Necronic
Staff member
Its that time of year again! Since so many of our members are at that age where you are just starting to seriously file your taxes for the first time I thought a general thread where people could ask questions or point out important things to remember when you do your taxes. I've seen a lot of my friends either miss serious amounts of deductions or file a completely illegal tax return before. DON"T LET THAT BE YOU!
Here's some pointers of my own.
1) Unless you itemize you are 100% capable of filing your own taxes. Even if you itemize you still are like 80% capable. And if you don't know if you itemize....then you don't itemize.
2) There are special deductions that are seperate from what is covered in the standard deduction. Don't miss out on them! I get upwards of 1k knocked off my taxes from these each year. Here's the ones that are most applicable to people here
a) Student Loan Interest. Any interest paid on a student loan is a special deduction. This can be worth a LOT of money.
b) Education expenses. Application fees. Tuition. Registration. Class Fees. Also can be worth a LOT of money.
c) New car. Did you buy a new car? You can deduct the taxes you paid on that. And by new it does mean new new. My 2005 I bought didn't count.
Also, if you live in a "midwestenr disaster area" (http://www.irs.gov/publications/p4492b/ar02.html#en_US_publink100091151) there are a lot of extra goodies you can get. I don't know the details but its worth looking into if you live in the midwest.
Seriously though, there is almost no reason to not at least TRY and do your taxes yourself. In my case it took me about 1 hour and i squeezed so many extra deductions out it should be illegal.
Here's some pointers of my own.
1) Unless you itemize you are 100% capable of filing your own taxes. Even if you itemize you still are like 80% capable. And if you don't know if you itemize....then you don't itemize.
2) There are special deductions that are seperate from what is covered in the standard deduction. Don't miss out on them! I get upwards of 1k knocked off my taxes from these each year. Here's the ones that are most applicable to people here
a) Student Loan Interest. Any interest paid on a student loan is a special deduction. This can be worth a LOT of money.
b) Education expenses. Application fees. Tuition. Registration. Class Fees. Also can be worth a LOT of money.
c) New car. Did you buy a new car? You can deduct the taxes you paid on that. And by new it does mean new new. My 2005 I bought didn't count.
Also, if you live in a "midwestenr disaster area" (http://www.irs.gov/publications/p4492b/ar02.html#en_US_publink100091151) there are a lot of extra goodies you can get. I don't know the details but its worth looking into if you live in the midwest.
Seriously though, there is almost no reason to not at least TRY and do your taxes yourself. In my case it took me about 1 hour and i squeezed so many extra deductions out it should be illegal.
