YORK, Pa. — According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), more than 4 million refunds were delivered last tax season, and more than 15 million people filed.
Although those statistics were strong for the tax season, they didn’t come without trouble and error. A list detailing the most common mistakes people make when filing their taxes can be found on the IRS website.
Sabrina Bowman, general manager and tax preparer at Liberty Tax in York said she sees many mistakes while helping people file. Although Liberty Tax is there to help, she says providing knowledge to those who file would make the process manageable.
“One of the most common mistakes that we see here in our office is people not actually knowing what their filing status is… head of household versus being single,” said Bowman
Bowman says the person has to have an eligible or qualified dependent in order to claim head of household and that they can only claim head of household for one address. The IRS only allows one person per address to file under the head of household.
Another common mistake Bowman says the Liberty Tax office sees is people not aware of who they can add on as a dependent. Claiming a dependent means that the child has ties to the filer and cannot file as an independent unless they meet certain criteria.
“You’ll see people come in and say ‘well my stepson, my stepson, or my stepdaughter’ but they’re not legally married and I don’t think the IRS has caught up with the way people truly live,” said Bowman.
The 1099-NEC form is often overlooked by self-employed filers, according to Bowman. People who make non-employee compensation exceed a certain amount. Bowman said that includes working for ride-sharing apps. The problem is that the employee hasn’t been keeping a record of those deductions.
“They will give you the mileage you spent from the moment you picked up a passenger until the moment you dropped them off, but they don’t tell you how many miles you drove from the time you clicked that you accepted it till you picked them up and that’s also a deductible,” said Bowman.
Bowman said they have also seen many people who needed an identity protection pin because their identity had been compromised. The pin ensures that the person is able to file for income tax. Bowman said this is not a mistake but it is something Liberty Tax is seeing frequently.
“If you think you may have been a victim of identity theft or fraud, you may want to get the IDMe verification app that the IRS has on their website to help keep their information secured,” said Bowman.
Bowman tells FOX43 the groups who are the targets of identity thefts are the unhoused, those in recovery centers and those incarcerated.
“It’s sad because some of these folks really needed the help, and it would’ve been great to have them have the assistance of the stimulus and they were scammed out of it, so getting their identification verified will help them moving forward,” said Bowman.
For tax forms, information and more, click here.