Saturday, January 7, 2017

Save money with 2016 tax changes

A lot of us get confused when income tax season rolls around. Many of us even pay someone to file taxes for us, so we can forget about them the rest of the year. But experts say we should keep taxes in our mind, year-round. 
Their number one tip: ask questions. They know we're not a tax experts and they know we want as big of a refund as we can get. This year asking questions has become even more important. Changes to the law, including one called the "PATH act", mean taxes will work a little differently this year. 

What we are learning this year is the PATH Act seems to have affected most everyone in one way or another.

Whether you're a teacher, truck driver or a business owner,  the government has a tax credit for nearly everyone. And under the PATH Act, we have even more of them. 
The PATH Act helps protect taxpayers from fraud. That means the IRS will take a closer look at our taxes, which means a longer wait for refunds. 
With the PATH Act and being able to deduct a number of items and a number of credits, the negative side would be there is going to be a refund delay.   
But only about 3 weeks later than normal.
The best way to save money this tax season is to talk to an expert instead of using online services. While those get the job done, they can't ask questions to save us money. 
We just kind of go through a total interview with the person to find out what happened last year? If they give us that, we can go digging. 
That digging gets extra important this year with the new changes. 

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