Tax Tip of the Day - February 2, 2016

byAdvocateScott

429 followers

10 years ago

Last week, all employers were required to send out W-2's. They should have been postmarked no later than January 31. If you do not receive yours by the end of this week, contact your employer. Some give you the option of downloading them directly from the payroll service company, such as ADP.

I want to clear up one major folk tale that crops up every year. April 15 is indeed "tax day" in the United States. However, you are only required to file by then if you owe money. If you're getting a refund, you don't need to file by April 15 if you don't have all documents and information ready. That said, the longer you wait, the longer it will take to get your refund.

Also, you should re-examine your last 3 years of tax returns to see if you've gotten every dollar of refund you're entitled to. April 15, 2016 is the last day to file for a refund of 2013 overpayments. If you never filed for 2013, you may be leaving money on the table. Even if you did, take a 2nd look to make sure everything still looks ok.

If you own a business, for example, did you take all the depreciation deductions you should have? That tends to be the most overlooked deduction because it is a non-cash expense. The IRS gives you the deduction since you'll end up replacing property in the future anyway. This is just one possibility of many.

PM me if I can help you in any way. I am an authorized e-file provider.