Tax season and the new changes affecting taxpayers

MARQUETTE — Tax season is a busy period for many tax experts and accounting professionals.
The three and a half month period at the beginning of the year is the time when the necessary paperwork, including wage and earnings statements is collected to put together tax returns.

While some individuals calculate their own tax returns, many rely on the expertise of tax experts and accounting professionals.
This is helpful due to the fact of new laws and tax regulations are implemented, so these professionals can help you out with all of the details.

“You know you pack a lot of tax returns in a short period of time,” said the President of U.P. Tax and Accounting, Jim Heikkinen. “Then with the new tax package that was passed, there are a lot of changes and so you got to keep up with all of those changes and making sure you are not missing anything.”

Now you should not file your taxes if you don’t have all the information you need to do so correctly. Going to a professional and having them examine your information can save you money and time.

It may also allow you to learn of things that you can and can’t write off especially with the new tax cuts that were implemented last year.

“It is surprising how many changes there are and a lot of the changes that were not publicized, ” explained Heikkinen. “It mainly was the increase in standard deduction that was publicized, but then they took away our exemptions and they did quite a few other things. Although, the biggest thing I find is that they took away the travel expense for salesman, construction workers, so people that work in the trades that travel and have to go out of town to work.”

With all these new changes have that been em placed it can cause some confusion with tax returns for individuals.
Although, worst thing that can happen is to rush your return only to find out that you may have left something out that could hurt your return or even potentially cause legal issues.

“So yea it works both ways,” added Heikkinen. “I have seen people get in trouble for taking things out that they were not supposed to and yea it could lead to some legal issues.”

If that is the case, you’ll have to file an amended return, and that can add all sorts of complications.
An amended return has the potential to cause interest and penalties if you’re not timely in responding to the changed circumstances.
When it comes to who is benefiting the most from tax returns depends on the individual and the circumstances that they are in, especially since certain deductions were taken away this past year can affect certain jobs and workers.

“People with children are doing well, while single individuals are not doing as well,” explained Heikkinen. “Of course they took a lot of deductions away from the middle class and that is hurting the middle class right now. Because you know they took away a lot of the deductions and so it is hard to say because it does depend on each situation. But overall, I would say the people with children are probably going to fair the best.”