AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Americans spend 7.6 billion hours doing their taxes each year and being late in January, we're about to dive right into that tax season.
As you prepare to file for your return, there are several ways you can get it done.
1) Get online help.
"Some people if they just have a W-2, sometimes it's easiest to go online and serviceslike Turbotax and H&R Block offer free filing if you do that," explained local CPA and Managing Partner for L.K. CPA LLC, Lloyd Kruckeberg.
2) File it yourself.
"There's some accounting software, some tax software that allow people to do it themselves so they kind of have to know a little bit about the law but it kind of guides them through there," added Kruckeberg.
Or 3) Hire a local accountant.
"They need all their personal information. They need birth dates of all their kids, they need their birth dates, make sure they have their social security numbers, their kids social security numbers," said Kruckleberg. "Make sure they've got all their sources of income, any kind of paperwork that they've got. If they're a small business make sure they get that done before they see their accountant."
There are ways to get the most out of your tax return, but if often takes a little bit of hunting. Kruckeberg recommended finding any little thing you can count as a deduction or credit to get the most money back in your account.
"If you paid for childcare, there's some credit for childcare. Make sure that if you bought a house, if you own a house that you keep all of the interest and property tax," he advised. "Some mileage for charities is deductible and keep all of your receipts for charity, those are deductible also."
As tax season is upon us, there's a lot been a lot of talk in Washington about changes in withholding taxes, like the social security tax. Right now, we see a smaller percentage coming out of our paychecks for social security but come March, that tax will increase and more will be taken out each paycheck.
"If they don't change it, what's going to happen is after starting in March you're going to basically see about two percent less in your check and that's going to back to social security and medicaid," said Kruckeberg.
Congress is working to possibly change that so the current social security tax rate would stay the same for another year.
So for now -- it's time to focus on our tax returns and whether you're getting the help of a tax professional face-to-face, online or doing it yourself, the sooner you file for your tax return, the better.
"As far as getting your money back, it's probably the sooner the better," explained Kruckeberg. "They'll process those returns in a couple weeks and you can actually have that money back in to your account in a couple weeks."
