Tax season is upon us, for better or for worse. Brush up on the following useful tips and smartphone and desktop apps that will make filing and organizing your taxes easier than ever.
1. First things first. Should you file your own taxes or seek help? If you own a large business, contract or freelance, or had a major life event, you may want to hire a professional tax analyst to help you out. Otherwise, if you are a salaried employee with few deductions, all you need to fill out is a 1040EZ form and you are finished.
2. If you are getting a refund, file your taxes ASAP. But if you have tax payments to make, wait until around April 15th to file. Why give your money to the IRS before you have to? Make sure you maximize your interest before handing it over.
3. The IRS has a withholding calculator that will give you a quick estimate on how much you will receive or owe. Just have your recent pay stubs or W2 nearby.
4. You should probably hold on to your previous tax returns, but if you don’t have them, no biggie. Download your tax transcripts from the IRS service Get Transcript.
5. If you are a student filing taxes for the first time, talk to your parents or benefactors beforehand. They may be claiming you as a dependent, which means you won’t get a refund. Your parents will likely benefit more from the refund anyways thanks to education tax breaks.
6. Did you know that if you foster pets, you could be eligible to claim deductions for expenses like food, shelter, vet bills, etc? This would quality as a charitable donation, which is deductible up to 50 percent of your adjusted gross income.
7. Speaking of charity, iPhone app iDonatedIt tracks the date you donated items, what charity you donated to, and the market value of those items. Take pictures of your donation and include it with the document. iDonatedIt was created by experienced certified public accountants familiar with tax law and tax preparation issues.
8. The Dictionary of Tax Terms iPhone app is essentially “Taxes for Dummies”. Either I’m not a smart guy (likely), or the IRS is purposely trying to confuse me with their mumbo-jumbo legal jargon; this app should help.
9. You can’t talk tax apps without Mint, the world’s most used money management system that works on your desktop and phone. Handle and track your finances, purchases, and withdrawals to see where your spending goes and how to save more. Mint also has an IRA advisor that makes opening an IRA easy, helping you deduct up to $5000 on this year’s taxes.
10. Most of you use or have heard of desktop and mobile app Evernote, but did you know you could use a scanner to record and organize your pay stubs, bank statements, mortgage documents, investment files, etc. If you need help finding a document or receipt, Evernote has a wonderful search feature that crawls not just your entire written account, but scanned pictures as well.
11. If you’re self-employed, you must track your tax deductions, which means keeping hundreds of receipts. iPhone and Android app Deductr keeps all these receipts, expenses and mileage in one place for you.
12. Similar to Deductr, the Expensify app files and tracks deductible products and services when you are on business trips. This syncs up to your credit card and bank account.
13. You have numerous tax questions, Ask a CPA has the answers. New questions and answers are added every day without the need for an update. If you can’t find your answer, ask your question, and receive a response soon.
14. If you are still awaiting data, forms, receipts, etc, you can fill out a Form 4868, which grants you a six month extension (October 15th) to file paperwork with the IRS.
15. Once you have filed, the IRS usually deposits your refund within three weeks, sometimes as quick as five days. To see exactly when you will get your refund, download the “Where’s my refund” app on Android or iPhone.
There’s countless other tax tips and smartphone apps out there. If you use any that weren’t covered in this space, comment below or at HostDime’s Facebook page.
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Jared Smith is HostDime’s Content Strategist. Add him on LinkedIn.
HostDime.com, Inc is a global data center infrastructure provider offering an array of cloud products from managed hosting servers to colocation services that cater to a range of clients, from entry-level to enterprise-level operations. HostDime owns and operates infrastructure and networks in seven countries, with its flagship facility in Florida, USA. Currently with a client base of more than 50,000, HostDime is one of the most reputable data center companies in the world.