By Cristina Wiebelt-Smith, CPA, Wealth Advisor
Tax season is upon us! Staying organized as you gather your tax documents can help make this year’s taxes run a little more smoothly. Check your mailbox and your email for all the tax forms that will start coming in and keep them in one place.
Here are some of the most common tax forms you may receive:
- Form W-2 if you earned income from an employer. These should arrive by January 31st.
- Form 1099-R for distributions from pensions, annuities, IRAs, retirement, and profit-sharing plans. The 1099-R also includes Roth conversions. These should arrive by January 31st.
- Form SSA-1099 for Social Security benefits. These arrive in January.
- Form 1099-DIV for dividends and capital gains. These start arriving in February through March.
- Form 1099-INT for interest income. These start arriving in February through March. The Forms 1099-INT and 1099-DIV are combined into one form for most investment accounts.
- Form 1099-NEC for consulting, freelance or other self-employment income. These should arrive by February 1.
- Form 1099-MISC for Rents, Royalties, Crop Insurance and more. These should arrive by February 1.
- Forms 1098 for mortgage interest and student loan interest have already started arriving in people’s emails and mailboxes.
If you use a tax preparer, look through the organizer they provide and use it as your checklist to make sure you’ve received the same 1099s, W-2s, 1098s, etc. that you had last year. Try to answer as many of the questions as you can to help the tax preparer complete an accurate tax return.
Provide information to your tax preparer.
Notify your tax preparer of any life changes such as moves, marriage, births, adoptions, starting college, deaths, divorce, or separation.
Notify your tax preparer if you made Qualified Charitable Distributions, “QCDs.” The preparer must manually remove these from income and the 1099s do not provide the information. If you’d like to learn more about how QCDs can save tax see The Benefits and Rules of Using Qualified Charitable Distributions.
Claim all your deductions.
Even though you are taking the standard deduction on your federal tax return, there may be state deductions available. For Missouri, health insurance premiums are one of those deductions, including some Long-Term care premiums and Medicare Part B and D, supplemental and Advantage plan.
Even though 2022 is over, there are still a few last-minute things you may be able to do to reduce your tax bill.
Review your tax return.
Look over your tax return. Does it seem reasonable? Is it what you expected? If something seems off, ask your tax preparer what caused the change.
- Look over the first page and see if income amounts seem reasonable and close to what you expected.
- Look at the second page for the Refund section or Amount you Owe Is it much larger or smaller than expected?
File electronically and request automatic deposit. The IRS is starting this tax season off with 10 million unprocessed tax returns from prior years so if you mail a tax return in, it will be number 10,000,001 in line. Automatic deposit gets your refund back to you much quicker than requesting a check.
Tax season can be a little less stressful when you go into it as organized as possible. Start organizing those documents, filling out those organizers and remember that we are here to help! If you have questions about anything, please call or come in and we’ll answer any questions that we can. We also love to collaborate with your tax preparer to make sure we’re all working toward the same goal.
This piece is not intended to provide specific legal, tax, or other professional advice. For a comprehensive review of your personal situation, always consult with a tax or legal advisor.
