Everyone has something to say. It could be recommendations on the maintenance of your car, suggestions on how to cure a cold, or the best way to get from here to there. From gardening tips to herbal remedies, from child-rearing musts to the latest trend in super foods.
Advice flows freely, and everyone is ready to add their two cents to our collective give-a-penny, take-a-penny trays.
Advice on taxes can be a little thorny however. Unless you’re in the know, the guidance you are offering could be laden with potential troubles. Even in the tax professional community, wrong advice and outright erroneous information creates a pitfall of tax traps. The IRS checks those traps quite regularly by the way.
So with all that said, is there anywhere you can go for reliable tax advice, without having to pay someone three figures per hour to give it?
Absolutely. Why go to a third party when you can go to the source? You got it. The IRS stands ready and able to answer all your tax questions. Here are five resources that the IRS makes available to you.
Toll free tax assistance
The IRS general help line is 1-800-TAX-1040. This line is staffed by trained IRS reps Monday through Friday, from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm, your local time.
The 1040 line is a resource for both tax law and account questions. Employees are trained in specialized areas of tax law, and once you explain your concern to a screener, you will be transferred to someone who will assist you.
If you have a question specific to your tax return, such as the reason your refund is delayed, why you owe the IRS, or a concern regarding an audit or examination, be prepared to identify yourself with your Social Security number, name, address on your last tax return and your date of birth.
If you need to check on the status of your refund, after at least four weeks have passed, you can check online with the Where’s My Refund application, or call 1-800-829-4477.
Local Taxpayer Assistance Centers
If you prefer or need face-to-face assistance, you will find free tax help available at one of the thousands of local IRS assistance centers, also known as walk-in facilities.
These sites operate on a first-come, first-serve basis. No appointment is necessary, although one may be provided to you depending on the complexity of your concern.
Among other things, your local office will accept tax payments, assist with account questions, provide copies of tax returns and return transcripts, print blank tax forms, prepare current year federal tax returns to those who qualify, and help with payment arrangements, as long as your account has not become delinquent to the point it has been turned over to IRS collections.
To find the office nearest you, click on the link to Contact my Local Office at irs.gov.
Petition your local Taxpayer Advocate
According to the IRS, the Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is an independent organization within the IRS. TAS helps individual and business taxpayers resolve concerns with the IRS through prompt and impartial mediation of problems that have not been resolved through normal IRS channels.
You can contact the Taxpayer Advocate Service intake line to see if you are eligible by calling 1-877-777-4778. For more information on the role of TAS, see IRS Publication 1546, The Taxpayer Advocate Service of the IRS – How to Get Help with Unresolved Tax Problems.
Let your mouse do the walking
We’re talking electronic media here, so fingers don’t do the walking anymore, your mouse does.
Check our IRS.gov for an enormous summation of information, all organized under user-friendly links and important tax headlines. The IRS home page is broken down into four subsections: Forms and Publications, Online Services, Filing and Payments, and a functional section entitled I Need To.
Google it
IRS advice is also available outside of the friendly confines of their web site. The IRS uses new and social media tools to share the latest information on tax changes, initiatives, products and services.
IRS2Go is a smartphone application that lets you interact with the IRS using your mobile device. The IRS also has YouTube video channels that provide short, informative videos on various tax related topics in English, American Sign Language and a variety of foreign languages. The IRS also makes use of Twitter, audio files for podcasts and widgets.
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