PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Income tax filing season officially opens next week Thursday, but the April 15 deadline will be here in no time. Resources will soon open up for communities who need help filing their taxes.
Keith Carney, owner of CK2 Financials in Germantown, says he sees taxpayers make the same mistakes every year — such as not having all the necessary documents and thinking it’s okay to file late without an extension.
“I found the best way to make sure you have everything you need is by having an account or profile on irs.gov, because doing that will allow you to see everything that the IRS knows about you,” Carney said.
Besides that preparation, he said, another issue many tax filers have is missing that deadline.
“A real big misconception of filing is people waiting. It is never good to wait, especially if you are an entrepreneur, a business owner. You want to file as early as possible.”
It’s easy to file a request for an extension, but that applies only to filing. If you owe money, an extended filing deadline will not allow you to defer paying the IRS what you owe without a penalty.
Also common, he says, is tax filers getting bad information from the wrong sources.
“You can't take someone else's advice from what happened on their taxes for your taxes, because they could make more money, they can have more kids or less kids than you. There's so many variations to tax returns, so it’s important to learn your own tax situation.”
He adds that any dependents placed on the returns must be properly proven and accounted for.
Other organizations, such as the Campaign for Working Families, also offer tax filing assistance.
Carney is offering a free tax preparation workshop at his office on Tuesday evening, Jan. 16. He says he would like to see high school students show up.
“I think it's important for the youth, because there's so many different ways now that they can make money. You know, so many places they could possibly live. And those two things are real big factors when it comes to taxes,” Carney said.
On Jan. 18, the IRS tax filing website will be fully operational and available to accept income tax returns.