Tax Mistakes to Avoid

from www.banks.com

Tax Mistakes to Avoid
By Chris Bibey November 9th, 2007
Making mistakes when filing your taxes is serious business. In other words, this is not something that you should take lightly. If you think that a mistake here and there is no big deal, you have another thing coming. Sure, you may be able to get away with errors from time to time, but you do not want to push your luck. Instead, you should make sure that everything you do is 100 percent accurate. Not only will this ensure that the IRS never comes after you, but it will make you feel better about yourself as well.
One of the biggest tax mistakes made is getting confused on what is deductible and what is not. This holds true both for individual tax filers, as well as those who are keeping business records. If you have any doubt in this area, make sure that you ask before finalizing anything. This is something that the IRS watches for, and if you are exaggerating in several areas you could get in a lot of trouble.
It may sound obvious, but not accurately reporting income is a huge problem among many tax payers. Should this be an issue? Absolutely not! But some tax payers know that they can fib about their income, and in turn pay less taxes at the end of the year; this is especially common among those who are self employed.
Finally, hoping that you can complete your tax return within a matter of minutes is just about as dumb as it gets. It is a shame to think that so many people wait until the day before they need to mail their forms to get started. If you do this, you could run into a bind that will push you behind. Of course, this can lead to issues with the IRS.
You should do whatever it takes to avoid tax related mistakes. No, dealing with tax forms and returns is not fun, but it is an important part of life.