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Tax

Your receipts are important: save them

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When it comes to taking qualified deductions on your federal tax return, three things must happen:

  • Recognize that an expense might be deductible on your tax return.
  • Keep a record of the expense in an organized fashion.
  • Obtain the proper (and timely) documentation to support your deduction.

This might be obvious to most people, but here are some typical areas where taxpayers often fall short. In the long run, these items could end up costing you plenty during tax filing season, and trigger IRS audits.

  1. Cash donations to charity. To deduct and support your deduction to a qualified charity you must have valid support. Donations of cash are no longer deductible if they are not supported by a canceled check or written acknowledgement from the charity.

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Fair market value (FMV): What is it and how to defend it

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So what is fair market value (FMV)? According to the IRS, it’s the price that property would sell for on the open market. This is the price that would be agreed on between a willing buyer and a willing seller. Neither would be required to act, and both would have reasonable knowledge of the relevant facts.

This is the standard the IRS uses to determine if an item sold or donated by you is valued correctly for income tax purposes. It is also a definition that is so broad that it is wide open to interpretation.

Understand when FMV is used

Fair market value is used whenever an item is bought, sold or donated and has tax consequences. The most common examples are: [Read more…] about Fair market value (FMV): What is it and how to defend it

How Do You File an Amended Tax Return?

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Its’ easy to make mistakes when you’re doing your own tax preparation. The IRS has a special procedure for fixing them.

That sense of accomplishment you feel after you’ve filed your income taxes can turn quickly to dread if you realize later that you made a mistake. What do you do now?

The IRS knows that this will happen to some taxpayers every year. The tax code is so complex, and if you prepare your taxes manually, you’ve probably been shuffling a lot of papers around.

So, first: Don’t panic. You can fix this. The IRS offers what’s called an amended return, the Form 1040X, for just this type of situation. [Read more…] about How Do You File an Amended Tax Return?