around end of January and closes on 15^th April. However, that tax period can be extended by the IRS to allow more people to file and pay what they owe. When you know these dates, you can now plan for the tax filing season early enough.

Review your filing status

If you are married, you can file your taxes either jointly or separately. You need to do the math early enough using your financial records and those of your spouse to know which status saves you some money.  You can use the tax calculating table. It is advisable to consult a tax expert before you make the final decision on which status to pick. Remember to consider dependents living under your care and you are supporting them financially. 

Look back to the last year’s returns

It is advisable to reflect on how you prepared your tax returns for the previous tax year. By doing this you will remember the problematic areas that made the process a little complicated. Did you file your taxes online or manually? How was the math? Did you know how to get W2 online? Was filling the IRS forms easy for you? Answering all these questions based on your last year’s return will help you to refresh your mind and learn more about the tax filing process.  That way, you will have a seamless tax season this time.

Keep track of your deductible items, retirement and charitable contributions

Come tax season, you want to reduce your tax bill significantly or even get a tax refund. As such, you’ve to keep tract your deductible items such as medical expenses, home improvement, charitable donations, retirement contributions, among others. You need to have documentation to support those deductions and credits you qualify for. You need to have a file to keep all those receipts, bank statements, and other written records. Keeping all these records in order will be helpful when preparing your tax returns.

File online or manually?

You can file your taxes either manually or online. Filing online has many advantages compared to manual filing. There are many credible tax filling software that can help you prepare and submit your returns.   You just need to learn how to find W2 online, fill the electronic IRS forms, and upload all the required documents using the software of your choice. Don’t even consider filing your tax returns manually because it can be stressful, at times.

Final Words

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Created on Sep 14th 2021 12:05. Viewed 192 times.

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