Taxes - How to Avoid Mistakes in Filing

Tips on Avoiding Some Filing Errors

Every year, the IRS (Acronym: Internal Revenue Service) witnesses American citizens committing the usual same mistakes on their income tax returns. While tending to some of these errors may prove a bit more complicated to avoid, many others are not.

Your income-tax return can prove to be a pain-in-the-brain when you find out that unnecessary mistakes have been made. The simplest of errors can rob you of time, can cause you stress and aggravation, and most importantly, your money. Therefore, it's essential that your tax-return receive careful attention.

According to the IRS, some of the most common taxpaper mistakes are generally listed below.

Wrong status filing claims

Many citizens don't seem to understand that they just can't choose to file single or married. The marital status is determined by Dec. 31st of each year. Whatever is prior to that date makes no difference for tax purposes. You separately file either married filing or jointly, and even if you qualify for being the "head of household", you still have to satisfy all the requirements. If you consider yourself just the head of your household, you won't qualify.

The wrong status claim could severely affect your eligibility for the exemptions for dependents, the earned-income credit and the child tax credit. Take the time to check out the instructions or information which Form 1040 offers, for more details which will help you to select the status filing which is correct.

Using wrong or forgetting to include Social Security numbers

The IRS computers will reject your credits and deductions if the Social Security numbers (for your dependents, the earned-income credit and child tax credit) do not match your dependents' Social Security cards.

For those of you still filing your returns by hand, take the time to make sure that your hand-writing is understandable to read and legible on your tax returns.

Avoid the mistake of using incorrect schedules and forms