The Voice - Student Newspaper

Don't fret over tax preparation

Tax preparation season is barely starting and most of the people need advice on where to begin.

It is estimated by the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) that 52.2 percent of the people use paid tax preparers in the US alone.

There are independent, professional and trustworthy tax preparers such as Edward "Eddie" Yablonsky, a 25 year experienced expert on the subject.

There are two different ways to file taxes, the traditionally delayed paper preparation and the newly introduced e-file.

Yablonsky considers that there are some advantages to e-filing, "The advantage of e-filing is that you get your refund in a quicker manner. Of course, the IRS has a permanent account of your bank account as well, you might consider it. The main advantage of e-filing is that money gets deposited in a much quicker manner. You can also have it electronically deposited without electronically filing as well but it takes a little longer."

This resource might be helpful for people who don't have the chance to go through all the time consuming process.

Yablonsky advices people to be organized at all times, "Keep accurate record of all their deductions including mileage, state income tax deductions, medical records, charities they might have, any casualty losses on their property, and all of their expenses they pay on behalf of their jobs. Keep accurate records on separated files. That's the first thing," he added.

Some people make fatal mistakes while preparing their taxes, Yablonsky explains, "The most common mistake that most people make is they provide incorrect birthdays or their social security number does not match their name; they'll put a nick name on it and then put their SSN, that doesn't fly! They have to put accurate absolute names matching the social security card because the SSA and the IRS interface with one another."

Mistakes like these might lead the IRS to audit people more easily. Even though, according to Eddie, "There is no real way to avoid an audit from the IRS; they randomly select people to audit."

Procrastination is the enemy of the IRS and it might have some type of repercussion on the tax payer, "There are two types of penalties; the late filing penalties and the late payment penalties. If you owe, you should file on time. If you don't file on time and you're due, you are going to owe money for late filing penalties. You should file and pay as soon as possible. If you don't, there is no way out of this penalty. If you have a refund, you owe no penalty," Yablonsky points out.

There are more and more resources that the IRS puts out there for people to benefit from. "Some of the resources they have are booklets that they issue and descriptions of the forms. They have a free tax service for preparations of the elderly called VITA. They also have an interface person that talks on behalf of the tax payer to the IRS but they work for the IRS," Yablonsky added.

In 2008, former President Bush signed an urgent stimulus package introduced by congress where hard working families could take use of a comprehensive tax credit. Yablonsky referred to the recent tax laws passed by congress, "They are all kind of related to the rebate credit act they passed. The rebate credit relates to the stimulus payment that was made last year. Depending on your filing status, you have to file a '07 return to get the stimulus pay which could be as much as $1,500 if you were married joint with children. If you are a single man and no children you got $300, they are continuing that as a refundable credit on the '08 return. That's the main change in the law."

Besides, parents of college students can also take advantage of the tax exemption the government provides to those who are financing school for their children.

"College students can be above the age of 18. If he's a college student up to age 24, he lives with his parents meaning that he could still live in a dorm and they finance his education, if he has that special condition he can still earn income credit," Yablonsky concluded.

The first step of action is to get well informed of your payer status and to find the right tax professional to process an effective tax refund. Get help, get informed and get the most out of your refund.

Please send comments to lmontes@gccvoice.com