Tax Time Tips

[Lauri101]

For those who haven't filed, or maybe you need to amend before April 17:

Free File: Internal Revenue Service Spokesman David Stell said IRS Free File is for anyone whose 2006 income was $52,000 or less.

The 19 Free File Alliance participants also have their own parameters, including age cutoffs such as 51, or 20 to 57, or even 25 or younger, and some have limited service to a small number of states.

Taxpayers fitting the parameters can e-file free online at Free File Home - Your Link to Free Federal Online Filing.

Stell said that of 1.1 million Oklahomans who are eligible, only 57,000 -- or 5 percent -- used it last year.

Tax-help sites: There are more than 125 free tax help sites in Oklahoma libraries, churches, community centers, etc. These are staffed by trained volunteers.

If you earned less than $39,000 and file a simple tax return, find the closest site by calling (800) 829-1040 or the AARP's Tax-Aide counseling program at (888) 227-7669.

In Oklahoma, an estimated 371,000 to 396,000 people qualify for this free help, but only 47,000 used it last year.

Telephone excise-tax refund: This one-time refund of long distance excise taxes, which were paid March 2003 through July 2006, is a standard $30 for individuals or $60 for married couples.

You also may calculate the actual tax you paid over the 41 monthly bills, but this is not advised, and many people get it wrong.

Even if you don't normally have to file a return, use Form 1040EZ-T to request this refund. Common filers use these lines: 1040 -- line 71, 1040A -- line 42 and 1040EZ -- line 9.

Of the Oklahomans who've filed so far this year, an estimated 665,900 are eligible for the telephone excise-tax refund, but 191,000 have not requested it, losing out on at least $5.7 million, Stell said.

Earned Income Tax Credit: If you earned any income in 2006 and it was less than $39,000, you may qualify for this.

The credit is a maximum $4,536 -- not an amount to sneeze at.

Taxpayers should check their eligibility for this online at EITC For Individuals.

The estimated number of Oklahomans who are eligible for the credit is 371,000 to 396,000, but the number claiming it last year was only 297,000.

Even if you don't owe taxes and are not required by law to file a return, you can miss out on a tax refund or tax credit.

Unclaimed refunds: Refunds totaling $2.2 billion -- $22 million in Oklahoma -- are waiting for 1.8 million people -- 22,400 in Oklahoma -- who failed to file federal income tax returns for 2003.

To collect this money, a return for 2003 must be filed no later than April 17.

The IRS estimates that half of the people who could claim refunds would receive more than $611 -- $564 in Oklahoma.

The typical reason for these unpaid refunds is that people had taxes withheld from their wages or made payments against their taxes out of self-employed earnings but, by the end of the year, they had too little income to be required to file tax returns and then forgot about the withholdings.

Current and previous-year tax forms and instructions are available on the IRS Forms and Publications Web page at Forms and Publications or by calling (800) 829-3676.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to PM me. I guess I've blown what little cover I had now!

[CCOKC]

This is good list but I would like to add one thing.
There is an Residential Energy Tax Credit. (Form 5695) This is an actual credit so you don't need to itemize to take advantage of this. The credit includes purchases for insulation, exterior windows and doors, qualified energy effecient metal roofs as well as heat pumps, furnaces etc. Read the form and instructions carefully as there are different limits on the items. The maximum is $500. This credit is good for purchases made in 2006 and 2007 so if you want to make any energy effecient improvements to your house this may be the time to do it. If you don't prepare your own taxes, make sure to mention any improvements you made to your tax preparer.

[dismayed]

Would this include an EnergyStar refrigerator and also energy efficient light bulbs?

[Lauri101]

Would this include an EnergyStar refrigerator and also energy efficient light bulbs?

Unforunately, no.

Here's the Notice 2006-26 that homeowners may rely on when they claim credits for purchases that make their homes more efficient.

Essentially, besides the ones mentioned by CCOKC, you also have credits available for certain items such as qualified solar panels, solar water heating equipment, or a fuel cell power plant to their homes in the United States. In general, a qualified fuel cell power plant converts a fuel into electricity using electrochemical means, has an electricity–only generation efficiency of more than 30 percent and generates at least 0.5 kilowatts of electricity.

The .pdf document at the above link gets into great detail, as federal notices often do, but nothing on refrigerators or the light bulbs.