Annual taxes are an extremely complicated area for the professional and amateur financial mind alike, but it is something everyone must learn to some degree or another, even if its only how to sign your name for the local accounting firm. In general, you’ll want to learn a few basic tips and be able to understand just what annual taxes are that goes on with your money during those few weeks each year, thus being able to spot any big mistakes you or the firm might have allowed to pass through. Using these tips as the guidelines, you can attack the paperwork with more confidence and knowledge than you had the previous year, possibly making an extra dollar or two along the way.
Trouble Areas Commonly Associated with Annual Taxes
Put your pride away and grab a calculator; you’re most likely not a math professor or accountant yourself, in which case you would already know to use a calculator. Mistakes can be made with the simplest of formulas and smallest of numbers. These mistakes, small they may be, can cause a big impact on the end result and lead to nasty calls from the IRS. Double check your work and don’t leave anything up to chance.
Not only should you double check the work you perform, you should double check the selections you make and all of the information you provide. Including erroneous data, such as an incorrect address, could have effects similar to that of the incorrect math, which is troublesome IRA agents. The best option is to have a close family member review your choices, simply confirming your selections or pointing out any obvious mistakes.
Family members themselves often miss the big one, writing an incorrect social security number within the final pages of the paperwork. This is perhaps one of the most troublesome errors to make, along with incorrectly transposing digits or routing numbers. Though you may believe they would be spotted whilst double checking the math and information from before, you should really make a third effort simply for these three breeds of numbers. They alone are the most sensitive and deserve an extra moment’s worth of time before postage.
Always keep a copy of this information for yourself; it should be an obvious choice, but is often forgotten in the haste of annual taxes season coming to an end and intimidating firms breathing down the back of necks everywhere. It only takes a few minutes to put your papers under the copier and clip off a few duplicates of the papers you have spent such time and effort preparing. This is also a great time
to take one final look as the pages pass over the tray, finally stapling them within a folder and throwing them behind the desk with the rest.
Tax time is a time of headaches, missing funds, and annoying phone calls. Double checking and confirming your choices can make all the difference between enjoying the weeks or spending them filling out the same paperwork for multiple agents. Take the extra time, put in the extra effort, and you just might earn that extra dollar without expecting it.
