The Importance of Providing Accurate Tax Info

Make sure when you file your taxes that you provide ALL your information to your preparer. If you do not then it could result in an IRS audit and you could end up oweing the IRS money. Bringing all your paperwork to your preparer is very important. If your recieving social security, or some kind of retirement like a 401k or have interest income from a savings account it is important to bring the proper paperwork because those items are taxable. I know what your thinking..."But my social security income or 401k has already been taxed when I paid in the money". I hear that alot from taxpayers. Truth is only a portion of your social security is non-taxable. Same goes for unemployment benefits. For unemployment benefits anything you recieved over $2500 is taxable. Not to mention any about of money made over $500 has to be claimed. For instance, I had a taxpayer come in who had done their 2009 taxes and recieved a refund. They filed their return without using retirement paperwork because they hadnt recieved it in the mail and were in a hurry to file. Now, a year later they recieved a letter in the mail from IRS stating that they now owe the IRS money because the IRS refunded them more money than they were actually entitled too. They now have to pay back almost $2000 because they didnt provide all the correct information to their preparer. When you are recieving things such as retirement money they payer of said funds has to send in paperwork to the IRS on the money they paid you. Not reporting these wages is a bad idea. Your tax preparer cannot be held responsable for entering in false or incomplete data when you do not provide the correct and full data to them. Always provide complete and accurate information. And remember the IRS can audit you up to 3 years from the year you file your taxes. Just because they didnt catch the mishap immediately doesnt mean you got away with anything.