Tips on How to Avoid Tax Return Audits
Looking for some magical spell to cast on your tax returns to ward off audits? Im sorry to tell you, but there is no spell in this word that keeps the tax man away from you and that he will come when he needs to conduct a review, but don’t worry, there are some preemptive measures one can take to keep them away. The IRS has an eagle eye out for everybody, even if you are the most responsible and contentious tax payer in the world, there is still a chance that they will cast their eyes on you. Getting a notification from the IRS for a tax return audit can get anybody’s blood moving. So it’s one of your responsibilities to stay low below the radar.
There is only a 0.52% chance that you will be audited, as small as that number may be, it’s still wise that you don’t take any risks. You will never know, the tax man might come after you. Here are a few ways to ensure that it’s not you they will be coming after anytime soon.
Neatness is key. If you work for the IRS, would you rather review a tax return in plain handwriting that looks like it was written by a kid on a newspaper, or a neatly printed one from a computer? Of course you would choose the printed one, same is true for all the IRS classifiers. You won’t be breaking out the old typewriter however, there are other great software and tools that can help you out. Neatness is a great quality, the reviewer will feel that you respect their time and they will surely appreciate the effort.
Accuracy. A messy tax return is bad, a tax return with a lot of mistakes, errors, and corrections is far more worse. Take a good amount of time whenever you are performing any proofing on your tax returns, make sure that all the numbers line up and should easily add and subtract without any issues.
Always attach schedule C. If you own a small business and are filing your taxes, don’t forget to attach your complete Schedule C. This document has all the business’ profits and losses written on it and it is the most important document that all the classifiers require that they have whenever they are reviewing the returns of companies whose source of profit are W-2 wages.
Document the deductions also. There should be proof to back up any unusually large deductions present on the tax return. This can be any piece of document such as receipts, canceled checks, photographs, and insurance reports.
Submit your tax returns on the dot. This is self explanatory as there is no reason whatsoever as to why anybody would want to be late whenever filing their tax returns. This is simply raises ones chances of getting an audit.
Hire a professional. Never assume that you will do a perfect job every time, to stay on the safe side of the spectrum, hire a qualified professional tax preparer to do the job for you. They might be an extra expense, but it’s all worth it as you can guarantee that you will be safe from audit.
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