Tax Day Looms but Deadline to File is Later Than You May Think

There’s bad news and good news. 

The bad news is, it’s tax time. 

The good news is, the deadline has been pushed to Monday, April 18, since Tax Day, April 15, falls on a District of Columbia holiday. 

If you have waited until the last minute, that extra 72 hours might be a big help to you, especially since the days fall over the weekend.

Barrow Patch checked in with Barrow County’s Mark Still, CPA at O'Neal, Broach & Still, to see if his office has been swamped with last minute filers, and to find out if he had any tips for those who procrastinate.

“We spend the last week before April 15 estimating whether or not people who have not filed should send in estimated payments with their extensions," Still said. "The filing deadline allows people to extend the time to file, but not the time to pay their taxes. If taxpayers don’t send this money in on April 18 (this year) they are penalized and charged interest for any payments they have not made towards their tax liability."

According to a SmartMoney.com, as of mid-March, just more than half of all 140 million-plus individual returns had been filed, slightly less than the total for last year, and the average refund continued to be about $3,000.

“The majority of the people just don’t get around to bringing in their information until the last minute," Still said. "We have been fortunate that we can usually predict each year which people will file timely and which ones will require an extension.”

With bookkeeping programs built in to most new computers or more extensive programs such as Quickbooks and Quicken available at any local office supply store, you might want to consider that tax-deductible expense to help yourself be better prepared for April 2012. Even a novice on the computer can set up these programs and easily track and categorize expenses. 

Come Jan. 1, 2012,  you can click on one icon and have all your financial information ready to print out for your tax preparer. You can even email it to your accountant’s office, no paper necessary!

Programs such as Turbo Tax are also readily available and are fairly easy to use if you have a head for tax lingo. However, mistakes might not be caught as easily with those programs, so even if you choose to use one, it’s likely less expensive than interest and penalties to make an appointment with a Barrow County tax professional for a half-hour review of your forms prepared by these do-it-yourself programs, and dropping that envelope in the mailbox after a professional’s OK will give you invaluable peace of mind.

Here are a few last-minute tax tips courtesy of Still and SmartMoney.com:

• Make sure to send in any taxes due or estimated due by April 18.
• You have until April 18 to make contributions for 2010 into your Regular or Roth IRA.
• Teachers, don’t forget the $250 deduction for out-of-pocket expenses for the classroom.
• Be sure you included your charitable donations.
• Don’t forget expenses such as mileage, uniforms and even the cost of taking some underprivileged youth to sports events or movies and unreimbursed expenses for attending a conference or meeting (IRS publication 526).
• Health-insurance premiums for the self-employed are deductible.
•  Itemize your medical expenses (IRS publication 502).
• If you have non-reimbursed moving expenses, deduct those.
• You may take a mortgage-interest deduction more than $50,000.
• Home-buyer tax credits are deductible, but there are complications depending on how you received your financing, so check with your tax professional.
• Rental real estate, especially with losses, are deductible if you invest more than 750 hours a year managing your property.
• Your home office maybe partially deductible. Double check here: IRS publication 587.
• If you have a Health Savings Account, you may deduct up to $6,150 per family ($3,050 single) if you had a qualifying high-deductible health plan in 2010. 

“We are always delighted to take on new clients in our practice and are able to file any type of federal or state return our clients require,” Still added.

Here’s hoping you are getting a nice big tax return for 2011! Happy filing!