VBT Pit Stop & Guest Post with Cora Parks - Your IRS Refund

Cora Parks is a Tax Consultant and she is touring with her book, Your IRS Refund. What better time to learn tips and ways to make sure there is no delay in your tax refund than during tax season. Welcome Cora!

Cora Parks is a lifelong Atlantan whose vision is to bring proactive tax counsel and personal responsibility to the masses in the area of taxation.
She is the author and editor of the financial blog Tax Today, a blog that provides readers with information on an array of federal tax topics. She is currently collaborating with PYPTW Inc, a nonprofit organization to start a low income tax clinic in metro Atlanta.

Time Is Winding Up To File 2011 Tax Returns

If you did not file a return for 2011 and were due a refund, the deadline is fast approaching.  In order to collect the refund, your return must be postmarked, properly addressed, and mailed by Tuesday, April 17, 2012.  There is no penalty for filing a late return qualifying for a refund.

It is especially beneficial for individuals that had federal income tax withheld from their paychecks or who made quarterly estimated payments. In addition, you may find that you may qualify for refundable credits, such as the Earned Income Credit, which would increase the net amount of refund to you or the Recovery Rebate Credit if you did not receive an Economic Stimulus payment in 2008.

In cases where a return was not filed, the law provides most taxpayers with a three-year window of opportunity for claiming a refund. If no return is filed to claim a refund within three years, the money becomes the property of the U.S. Treasury.

Before you file, make sure that you contact the IRS and the Financial Management Service (FMS) to make sure that you do not owe past due obligations.  If you have not filed tax returns for 2009 and 2010 and have a filing requirement, your refund may be held. In addition, the refund will be applied to any amounts still owed to the IRS, and may be used to offset unpaid child support or past due federal debts such as student loans.

If you need copies of your tax records from previous years, you can request copies from their employer, bank or other payer. If these efforts are unsuccessful, taxpayers can get a free transcript showing information from these year-end documents by ordering them on the IRS website at https://sa2.www4.irs.gov/irfof-tra/start.do, completing Form 4506-T, or by calling 1-800-908-9946.

In Your IRS Refund you will find all the information you will need about an IRS refund, from the options that you have to get your refund, to getting a bigger refund, and getting it faster. In addition, we include little known IRS refund topics, like what to do when you have an expired refund, what to do if you get an unexpected IRS refund and much more.