Welcome to Tax Season

Welcome to Tax Season

CHECKLIST OF 46 TAX FILING ERRORS YOU SHOULD AVOID

Taxes are hard enough without making avoidable errors. Before you file, double check to make sure you do not make these errors.

1. Not signing the return (if you file paper copies)
2. Number transposition and spelling errors
3. Unchecked or unanswered questions
4. Entering incorrect or unpaid estimated tax payments
5. Missing pages in a paper filed return
6. Not correcting reason for a tax notice for a prior year, on this year’s return, if there is a continuing issue
7. Underpaying or overpaying [Ugh!!!] the tax due
8. Sending your tax check or making out the check to the wrong tax agency
9. Not calculating underpayment penalty (on Form 2210), if applicable
10. Not calculating a penalty on an early withdrawal from a retirement or IRA account
11. Calculating a penalty on a permissible early withdrawal from a retirement account
12. Paying tax and penalty on IRA distributions that were timely rolled over to another IRA account
13. Not calculating a penalty if you took more than one 60 day tax free rollover in a 365 day period
14. Not filing Form 5329 (Additional Taxes on Qualified Plans Including IRAs and Other Tax-Favored Accounts) when it was required and if being filed separately from tax return, it must be signed
15. Not calculating self-employment tax on freelance income or commissions
16. Information from K-1 schedules entered incorrectly or withholding tax on those forms not properly claimed as a tax payment credit
17. Responding to an email notice from a tax agency – they do not send emails. You received spam
18. Your paid preparer did not sign your return or enter their ID number
19. Claiming the wrong exemptions or omitting a correct Social Security Number
20. Claiming an exemption for someone that properly can claim themselves (this can occur when a dependent marries during the year and files a joint return; or no longer qualifies as a dependent such as because of excessive income and/or is not a student for at least five months of the year or is a student and over age 24 at end of the year; or a child you support where your ex-spouse is entitled to the exemption under a divorce agreement)
21. Omitting a Social Security Number for someone you paid alimony to
22. Not itemizing deductions when you should have
23. Claiming excessive home mortgage interest deductions is a red flag. Interest on home mortgages over $1,100,000 is not deductible
24. Deducting points in full on refinanced mortgages, instead of amortizing them
25. Reporting mortgage interest and real estate taxes on rental properties as itemized deductions
26. Not claiming investment interest costs properly and not being aware of limitations or interest tracing rules
27. Omitting or reporting incorrect state tax payments and withholdings as an itemized deduction
28. Reporting deductions that stretch the imagination, e.g. someone with high debt indicated by a high mortgage and extensive home equity loan interest (not reportable) usually won’t be making cash charitable contributions equal to 16 percent of their gross income
29. Not properly picking up carry forward expenses or credits from the prior year’s return. This includes charitable contributions, investment interest expense, net operating loss deductions, capital losses, suspended losses from passive activities, alternative minimum tax credits and foreign tax paid credit
30. Reporting as income the state tax refund you received and that was reported on a 1099 when you did not get a full deduction for that on your prior year’s return because you claimed the standard deduction or all or part of the payments were “disallowed” because you were subject to the alternative minimum tax
31. Not correctly answering foreign account questions on bottom of Schedule B especially when Schedule B is not otherwise required to be filed and then not filing the FBAR FinCEN Form 114
32. Overstating charitable contributions or deducting contributions you did not make, or overvaluing non cash contributions
33. Not having proper charitable contribution receipts in your possession when you file your return claiming those deductions
34. If you made non cash contributions over $500 additional forms must be attached to your return
35. Not having a certified appraisal if you made a gift of tangible property over $5,000. The entire contribution can be disallowed because of this
36. If your income is sufficiently high, not adding the 3.8% tax on net investment income or the .9% tax on earned income
37. If you were a “real estate professional” that did not claim yourself as such you possibly subjected yourself to the tax on net investment income
38. Reporting incorrect cost basis on sales of capital assets. This is common with inherited stocks, stocks received as a gift, or with dividend reinvestment account accumulations or where you had a previous wash sale
39. Not treating wash sales properly. If you have a wash sale, any losses are not deductible but increase the basis of the purchased shares that caused the wash sale
40. Reporting gross sales from brokerage transactions that are less than the amounts reported on the 1099s issued by your brokers
41. Not reporting proper basis on employer stock sales that were also reported as income on your W-2 form
42. Self-correcting and reporting the “correct” amount where you received an incorrect 1099 (and cannot get a corrected 1099 in time to file your return). You should report on your return the amount on the 1099, even if it is wrong, and subtract as an adjustment on another line (e.g. line 21) so the net amount is the proper income you received
43. Omitting allowable IRA, Roth IRA, SEP or other retirement plan contributions
44. Omitting paying payroll taxes on your individual tax return for household employees
45. You should self-check your return by a line by line comparison to last year’s return and understand large or illogical differences
46. Inputting incorrect bank account numbers and information for your tax payment or refund

And… make sure you e-file or mail your return by the April 18, 2017 due date!