Comments on: Surviving Income Tax Season Without an Audit

By: taxdummy

taxdummy — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:09:13 +0000

Yes, I got a refund when I was audited. That was only because I gave the government free money by forgetting to claim all of my withholding.

By: natalie

natalie — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 19:21:33 +0000

I also want to point out that you have to keep an accurate record of your miles driven for business. I use the Mileage Logger by Vulocity. I also just saw it featured in PC Mag. It plugs into your car and automatically logs your miles. You can then log on to a Web site and sort your trips according to personal, business, charity, etc. I will be reimbursed over $10,000 this year for the miles I drove. You have to have proper records to back up such high claims, but the Mileage Logger does it all for you. Can’t say enough good things about it.
Hope this helps. Cheers!

By: flacara

flacara — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 08:13:51 +0000

If you use Turbotax & you owe money , you can e-file now and get it out of the way, while instructing the IRS to take the money out on April 15.

By: taxrascal

taxrascal — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:54:02 +0000

This is some very useful advice! I know lots of folks view an audit as a bit of a gamble, so it’s good to know you can do something about it in advance.

By: thomas

thomas — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 06:47:40 +0000

do audits ever come back and say that the gov’t OWES you money? That’s an audit I’d like to get.

By: Tani

Tani — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:04:39 +0000

MITBeta great suggestion on the paper filings. I’ll suggest another cool gadge I ran across in the NATP newsletter. It’s an automatic Mileage Logger from a company called Vulocity. Really cool product. Easy is always better!

By: nickel

nickel — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:10:36 +0000

MITBeta: That’s a great point, and one that I’ve covered somewhere else on this site. We did just that this past year (in addition to filing for an extension) for the reasons that you described.

By: MITBeta @ Don't Feed the Alligators

MITBeta @ Don't Feed the Alligators — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:46:12 +0000

Can I add one more?

6. File by paper: The IRS only runs audit checks on electronic returns. It routinely converts about 1/3 of paper returns to electronic format and then scans them for audit flags. If you don’t file electronically, you decrease your odds of even being in the pool to be audited. I got this from one of my landlording books, and I’ll be happy to dig up the reference if necessary.

By: DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad

DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:28:01 +0000

Good advice!