Today (April 8) marks exactly one week before your taxes need to be filed. By now, if you haven’t already filed, you need to have correct documentation and the right forms to submit. Did you know there are over 800 various forms and schedules for income tax reporting? Filing your taxes can be tedious and confusing, so here is a checklist of important documents and forms you may come across during this time.
First, let’s start with the employers’ forms. More commonly known as the “W Series,” employers’ forms are documents that report wages and tax withholding of employees. Form W-2, the Wage and Tax Statement, is the most well-known. Every employee who gets a salary or wage from a company is supposed to receive a W-2 from his/her employer. Employees should have received these forms in the mail by the first week in February, as employers must mail them by January 31. Employees keep their W-2 copies for the April 15 personal tax reporting deadline, while employers must file the W-2 forms with the Social Security Administration by the end of February. Other forms in the series include W-4 and W-9. These two forms are completed whenever you are hired for a new job, and these forms are kept by your employer, rather than being mailed to the IRS. Lesser-known W Series forms include W-8 (completed by non-resident aliens and foreign corporations who do business in the US), W-10 (completed by daycare providers), and W-11 (completed by employers who have recently hired an employee who qualifies for a tax credit with the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment [HIRE] Act). If you won at least $600 from gambling, a corporation will send you a W-2G form. Yes, even when you get lucky, you still owe money to the Feds.
Besides the W Series, there are other important series of documents for informational purposes. The 1099 series is used for reporting income other than wages, salaries, and tips. The most common situation to issue a 1099 form is for independent contractors, people who get paid by a company but are not actual employees with benefits like health insurance or worker’s comp. In the same fashion as the W Series, 1099 forms are mailed to payers by January 31. The most common form is 1099-MISC, which must be produced if an independent contractor is paid at least $600 during the fiscal year. Other 1099 forms include 1099-C (regarding cancellation of debt), 1099-INT (regarding interest income), and 1099-S (regarding proceeds from real estate transactions). Two other information series of documents are 1098 (dealing with mortgage interest, student loan interest [1098-E], and tuition [1098-T]) and 5498 (dealing with contributions to an individual retirement account, or IRA). It is important to remember that, as a recipient, you are not required to send 1099 or 1098 or 5498 forms to the IRS. It is the responsibility of the issuer, such as the lender of your student loan or your IRA trustee, to report this information.
As an employee, you are to report to the IRS via the 1040 form, or US Individual Income Tax Return. As with the rest of tax filing, there are multiple forms of the 1040 form. The 1040A can be filed if you made under $100,000 last year and you are not itemizing deductions. The 1040EZ form can be filed under the same circumstances as the 1040A plus not having any dependents. Most people, however, will fill out the 1040 form. The 1040 is just two pages long; however, it comes with 11 additional attachments, or schedules. These schedules should be filled out for various purposes, such as itemizing deductions (Schedule A), capital gains (Schedule D), self-employment (Schedule C), and income from property or royalties (Schedule E). When you complete your 1040 form and mail it to the IRS, you will often need to attach these schedules, along with your W-2 form.
But wait, there’s more! If you are creating a non-profit organization, you need to complete a 1023 form. When it comes to reporting expenses through a non-profit, Form 990 needs to be filled out. If you make an error on your personal 1040 form and want to report it to the IRS, fill out a 1040X. (The 1040X can be used for any error made in the past three years.) If you are reporting a change of address to the IRS, you need to complete Form 8822. These and many other forms are available in PDF format through the IRS’s website.
For future purposes, always remember to start on your taxes as soon as possible (aka JANUARY). Waiting until a week before the due date will cause even more stress during this most stressful time of the year!
He played clarinet for the Marching Tar Heels in 2005 and 2006. He also volunteered for STV, the student-run television station at UNC-Chapel Hill, in the spring of 2010. He shot video, wrote scripts, and acted for “Off the Cuff,” UNC’s longest running sketch comedy show. He has the rare distinction of having lived in a dorm all four years of his undergraduate college career. He was also on Franklin Street on the night of April 4, 2009. His future plans are to pursue a master’s degree in journalism and to one day work for the media as a sports journalist or broadcaster.
Being one of eight children, David realizes finance is an important topic to everyone, regardless of his/her knowledge of the subject. His interests are in personal finance, budgeting, and savings.
In his spare time, David enjoys watching sports and standup comedy, as well as doing crossword puzzles and writing in the first person. He also thoroughly enjoys trivia and, one day, hopes to participate on the game show Jeopardy!, where he will try to break Ken Jennings’ 74-game win streak.
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