More Common Tax Mistakes
By: Katrina Irwin
Updated: March 26, 2012
David Young, CPA Young and Company joined Katrina Irwin on News 8 at Sunrise Monday. He talked about some of the common mistakes people make on their taxes.
1.Losing receipts.
2.Failing to report domestic workers.
If you paid $1,700 or more in 2011 to any one household employee, you were required to withhold, and match, both Social Security (6.2%) and Medicare (1.45%) taxes. You must file Schedule H (.pdf) to compute and report the liability.
3. Failing to report all income
You can't avoid reporting all of your income just because you don't get a W-2 form or a 1099. Not all income is reported on 1099s. That doesn't excuse you from having to pay tax on it.
4. Failing to check for the alternative minimum tax
The AMT, or "awfully mean tax," was created to catch high-income taxpayers who used allowable deductions and credits to wipe out too much tax liability. It's an alternative computation of your tax, with different deductions, add-backs and flat rates. Read through IRS Form 6251.
5. E-file mandate for NY.
6.Missed deductions
a. Charitable noncash contributions.
b. Health Insurance Premiums.
c. Education Expenses for teachers.
d. Higher Education Expenses.
e. Energy Tax Credits
