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Facts You Need to Know About Tax Return

Audrey Goodwin

2024-04-18 11:56:27 • Filed to: Tax Refund Tips • Proven solutions

Filing tax returns is a serious issue in the United States and must be done with all seriousness. Every tax payer is expected to have an adequate knowledge of the system, the deadline to file their taxes and even how to file their tax return appropriately. To avoid delay in processing your return, it is important to get it right and follow the established process and procedure. The aim of this article is to highlight the most important facts that every tax payer should know in order to be successful in filing their tax returns.

4 Important Facts about Tax Return

Fact 1: Check Your Eligibility

It is important to note that not everyone will be required to file tax return every year. For instance there are certain conditions that must be met in order to be eligible to file tax returns. Tax payers whose yearly total income does not exceed the standard deduction in addition to one exemption plus not being a dependent to any other tax payer need not file a tax return. Besides, the eligibility to file a tax return will also depend on the age of the tax payer, type of income as well as your filing status. Therefore, every tax payer must check if they are eligible to file tax return.

Fact 2: Note the Deadline

Knowing the deadline and having to work with it is very important when filing tax returns. This is because not meeting upon the deadline will lead to an unwanted penalty. Therefore, meeting up with the deadlines are very important. For the 2018 tax season, the deadline for filing tax returns is April 17th, 2018 instead of the more traditional April 15th. The reason for this is that 15th is on Sunday and 16th which should be the next date is Emancipation day. The deadline if tax extension is granted is normally 6 months after the April deadline. Tax payers should keep these dates in mind when filing tax returns.

Fact 3: You can Get Help

It is important to note that there are a lot of help options for tax payers to file their tax returns. For instance, you can get free help from The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance(VITA) and the Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE) but it is always for people who qualify. To get help, you may need to go to the IRS website and search for "Free Tax Prep" and this will help you find a close TCE or VITA site. In addition, you can also find a qualified account to help you out in preparing your tax return. Another option is using online tax software for your tax return preparation. There are a lot of good tax software with different offers and cost, you can try any of them.

Fact 4: Marriage Status Affects Tax Return

It is important to note that your marriage status will always affect your tax return. In the first instance, your filing status will automatically change and this means that you must file married filing separately or married filing jointly. Then there is a possibility of changing tax brackets once you become married and this may work in your favor or not. Another important fact to note is that your standard deduction will go up however, you may choose to itemize the deductions. This means that you may have to do some little calculations to see if it favors you.

The reality is that when one gets married, their filing tax return situation changes and this may become an advantage to some people while it may not. However, this will depend on a whole lot of things. In some cases, you may see yourself owing money on those month spent single because IRS will count you as married for the whole calendar year no matter when you got married.

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