Related topics: taxes, tax preparation, IRS, income tax, deductions
With the new year in full swing, you've probably begun piecing together your tax return. Maybe you haven't filled out a tax form yet, but you should at least have begun considering your strategies. Before you leap at some new tax-saving tip or take a daring shortcut, though, consider these tales of IRS ire.
We recently asked our readers and Facebook fans to tell us their biggest tax blunders; their responses ranged from the comical to the cringe-inducing. One reader confessed that she once bounced her check to the IRS. Another reader paid $25,000 in fines for listening to the advice of a tax preparer.
Their pain can be your gain. Here are eight tax goofs your fellow readers have made, and tips for how you can avoid following in their missteps:
1. Was your debt forgiven? Report it as income.
In our sputtering economy, Americans are renegotiating credit card debt as never before. Yet many don't discover until later -- sometimes much later -- that in the view of the IRS, canceled debt from credit cards is income. "What we didn't know was that all the savings were considered income," one reader told us. "We were charged late charges and penalties."
Credit card companies report forgiven debt to the IRS on Form 1099-C (.pdf file). "You should receive a copy," says Tracy Coenen, a forensic accountant whose practice, Sequence, assists taxpayers with tax audits and tax fraud investigations.
Things get more complicated with mortgage debt, and you may want to talk with a tax expert if you have restructured your home loan. Coenen notes that canceled mortgage debt on your primary residence may be eligible for exclusion from income under the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, which applies to debt forgiven starting in 2007. The law remains in effect through 2012.
2. Report all your jobs.
Several readers admitted that they've forgotten to include some sources of income. One woman said she neglected to include her husband's $27,000-a-year job in 2008, and still owes a fine of $3,400. "I think this is just about as stupid as one can get!" she wrote. Another forgot about two weeks of work her husband put in for one company. Even though they filed for the correct amount once they got the W-2 Form, she wrote, "HUGE problem!"
3. A tax break for what? Don't get scammed.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. One reader told of following up on a radio pitch that offered a tax credit for creating a website accessible to the blind. The company, also a tax preparer, set up a website for the reader -- for a fee. He said the cost of setting up the site was about equal to the tax break. Then three years later, he got a "fat envelope" from the IRS telling him he had to prove he had a legitimate website or pay the IRS $2,000. "I wrote them a check the next day."
4. Handle your Roth IRA with care.
Looking forward to tax-free income when you retire? That's the promise of a Roth IRA. Individuals who qualify can set aside after-tax income in the investment accounts, then withdraw the money (plus any investment gains) tax-free at retirement.
But such tax benefits don't come without restrictions -- including income limits on who can set up a Roth IRA. There are also complicated rules for how to convert a traditional IRA into a Roth IRA.
