How to Avoid Tax Time Problems

Are you looking for ways to avoid the last-minute rush for doing your taxes? Here are some stress relieving ideas to help you.

Don’t Procrastinate Resist the temptation to put off your taxes until the very last minute. Your haste to meet the filing deadline may cause you to overlook potential sources of tax savings and will likely increase your risk of making an error.

Visit our website or contact our office You are already halfway their because you are on our web-site. Our team of experts can assist you with extensions, estimated taxes, and a host of other items. Most importantly we will shift the stress from you to a job for us. We handle extensions and estimates every year for hundreds of clients. We can handle yours as well. Give us a call at 214.827.9118

File Your Return Electronically More than 68 million taxpayers filed their returns electronically in 2005. Aside from ease of filing, IRS e-file is the fastest and most accurate way to file a tax return. If you’re due a refund, the waiting time for e-filers is half that of paper filers.

Don’t Panic if You Can’t Pay If you can’t immediately pay the taxes you owe, consider some stress-reducing alternatives. You can apply for an IRS installment agreement, suggesting your own monthly payment amount and due date, and getting a reduced late payment penalty rate. You also have various options for charging your balance on a credit card. There is no IRS fee for credit card payments, but the processing companies charge a convenience fee. Electronic filers with a balance due can file early and authorize the government’s financial agent to take the money directly from their checking or savings account on the April due date, with no fee.

If the amount is overwhelming or more than you care to think about you might be a candidate for an offer-in-compromise. In the last 18 months Baker and Company has successfully reduced over $500,000 in IRS debt to less than $40,000 for its clients that qualified for an IRS Offer-in-Compromise. Even if you don’t qualify, we are here to help you work out an installment agreement that works within your budget and within the IRS guidelines.

Request an Extension of Time to File – But Pay on Time If the clock runs out, you can get an automatic six month extension of time to file to October 16. The extension itself does not give you more time to pay any taxes due. You will owe interest on any amount not paid by the April deadline, plus a late payment penalty if you have not paid at least 90 percent of your total tax by that date.

All you need to do is contact our office for the extension. We either hand deliver or file by certified mail all extensions due. Last year the Salt Lake office of the Internal Revenue Service issued many late filing penalties to taxpayers that filed on-time due to a computer error. Our system of checks and balances eliminated the need to fight as we proved our diligence in making sure our clients filed on time. Each extension was stamped received by the IRS prior to the deadline. We had no problems getting those penalties reversed.

IRS CIRCULAR 230 REQUIRED NOTICE
IRS Regulations require that we inform you that any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended to be used and cannot be used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code or for the purpose of promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or tax-related matter.