it is officially tax season.
If that sentence makes you break, break out in a sweat, don't worry.
Our very own channel near has got you covered. Good morning Shannon. That's right.
Good morning guys.
You know,
all morning we begin everyone geared up to file their
taxes and now we're going to let you know how you
can maximize your refund and avoid overlooking a single deduction
because you don't want to leave money on the table.
So we have the help of Carla Dennis,
an american enrolled tax agent and founder of Carla Dennis and Associates.
Thank you so much for joining us, Carla.
Let's start off with, what are your top three tips for the average taxpayer?
My top 233 tips for the average taxpayer is number one get organized.
That seems to be something that's extremely
lucid for taxpayers really spend some time
getting organized and I suggest taxpayers spend one day going back to January 2022,
another day going back to February 2022 bank state
credit card statements and really just
kind of looking through their information to
make sure that they get all the deductions that they possibly can.
In addition to that review last year's tax return,
no one probably wants to look back at last year's return.
But looking at it will prompt you on things
that you need to include in the current year.
And in addition to reviewing last year's tax return,
Start making a list of questions that you can ask, your tax professional,
are things that you actually want to look up and research for yourself.
That little time to get organized, will really help maximize your deductions?
And a lot of people want to pick up those deductions.
But as a professional,
what is the biggest mistake you see people make on their taxes?
People typically overlook their deductions.
You know, as long as they've been in industry, people procrastinate,
they wait till the last minute they're
overlooking deduction that they can actually take.
They also eliminate deductions because they
don't necessarily get their tax professionals all
the information for the professional to make
the decision on what's tax deductible.
Okay, so help us not leave any of those deductions on the table.
What are some of the big deductions that people might overlook?
I think some of the big deductions are
donations that we give to charitable organizations.
A lot of people fund go fund me page is a
lot of people forget about the different types of tax credits,
the child tax credit, that earned income credit that is sitting out there.
Um,
the above the line donations for
individuals that don't itemize their deductions or
individuals even thinking that they don't
have enough to itemize their deductions.
Okay, I love my cousin Bookie
$1000 last year. Can I write that off? Cause I never got it back. I'm just saying,
I don't know about giving the bookie $1,000.
All right, we'll talk to us about the idea tax return, what does it look like?
Should people be trying to get a large refund or just be happy if they break even?
They really want to break even.
I think people assume a large refund is the way to go, but it's not.
You really want to be to break even return and a break even
return is really considered a tax return where you don't oh I.
R. S more than 500
you're not getting a refund of more than five 100.
Taxpayers should get their money all year long and just be a
zero sum game when it comes to time to file your taxes.
Okay. We have less than a minute left.
So what are some alternatives for people who
are anxious about doing their own taxes,
but don't want to pay a professional service to do it.
Absolutely. They can go to I. R. S dot gov.
They have a free file um app on their website.
They can go to veda volunteer income tax service to help taxpayers file their
returns and they can also use online
software to file their returns pretty inexpensively.
Alright, some great tips there from Carla Dennis,
founder of Carla Dennis and Associates.
Thank you so much for making time to give us some tips
because we want to make sure we get all of our money.
Let's do an ode to us. All right, thank you so much