Easier Tax Filing with These Two Quick Tips

Tax season is right around the corner. Nobody wants to be scrambling last minute to file their returns, hoping all of their T’s are crossed and I’s dotted. Here are two tips that can have a huge impact on your tax filings from 2017 in 2018.
Report name changes
This may seem like an obvious thing to do but it can often be overlooked, especially in advance of the actual filing date for your taxes. If you have been recently married or divorced and went through a name change, you should notify the Social Security Administration (SSA). To add, you should also notify the SSA if a dependent’s name has changed. An individual should do this for a number of reasons. One of them being when the taxpayer files next year, the new name on the tax return matches. A mismatch between the tax filings or tax return and the SSA records will inhibit the process of the tax return and could possibly delay an individual's tax refund.

Renew Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers
If you use an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN), it is important to know that they can expire. If you do use an ITIN, make sure to see that your number did not expire in 2016 or will expire this year. If it does, you will have to apply to renew your ITIN to avoid problems in the following year, including disallowed tax credits and processing delays. Note, if you are a taxpayer that has not used your ITIN to file a tax return at least once in the last three years, your ITIN will expire on December 31, 2017. Furthermore, the IRS has stated that ITINs with the middle digits of 70, 71, 72, or 80 will expire at the end of 2018. To renew your ITIN, you will need to complete a Form W-7 and submit the required documentation.

If you are looking to save time on your tax filings for next year and avoid potential delays, make sure to follow the recommendations above. They might be able to rescue you from the stress and anxiety around tax filing time.