Wang Solutions

Your Guide to Hassle-Free Filing

There’s less than a week to go before your taxes are due to Uncle Sam. If you haven’t submitted your return, you can start panicking right about now OR you can follow these easy steps to ensure submitting your return is as painless as possible. And if you’ve already submitted, it doesn’t hurt to keep these strategies in mind for next tax season.

First, get together any documents you might need to file your taxes BEFORE you sit down to fill out your return. You don’t want to be running around like a headless chicken looking for this or that piece of paper. Instead, find receipts, cancelled checks, W-2 Forms, Wage and Tax Statements, and 1099 income statements, and place them all in one convenient location for easy reference.

Now that that’s done, figure out how you want to file. If your income was $57,000 or less, take advantage of the Free File service: Free File Tax Software will do all the tax preparation work for you online, and it doesn’t cost a cent. If you’re more of the DIY type, you can also e-file by using Free File Fillable Forms, which are an electronic version of IRS paper forms. In fact, regardless of income, anybody can use these Fillable Forms to file Form 1040 series tax returns for free.

If you don’t use the Free File service, you can still e-file by buying commercial tax software, or through a paid tax preparer. Many tax preparers are now required by law to use e-file because it gets you your refund in half the time and it offers more payment options when you owe money. Even the IRS claims that “IRS e-file is the best way to file an accurate tax return.” And most people seem to agree, with more than 80% of taxpayers using IRS e-file last year. Of course, if you want to make things difficult, you can still file on paper…

However you decide to file, direct deposit is the fastest and safest way to get your refund. And combining it with e-file will get your money even faster. That being said, faster is not necessarily better when you’re actually filling out your return. Don’t rush and be sure to double-check everything before you submit: a mistake on something as simple as your social security number could get complicated when processing your return.

If you have any questions, the IRS has all the answers. Visit IRS.gov to browse its resources, such as the Interactive Tax Assistant tool, or check out Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax.

By the way, just in case you are NOT going to make the April tax deadline… Make sure you file a tax extension by April 15!!!!

Sufen Wang, M.S. Accountantcy
Wang Solutions, Long Beach, CA  (562) 856-0793