4 Tips to Make Your Tax Season Easier

Don't miss your rebate
It appears that the stimulus package will get through Congress in some form. However, if the final legislation approves rebate checks for the general public, only the people who have filed their tax returns for 2006 will get a check. Therefore, if you still haven't filed the tax return that was originally due last April, you might want to consider doing so immediately.

And since the checks will be "paper" checks, they'll be addressed to your last known address that the IRS knows about. So if you've moved since filing your 2006 return or are considering a move in the near future, you'll want to make sure that check gets to you. If you don't receive your check, I'm sure some additional paperwork will be involved. More will follow as the law gets closer to gaining the president's signature.

Late filing required
If you've tried to e-file your return and received a rejection notice, or if you've already paper-filed and are wondering about your refund, you might be caught up in administrative never-never land. In late December, Congress decided to finally "patch" the alternative minimum tax (AMT), which had caused the folks at the IRS a number of headaches relative to their computer system. As a result of the patch, the IRS recently announced that it cannot accept returns containing any of the following five forms for e-filing before Feb. 11:

AMT patch ... again?
Many taxpayers mistakenly believe that the patch fixed the entire AMT matter for good. In reality, the fix was a temporary solution that applies only to the 2007 tax year and 2007 tax returns. We can only hope that Congress will revisit this issue some time before this December, but if not, you can expect the dreaded AMT to hit millions of more taxpayers in 2008 than it did in 2007. And one of those taxpayers could be you!

Will you be audited?
The IRS recently released its annual enforcement and service tables, along with the 2007 Enforcement Revenue and Individual Audits Chart. It's worthwhile reading, especially if you play fast and loose with the tax code. The short version: Audits and enforcement are on the rise -- in some cases substantially over previous years. I doubt that this trend reverse in the near future, given that the IRS has been trying to close the so-called "tax gap" -- the amount of taxes that go uncollected.