What You Can Do To Prepare For Next Year’s Taxes Today
When should you get ready for next year’s tax season? The earlier, the better. There is nothing wrong with starting to organize what you will need next year right now.
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With Tax Day still upon us, the IRS has updated its website’s “Steps to Take Now to Get a Jump on Your Taxes” page. The site provides pointers and steps to take now to make filing in 2023 easier.
IRS.gov has a ton of online tools to help file your taxes, as well as a wealth of information and answers to questions common and uncommon. As of Jan. 2022, many taxpayers can file their taxes for free using the IRS Free File program — or at least download the IRS Free File Fillable Forms. There’s also a directory of credentialed tax consultants as well as a library of downloadable tax publications.
Having an online IRS account provides information about your most recent tax return, access to child tax credit and economic impact payment receipts, payment plan details, five years of payment history and any pending or scheduled payments. You can also check up on your relevant personal information as well as any forms required by the IRS, renew your individual tax identification number (ITIN), look into withholding tax rules and speed up the whole refund process by setting up direct deposit.
IRS Reminds CTC Recipients to Keep Paperwork
In terms of specific federal program reminders, the agency is reminding taxpayers to reconcile their advance child tax credit payments to make a proper claim. In Jan. 2023, all eligible recipients of CTC payments will receive Letter 6419, which provides the total amount of the advance CTC payments you received in 2022. Keep this — and any other CTC-related documents — in a safe place for your April 2023 filing.
The same goes for keeping any documentation sent to you by the IRS or a federal- or state-run program. This includes anything pertaining to the recovery rebate credit. Depending on what you claimed on your 2021 return, any outstanding economic impact payment statements (or info on payments not received) will be required for future filings — and eligibility verification.
Simply being organized can make tax time less stressful. Create a safe spot for receipts, and store your tax documents in a familiar, secure place. If anything can be shredded from previous years — without causing confusion or a loss of necessary documentation — do so in order to keep an efficient annual filing system. The IRS accepts digital documentation, so if you decide to go paperless, set up digital files to keep all relevant tax documentation together.
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Finally, don’t wait until January of next year to start collecting tax documents — or, for that matter, the day before Tax Day. Procrastination can lead to a rushed and erroneous return, so be sure to start planning your tax filing sooner, rather than later.
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