Conquer Tax Season
Start the Season Right
The deadline to file your taxes for the 2023 year will be here sooner than you know it - April 15, 2024! Get a head start this year and file your taxes sooner, rather than later. Filing your taxes on time and correctly is the key for successfully conquering tax season.
Did you know, there are many different resources to help you file your return and understand potential credits you may qualify for? Services including the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) works to provide in-person, full-service tax services to qualifying individuals. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau offers a guide to filing your taxes in 2024, which provides additional information on VITA, tax deadline extensions, and other education resources before you file.
Looking to file your return at home? Chaffey FCU has partnered with FileYourTaxes.com to give Members access to fast, easy, and secure e-filing. Guided interview-based filing and support in English and Spanish can make the process simpler. Learn more on this page.
Stay Protected from Tax Scams
Filing your Taxes can be frustrating enough - don’t let tax scams make it more difficult. Scammers are constantly evolving to take advantage of unexpecting taxpayers. Modern scams can take the form of any way you receive communications - mail, phone calls, texts, or emails. But worry not, the best (and easiest) thing you can do to protect you and your family from tax scams is to stay updated on common scams and to be skeptical before handing over your personal information to anyone. We’ve included a few tax scams to watch out for:
Be mindful of what you receive in the mail. One new scam involves a fake IRS letter arriving in a cardboard envelope. The letter tells the recipient that it is related to their unclaimed tax refund, but it is really a trap to trick individuals into sharing their account information with scammers. If victims contact the phone number in the letter, they may not realize that it’s not actually the IRS until it’s too late.
Just because you see it on social media, doesn’t mean you should join in. This scheme, which spread on social platforms, encourages viewers to manually fill out their W-2 Form with incorrect income and withholding information in order to receive a significantly larger (and incorrect!) refund. Individuals who fall for this scam and submit a fake tax return may end up facing penalties from the IRS.
Have an “.edu” email from working at an educational institution? Another scam, which the IRS has connected to targeting “.edu” emails, takes advantage of recipients by sending them an email posing as the IRS. When they visit the website linked in the email, the victims are tricked into sharing personal information, such as their social security number or date of birth, with scammers.
There’s plenty of potential scams to consider, not just during tax season but all year long. Remembering each scam can be a lot of information to maintain. The IRS publishes updates about tax scams and consumer alerts right on their website.
Dealing with the IRS
Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, things fall behind. If you find yourself behind the tax deadline, struggling with payments, or feeling confused by the IRS, there’s a few different resources you can look out for.
If you’re late to filing your taxes, one of the most important things you can do is to contact the IRS early to make arrangements. Late penalties can continue to build the longer you ignore the problem, and the IRS may be more likely to issue penalties to individuals they cannot track down. Looking for ways to stay on top of payments? When you can’t pay the entire bill at once, A Chaffey FCU tax relief loan can help you meet the payment deadline, while still maintaining your budget.
What happens if you tried to resolve the issue with the IRS and it persists? The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is an independent organization in the IRS that works to help taxpayers resolves issues and receive fair treatment regarding their tax filings. They also offer tax news and resources right on their site to help you learn what your notice from the IRS means.
This tax season, stay ahead of the game. File your taxes as early as you can so you don’t miss any deadlines, stay updated on tax scams to protect your and your family’s information, and look to tax resources such as VITA or TAS if you find yourself needing a little extra help.