The January 1 to April 15 time period can be hectic. If you worked the previous year, you are possibly worried about filing a tax return to pay what you owe or get a refund and then make the payment if you owe anything. You either want to get this process over with as soon as you can or you prefer to wait until the last minute to take action. Whatever your decision is, it is necessary to do everything right in order to keep the IRS off your back. You will learn potential mistakes on your tax return that can trigger an audit.
You do not completely fill out your form. If the government does not return it to you, they might choose to investigate you as a result of thinking that you have something to hide.
A red flag is raised on your deductions. It is prudent to make sure that you are eligible for each one that you are making an attempt to claim. If you desire to write off the distance that you drive for business purposes, it is smart to record all of your mileage and be ready to verify that you are eligible to claim this deduction.
Your form contains too many errors. Unless government officials simply assume that you are incompetent and leave it at that, they are probably going to do an audit on you.
The figure that you submit for the box pertaining to the amount you earned through wages and tips on your W-2 form does not add up to the total sum you earned through all of your employers. It is very hard to get away with this because the IRS receives wage reports from your employers.
You either do not report how much interest you made through your bank account or you underreport the amount. You are not likely to get away with this because the banks are required to report this information to the government.
You try to take the deduction pertaining to dependents. This can be a problem if you have adult kids who are too old to qualify as dependents or you do not have any kids.
You use the wrong form. Before you start filing, you must make sure that the form you are using is the right one for your income status.
You lie about your marital status. The government probably knows whether you are single or married.
You omit the income you earned from self-employment. If you make more than six hundred dollars from this source, you should definitely include it on your return. Also, you should not skip the part pertaining to royalties if you received any residual income from writing books or articles.