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Amended Tax Return
Question:
I was talking with some friends at Sunday school about, of all things, taxes. I think I may have done my tax return incorrectly and actually omitted some expense deductions that I should have included. Is it too late to correct the error?
Answer:
As we continue to fight through the dog days of summer when things seem to move a bit slower it is a great time to stop and think about those old tax returns. The point blank answer to this question is that you have up to three years from the date you file a tax
return to correct any errors by filing an amended tax return. In this case, if you have discovered that you inadvertently omitted a number of valid deductions then there is some of your money waiting to be recovered.
The process of filing an amended tax return is probably easier than you might think. The form to use is IRS Form 1040X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. The front page of the form has three columns; one for the original amounts filed, one for the
changes you are making to the return, and one for the corrected totals. Page two of the form has a space for an explanation of the changes and that is basically it. The form will ask you to attach other forms that have been changed in the process so you will included a new Schedule C, Profit or Loss from Business that will include the omitted deductions.
Keep in mind that you can file amended returns for up to three years from the date you file the return. If you failed to include a deduction on last year’s return you may very well have made the same mistake for previous years. For those of you who don’t already
know that a deduction was missed, this is a great time to go back and take a second look. It’s not always a pleasant surprise to find out that you made a mistake but in this case it might just make the dog days of your summer a little less unbearable.