 Internal Revenue Service IRS tax news! IRS, avoid processing delays and refund adjustments using these steps to prevent tax return errors? Honestly, I bet they're about to tell us we need to file an accurate return in order to avoid processing delays. However, I'm fairly certain processing delays fall disproportionately on underserved communities, partially due to scammers stealing personal information attempting to file fraudulent returns to claim refundable tax credits. But whatever, that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter. I mean, according to President Biden's new equity policies, the IRS should actually process the returns with errors faster and first, dang it, like before doing the accurate and timely filed ones. I mean, really, get with the program IRS. You bigots. I mean, what's your problem? Oh, wait a second. I know maybe the IRS just needs more money so they can properly and equitably process the tax returns, you know, doing the ones that were improperly filed first, like they're supposed to under the new equity rules. Therefore, in order to help the IRS fund its equity stuff, we really need to pass another like inflation reduction act. It's like, but wait a second. If we do another inflation reduction act to pay the IRS so it can do like its equity stuff, how are we going to actually reduce inflation? Because, because inflation also inequitably falls disproportionately hard on underserved communities, considering higher prices are most difficult on those living paycheck to paycheck. Fortunately, the government has the solution. They're just going to spend a ton of money just shotgunning it at like giant failed banks, which made horrible investment decisions. Because like, if the government takes care of wealthy uninsured depositors that have over 250,000 of the FDIC insurance limit, basically guaranteeing depositors, but only at the super large banks, those two large to fail, that'll really help the little guy with their like inflation problem. How? Well, it's complicated. It's complicated. It's complicated. But rest assured, it's part of sound and sensible modern economic theory. Just shut up and just shut up and trust the experts. Okay, shut up and trust the experts. And before you say anything else, just know this is a time for action. This is a time for action, not discussion about moral hazards. It's like, but wait a second. I kind of feel like the point in time when the government incentives are creating moral hazards is the best time to talk about, you know, the moral hazards. I mean, I mean, the incentive structures being set up by the government here seem to use a technical term up. I mean, honestly, like, like, like the incentives being laid out here are equivalent to a parent telling a two year old child, they will only be bought candy if they gain 200 pounds and screech so loud it shatters glass. They're like, that's right, little Johnny, only if you're too big to fail and too annoying to ignore, will you get that Snickers bar? I'm telling you, like, I totally thought we fixed the moral hazard banking problem after the Great Recession with the Dodd-Frank bill. Hey, what wasn't Barney Frank on the board of that signature bank which just failed and is looking to get some kind of bailout? Now, honestly, who, who's writing these dang banking bills? Bankers? That's like, that's like Gotham City having crime bills drafted by the Joker. It'd be funny if it wasn't so pathetic. No, what the heck, I'll laugh anyway. I mean, that's, that's like having, that's like having an investment policy drafted by Nancy Pelosi. It's ridiculous. Whatever, on to the news. IR2023-48, March 20, 2023, Washington, with only a few days remaining before the April 18th filing deadline, the Internal Revenue Service today reminded taxpayers how to avoid common errors on their federal tax return and help get possible refund sooner, gather all tax documents. Taxpayers should gather all documents such as W-2s and 1099s and any documents to support tax deductions or credits like education credits or mortgage interest payments. Taxpayers should also have their prior year tax return available. They may need it. File electronically. So, obviously the IRS has been trying to get people to file electronically for some time because they don't want all those, all that money they spent with the Inflation Reduction Act to hire all those people. They don't want them to have to, you know, they want it to be automatic and electronic so you don't have to like manually go through returns. So, any case, the IRS encourages taxpayers and their tax professionals to file their tax returns electronically through IRS free file. There's a link to that here. That's going to be software offered by third-party providers, but you can kind of organize the software on the IRS website and see what might be right for you. Even if you're not required to file, you might want to look into the software and see if it's because it's possibly free so you could, you could take a look at if it would be beneficial to file. Remember, those are two different things. Do I have to file? Well, not if you, if your income is under a certain threshold, would I benefit from filing quite likely even if you are under a certain income threshold because of refundable credits and so on and so forth and you've got free software. So, you might want to take advantage of that to check it out. You can also have the e-file service providers. So, electronic filing helps reduce math errors and identifies potential tax credits or deductions the tax mayor may be eligible to claim. Obviously, the tax code has become a little bit more complex, a lot more complex over the last few years due in part to the changes that were put in place in response to the pandemic and everything and also just because the changes themselves mean that the tax code is fluctuating a lot which creates an environment where people don't know exactly what's going on oftentimes with the current tax situation. So, tax software is helpful then because it can kind of give you a guide to help you with the data input process and like an interview process possibly to pick up certain information that you might not know about and so on and help calculate more complex credits such as the earned income tax credit and these changes to the child tax credit and so on. So, taxpayers should always review their tax return for accuracy. So, review it. Obviously, you are the one that's held responsible whether it was populated using tax software or somebody else. So, filing electronically and choosing direct deposit is the fastest and most secure way to receive a refund. I'm not sure about most secure but it's definitely the fastest if you're getting a refund. Use the correct filing status. Tax software includes IRS free file also helps prevent mistakes when selecting a tax return filing status. That's married, single and so on, head of household. If taxpayers are unsure about their filing status the interactive tax assistant there's a link to that on irs.gov can help them choose the correct status specifically if more than one filing status applies. That's a kind of an unusual situation. If you're in an unusual situation you don't know what your filing status is. You're in a gray area possibly because you have a dependent for example that's you're not sure if it's a dependent or not or if it would qualify for head of household status, custody issues and so on. Then you can dive into there in more detail. Double-check name, birth date and social security number. Tax payers must correctly list the name, date of birth and social security number for each person. So obviously to the IRS you are a number. You need to have the correct number and over to for them to identify you matched up to the correct name and date of birth. So they got to know when you were born so they can know about how much money they can squeeze out of you until you die to any case. So you have to have those for the any dependent as well on their individual income tax return. So enter the SSN social security number of individuals name on a tax return exactly as printed on the social security card. So if your name has changed you want to make sure that you change that with the social security administration if possible. Otherwise you're going to confuse the IRS and when the IRS is confused then they get the delay stuff and whatnot. So it's a mess. You know how it is. So try not to confuse the IRS. So if a dependent or spouse does not have an SSN social security number and is not eligible to get one, list the individual tax identification number otherwise known as the I-10. There's a link to that here instead of the SSN social security number. Answer the digital assets question form 1040 and 1040 SR for tax year 2022. Ask whether at any time during 2022 taxpayer received as a reward, award or payment of property or services sold, exchange gifted or otherwise disposed of a digital asset or financial interest in any digital asset. So obviously the IRS is quite concerned with these digital assets because like cryptocurrencies and currencies and other kind of digital assets because they don't have as much of a hold on them yet to be able to track the transactions at this point in time. They're working on it. They're trying to strangle them which will probably decrease economic growth and you know dampen the whole pie that everyone is eating off of making it smaller and whatnot but at least they will have control of the pie when they have finished stomping on it. But in any case, so you have to tell them that you had a digital asset transaction. They want to know, they want you to say yes or no on it so that you're on the hook, you're on the line. So make sure you do that or else they might delay your processing return. So taxpayers should not leave this field blank but should check either yes or no so they want you to commit. You have to say yes or no so if they catch you lying then they could say you lied right there because you'd had a digital asset thing transaction and don't tell me you didn't know about it. We had a question. We had a question on the tax return that asked you specifically and you said yes or no or whatever. In any case report all taxable income. Remember most income is taxable under reporting income may lead to penalties and interest. That's what we're trying to avoid here. That's why we're doing this. That's why we're doing this. We're trying to avoid the sticks of penalties and interest. That's the point. Keep your head in the game. You know what we're trying to do. You know what the IRS has over there. They got those sticks they hit you with not not literal but those penalties and interest sticks. That's what we're playing. That's the game we play here. We dodge. We duck. We weave and then we you know so you don't get hit by them. So this includes unemployment income interest received and income from the gig economy service industry and digital assets. So see publication 525. There's a link to that for more information. Double check routing and account numbers. Taxpayers can request direct deposit of a federal refund into one two or even three accounts. Make sure the financial institution routing and account numbers entered on the return are accurate. Incorrect number may cause a refund to be laid or deposited into the wrong account. That would be terrible. It goes to the wrong account. Whoops we said we put that into you know Joe's account across the another state over there. You know what make sure your routing numbers the same. That's not likely to happen because it would have the routing number you would think and your name and so it probably just wouldn't process but you want to get that right. Taxpayers can also use their refund to purchase us savings bonds mail paper returns to the right address. Taxpayers and tax professionals are encouraged to file electronically if possible for those who need to file a paper return. They should confirm the correct address where to file on irs.gov or on 10 form 1040 instructions to avoid processing delays. So the IRS has offices everywhere and you got to send your return to the right place. If you're going to mail it in otherwise you will once again confuse the IRS and that causes problems. Sign and date the return. If filing a joint return both spouses must sign and date the return when taxpayers are self preparing their taxes and filing electronically. They must sign and validate their electronic tax return by entering their prior year's adjusted gross income the AGI. So you have to have your prior year A to the G to the I in order to file electronically possibly because that's the secret code you need to put in. Taxpayers can view validating your electronically filed tax return if they have questions. Keep a copy. Now notice if you filed your last year tax return and it's not been processed you might say then the you might ask right then how am I going to put in the AGI number because the IRS doesn't have it because they haven't processed my return yet from the prior year. I think you put in a zero or a one. I forgot which one a zero or one in order that's the secret code. I'm pretty sure if you don't have an AGI from the prior year because because they haven't processed the prior year return yet possibly so they don't so they so they don't know what your prior year AGI is yet because you maybe you sent it in but they didn't process it you know what I'm talking about you know what I'm talking about. So keep a copy of the tax return when ready to file taxpayers should make a copy of their signed return and any schedules for their records. Remember just because the IRS has accepted the return even if you get the refund that doesn't mean it's over it's not over because the IRS can come back at you at least three years into the future and try to question you with an audit shake you down for more money like like the sheriff of Nottingham could just come right into your door and say we're doing like an audit like right now and so you got to be ready and if there was a big error they can even come back after that so that's important to note because some scammers take advantage of that issue they try to say that they can get a big refund by filing taking positions that are not accurate or quite extreme or just fraudulent and then and then that might work in the short run but the IRS will probably catch it at some point and then they'll come back within the three years and then you're going to get hit not only with the tax but the penalties and that's not good so copies help them prepare future tax returns and make math computations if they need to file an amended return. Generally taxpayers must keep their records that support an item of income deduction or credit showing on the tax return until the period of limitations that tax return ends. Request and extension if needed taxpayers who need more time to file can easily request a six month filing extension to October 16th and prevent late filing penalties so what are we trying to do prevent getting hit by the sticks they wield those sticks like a maniac like a berserker of penalties and interest just whacking people with them and we're trying to avoid that and so if we're going to file late then we can try to file for an extension but that only avoids the penalties of an interest related to late filing stuff but not for the late payments so you still have to make your payments on time or else whack whack the berserker IRS hits you in the face with the penalties and interest for late payment even though you avoided you like ducked you like duck the left hook stick but they hit you they hit you with the right with the late filing one you're like dang it you gotta you gotta see like both sides of your head you gotta keep your eyes open like both sides so you can avoid you know in any case use IRS free file form 4868 application for automatic extension of time to file us individual income tax return by April 18th keep in mind that well an extension grants additional time to file tax payments are still due on April 18th for most taxpayers taxpayers can also request an extension by paying all or part of their estimated income tax due and indicating that the payment is for an extension using direct pay the electronic federal tax payment system or a debit or credit card or digital wallet meaning if you owe them money as of the point you're filing then you could basically just pay them and then assign that payment to to an extension form and that will be basically like filing the extension form however if they owe you money then you can't pay them because you don't owe them anything and therefore you would file the extension form possibly if you if you need to in that case note that the iris is really concerned mainly with people that owe them money because if you owe them money and then you don't pay them on time then then uh that they want they want their money sooner but if they owe you money is what i'm trying to spit out here if they owe you money and you say i'm not going to file my return you're basically giving them a loan an extension they get to pay you later and that's actually good for them for the most part if so uh this way taxpayers don't have to file a separate extension form and we'll receive a confirmation record number for their records okay there's links to this stuff if you want to look at any of it in more detail there'll be a link to this in the description