Completing an annual tax return is a responsibility that is shared by all American wage earners. If you fail to file a tax return in any given year, you could face both legal and monetary penalties. If you have not yet filed past due tax returns for your 2010 taxes or previous years, it would be a good idea to file a complete tax return for those years as soon as possible to avoid being penalized.
When looking to complete a return for 2010 or a previous year, the first thing that you need to do is gather as much of your financial records as possible. If you have lost or thrown away pay stubs or bank statements, you should be able to get everything you need by contacting your employer, bank, brokerage firm, or any other entity that provided you with tax information that needs to be reported.
Once you have gathered all of your financial information, the next thing to do is prepare the tax returns. Be sure that you prepare the tax returns based off of 2010 forms. Since the tax law changes from one year to the next, 2012 tax forms will not be usable to complete the 2010 tax return. These forms are available through either the IRS directly, your accountant, or any tax preparation software.
After you have completed the return, be sure to mail it in as soon as possible. It would be a good idea to also include a check for any owed taxes, but you should be prepared to have to pay interest or fees on any past due amount.
Welcome to the May 24, 2013 edition of Tax Carnival Ecstasy. In this edition we start with an article from Bill Smith on TurboTax having an issue with their service at the very end of the tax season this year. John Schmoll from Frugal Rules discusses the financial concepts that he understood before he left college in a nice post. And finally Edward Webber looks at the amount of income you can earn before you need to file a tax return. Hope you like all articles, bookmark, share on Facebook, Tweet, and come back really soon.
Simpsonsparadox presents Tax Evaders! posted at Geek Insider.
Unfortunately, the parent company of TurboTax, Intuit, has been fighting this idea for years. Intuit has lobbied congress against return-free filing on multiple occasions. TurboTax, of course, offers free tax filing for millions of taxpayers. In each instance, Intuit defended its actions by saying that it’s attempting to protect taxpayers from government intrusion. Higher costs are cited as a consequence of return-free filing, too.
However, the largest opponents against this concept are the tax filing companies. TurboTax stands to lose a lot of money due to 100% free tax filing offered by the government. In other countries, such a system saves billions of dollars every decade without any consequences. Tax return services comprise a large chunk of a filing service’s revenue annually. Therefore, these same companies are spending millions fighting return-free filing.
Completely free tax filing from the federal government comes with plenty of benefits. Currently, many Americans waste countless hours and dollars on their annual tax returns. This concept, if handled properly, could eliminate all of that waste. Intuit and TurboTax offer great services, but they’re fighting a completely justifiable program. Free tax filing is still available to most Americans already, though.