Tax season can make you manic-depressive. Nothing is more depressing than preparing your taxes. Nothing is more manic than planning how to spend your tax refund. Ah, but when is it going to show up is the biggest question most have.
A quick word about tax refunds. While getting one may seem the greatest of things, it actually should cause you to take some time and analyze how you are paying taxes. Simply put, a tax refund means you are doing something wrong, particularly if it is large.
How could a large refund each year be a bad thing? Well, you need to consider that the money you are getting back was originally your money. The IRS is not paying you interest on it, so you are effectively giving the government a free loan each year.
Regardless, you want to know about your tax refund this year. No problem there. The IRS has made it a relatively simple task to figure out the status of your tax refund. Yes, shocking, but true. The IRS is actually being helpful. The end of the world must be near.
The first step to finding out about your refund is to visit the site for the IRS. You can find it by doing a search for IRS in any search engine. Displayed prominently on the home page you will see a link for finding out about your refund. Click it.
Now, you need to get out your tax return. Yes, the one you just filed and should have made a copy of. You need it because the IRS form will ask for the amount of the refund you are claiming, the filing status you claimed and your social security number.
As you can see, the form is incredibly simple. Just fill in the information, click and wait for an answer. You will be told the refund date, that there was a problem delivering it to you or there is a problem with the return you filed and the refund is delayed.
If the status report shows there is a problem with your tax return, don’t panic. It can be something simple such as the computer is having problems reading it, some information is missing and so on. It does not necessarily mean you are going to be audited.
What if you are one of those people that had their return tagged for an audit? This may not be as bad as you think. The IRS is under budgeted and understaffed. Most of the time they just send a letter with a proposed change. Agree to the change and the audit is over.
A tax refund is glorious thing in the view of most people. There is nothing wrong with that view so long as you realize the feds are getting a free loan from you each year. Giving politicians free loans seems dubious to me, but to each their own.