Filing Your Income Tax Return

Tax time can be intimidating, but take heart. You can ace filing your tax return with this overview of what’s involved in the process in 2022. And plenty of tools are available to help you along, some even for free.

Making use of a tax calculator before you get started can give you a heads-up estimate as to what you might owe the Internal Revenue Service. It can be invaluable if you end up asking the IRS for an extension of time to file your return because you must send in a payment with your request for an extension to avoid fines and penalties.

You'll want an idea of how much you’ll owe, if anything, before that. Think of a tax calculator as an estimator of your tax liability or potential refund after the whole preparation/filing process is completed.

The IRS offers a whole slew of e-services on its website, but all providers are approved to e-file your return for you if you use tax preparation software. The IRS also offers Free File services online if you qualify. It will guide you to software providers who will take care of the whole filing business for you free of charge if your income is ​$72,000​ or less in tax year 2021, the return you'll file in 2022.

You do have to officially authorize your tax preparer to electronically file your return if you use a professional rather than commercial software. This is where IRS Form 8879 comes in. Complete and sign it and give it to your tax preparer. Don’t file it with the IRS.

​Read More:​ E-Filing: How to File Your Taxes Electronically, IRS Free File and More

You can sharpen your pencil and tackle your Form 1040 tax return yourself, but why do that? Tax services abound all over the country. Many charge very reasonable fees, if anything at all.

AARP normally provides a free tax service, Tax-Aide, that’s manned by volunteers. You must meet certain income and age requirements to qualify. Tax-Aide was temporarily closed in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it's expected to be available again in 2022. Keep an eye on the Tax-Aide website. The IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program is free if you have limited income, you're disabled or have limited ability with speaking the English language.

You might want to consider a certified public accountant or an enrolled agent if you have investments, a side business or want to do a little tax planning. Yes, this will cost you, but these professionals have passed rigorous testing and training. You get what you pay for.

Hopefully, you’ll never need a tax attorney. These are the professionals who appear in tax court for you if you ever have a serious problem with the IRS. As with all lawyers, your conversations with a tax attorney are privileged and confidential communications.

Then, of course, there are all those software programs and apps. Most work by walking you through a series of questions and prompting you to enter your information. They can handle simple to more complex tax situations, but the price tends to increase for more complicated returns.

​Read More:​ Tax Preparation Software: Choosing the Best Tax Software for Your Needs

This is where tax preparation actually begins, well before you decide how you’re actually going to prepare your return. You’ll be asked to complete a Form W-4 for your employer whenever you start a new job. You can submit a new one at any time if your situation changes, such as if you’ve gotten married or you’ve taken on a second job.

This is the form where you provide all the information your employer needs to calculate withholding from your paychecks. The goal is to get your withholding just right so you don’t owe the IRS anything at the end of the year or pay in too much so the IRS gets to use your money until you file your return and request a refund.

You'll receive a Form W-2 from your employer after the tax year ends, usually sometime in late January or early February. There are more than 20 boxes and innumerable codes on this form, all of them detailing aspects of your earnings. Form W-2 chronicles everything you’ll need to know to cite your income on your 1040 tax return.

Your next challenge involves determining your filing status. There are five options: single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, head of household and qualifying widow(er).

The rules for each are somewhat complex because they depend on whether you’re “considered” married or unmarried according to the tax code, and that’s not always black and white. You’re not married if you have a divorce decree, but you might still be "considered unmarried" even if you don't.

​Read More:​ Tax Filing Status: How to Choose the Correct Filing Status

Itemizing your deductions means completing and filing Schedule A with your tax return. You might not want to do this because the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act implemented numerous new rules for itemizing back in 2018, some of them favorable and some of them not. These TCJA rules remain in place through at least 2025.

The limit for deductible cash charitable contributions increased to ​60 percent​ of your adjusted gross income or AGI in 2017, up from the previous ​50 percent​ limit, but this change has been temporarily suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic. Individual taxpayers can deduct up to ​100 percent​ of their AGIs in the 2021 tax year. You can also claim a deduction for up to ​$300​ in cash contributions to a charity, or ​$600​ if you're married and filing a joint return, without itemizing. You can claim this deduction in addition to claiming the standard deduction.

The itemized medical expense deduction is subject to an AGI threshold of ​7.5 percent.​ You can only deduct the portion of your medical expenses that exceed this amount as of the 2021 tax year. This threshold has been known to go up and down from year to year. It was previously set at ​10 percent,​ but you'll get a bit of a break on your 2021 tax return.

Taxpayers are given a choice between itemizing or claiming the standard deduction for their filing status. It's an either/or decision – you can't claim both – so you're usually better off claiming the option that results in the greatest amount taken off your taxable income.

The standard deductions for the 2021 tax year, the return you’ll file in 2022, are ​$12,550​ if you’re single, ​$25,100​ if you’re married and filing a joint return, or ​$18,800​ if you qualify as head of household. These deductions go up even more in the 2022 tax year, to ​$12,950​ if you’re single, to ​$25,900​ if you’re married filing jointly, and to ​$19,400​ for heads of household filers. Standard deductions are tweaked annually to keep pace with inflation.

If the total of all your itemized deductions doesn't exceed the standard deduction you're entitled to, you're probably better off not itemizing. You'd be paying the IRS tax on more income than you have to.

You can also take some tax deductions without itemizing or claiming the standard deduction. These are called “above the line” adjustments to income.

You can claim certain contributions you made to a health savings account this way if you file Form 8889 with your return, and distributions you take from such accounts are reported on Form 1099-SA and issued to you and the IRS. Other above-the-line adjustments to income include retirement fund contributions, student loan interest you pay and educator expenses if you’re a teacher.

All these above-the-line deductions result in your adjusted gross income after you take them, that all-important AGI that so many other tax breaks depend upon. Some tax breaks also depend on your modified adjusted gross income. Many taxpayers will find that this is the same as their AGI. Your MAGI is your AGI with certain deductions added back in for purposes of qualifying for a particular tax break.

Your dependents won’t save you quite as many tax dollars as they did before the 2018 tax reform because personal exemptions have been eliminated from the tax code, at least through 2025. Having them can still qualify you for some valuable tax credits and deductions. Dependents include your children and some qualifying adults. The rules are extensive and complicated, but it can be worth it to determine whether any of your relatives qualify.

Tax credits don’t work the same way as tax deductions do – they’re actually better. Credits act as payments, just as if you wrote the IRS a check toward any balance you owe. They eliminate your tax debt dollar for dollar.

The ​Child and Dependent Care Credit​ is equal to ​20 to 35 percent​ of child care expenses you incur for your children ​under age 13​ or disabled dependents so you can work, look for work or go to school. Complete IRS Form 2441 to find out if you qualify, and for how much, and submit it with your tax return.

The ​Earned Income Tax Credit​ or EITC is designed to put money back into the pockets of lower-income taxpayers and it’s refundable. The IRS will send you any balance of the credit that’s left after it erases your tax bill. This makes it very popular, so the tax code is pretty strict about qualifications. Submit Form 8862 if you’ve been denied the credit but you think you ​are​ entitled to claim it.

The ​Child Tax Credit​ is ​$2,000​ under the new tax law for each of your qualifying children who have not yet turned 17 as of the last day of the tax year. It, too, is at least partially refundable. You must submit Schedule 8812 with your return to claim the “additional” part of the child tax credit, the refundable portion for taxpayers who qualify.

You might have received advance payments of this credit during the 2021 calendar year if you previously claimed it in 2019 or 2020. These advance payments were due to a temporary provision put in place in response to the coronavirus pandemic. You won't get this money a second time when you file your 2021 tax return unless you're entitled to more of a credit than the amount you were advanced. You'll have to reconcile these payments when you prepare your return.

The tax code offers two educational credits: The ​Lifetime Learning Credit​ and the ​American Opportunity Credit​. They have slightly different qualifying rules, but both are based on educational expenses you pay for yourself, your spouse or your dependents. You should receive a Form 1098-T from the learning institution, detailing how much you spent on qualifying costs so you can claim one of these credits.

The ​Retirement Savings Contributions Credit​, sometimes called the Saver’s Credit, rewards you for contributing to an individual retirement arrangement or an employer-sponsored retirement plan. It can be worth up to 50 percent of your contributions or a total of $2,000. Complete IRS Form 8880 to find out how much you qualify for, and submit the form with your tax return.

The ​Premium Tax Credit​ is designed to help out with those health insurance premiums you’re required to pay under the ACA. It, too, is refundable – sort of. The money is sent to your insurer to help defray your costs for coverage.

Now that you know ​how​ to deal with your tax return, when is it due? This can change from year to year, but usually only by a day or so. Technically, it’s ​April 15​, but it’s bumped to the next business day if this date falls on a weekend or a holiday. This happens in 2022, so the official filing date is ​April 18​.

You can file Form 4868 with the IRS to get an automatic six-month extension to ​Oct. 17, 2022​ if you're running out of time.

It’s true that not ​everyone​ has to file. You’re off the hook if you have very negligible income, but you might still want to file to collect a tax credit like the EITC if you qualify for it, or to get back any taxes you paid through withholding. Otherwise, you’ll be hit with some nasty penalties based on a percentage of how much you would owe.

File your return anyway if you owe taxes and you absolutely cannot pay them in one lump sum. The IRS offers several payment options and it’s often just a matter of reaching out to them for help, although penalties and interest apply.

You can request either a short-term or long-term installment agreement by filing Form 433-D, either on paper or online. You might be required to complete and file Form 433-F as well, providing details of your financial situation.

An offer in compromise allows you to pay less than the full amount you owe. The IRS will sometimes agree to this under one of three circumstances: There’s some doubt that you really owe what the IRS says you owe, it’s highly unlikely that you can pay the whole debt or doing so would cause you considerable economic hardship.

You’ll be subject to garnishment, levies and possibly tax liens if you can’t work something out with the government, but the IRS does want to help you. It launched its Fresh Start Initiative in 2011 for just this reason.

​Read More:​ What Happens If You Can't Make Federal Tax Payments?

If you’re lucky, you won’t owe the IRS anything – the IRS will owe you. You have several options for getting your hands on that refund. Many banks, lenders and tax filing services offer “refund anticipation loans” if you just can’t wait, but you’ll owe fees and interest, just as you would with any other loan. Your refund will go directly to the lender for repayment, not to you, when the IRS issues it.

You don’t have to deal with paper refund checks these days, either. Submit Form 8888 with your tax return and the IRS will direct deposit your money in up to three accounts. You can even use Form 8888 to use some or all of your refund to purchase U.S. savings bonds.

A lot of the stress associated with tax time is the fear of something going wrong and landing you in the middle of a tax audit.

It might help to know that the vast majority of IRS audits are “correspondence audits.” You’ll receive a snail-mailed notice from the IRS (not an email!) asking for further documentation or proof of information that you stated on your return.

You can expect one of three outcomes if you’re subject to a full-blown audit: The IRS will agree that your return is okay after all, it will determine that you ​did​ make a mistake and you agree to pay any additional taxes or you won’t agree that you goofed, in which case you can request mediation or appeal.

​Read More:​ Tax Return Preparation: Tax Services, Tax Help and More