Rapid Tax

A blog focused on providing informative tax and personal finance information.

Posts Tagged ‘tax forms’

Double-check Checklist

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Before you guffaw and navigate away, listen to this: the list below is created from the IRS’s list of most common (and sometimes, expensive) yearly filing mistakes. Our list is meant to be a simple catalog of things to double-check before you lick the stamp or mouse-over the “send” button on your tax filing.

If your eyes are straining from rolling too much, we suggest you simply bookmark this page for the final seconds prior to your sending off for your return. Why?

The IRS charges 6% interest and up to a 20% penalty for incorrect filings. A double-check can save you tons of time, and possibly, tons of money.

  • Did you include your W-2?
  • Obviously this won’t be a problem for e-filings, but for our snailmail brothers and sisters, it’s one of the most-repeated mistakes.
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Easy Tax Returns: Is the 1040-EZ as easy as can be?

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Some of the earliest examples of writing historians have discovered include records of tax payments. And complaints that taxes are too complicated are nearly as old. Tax authorities have always tried to strike a balance between a simple tax code and a tax code that rewards behaviors they’d like to encourage.

The most effective way to do that? Give different taxpayers different ways to file — big corporations like GE may file a 40,000-page tax return, while an individual might file a 1040-EZ. But are these “easy” tax returns easy enough?

Photo credit: striatic on Flickr.

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