Experts warn that that many scam artists are out there, and frequently disguise scams as services that are related to your taxes.
Here are some tax tips for fighting possible scammers this year.
Over 2 million people are filing Australian taxes the electronic way, giving criminals a rather large potential market.
Criminals will often make attempts to get your personal information through scams. Michael McKinnon, a security expert with AVG, gives these tax tips.
Be wary of any e-mail supposed claiming to be from the government. This will often be designed to look urgent, and may offer you refunds that seem too good to be true, or claim your return is invalid, and information needs to be sent again.
One of the simple yet devastating scams will have you clink on a link in an e-mail. This will take you to an unsafe website, where you could easily get your identify stolen by hackers.
At the end of the year, people should be getting ready with these tax filing tips.
Taxes (Photo credit: Tax Credits)
-Make sure your security is up to date on any devices you might be using to file taxes. This includes PCs, phones, laptops, and possibly other technology.
-Make sure you check in with the ATO every so often about new scams that might be out there. Be sure to report anything suspicious to them as well.
-Always use a secure password, consisting of both numbers and letters that will be hard for hackers to crack.
Tax season is rough enough without having to worry about someone stealing your hard earned money. Use the above tax tips to make sure your information is always safe.
There’s only so much that your parents can do to prepare you for being an adult. If you’re lucky, they have done their best to teach you about financial responsibility. At a certain point though, it’s really up to you. Being financially responsible requires discipline. It means having to pass up short-lived fun for long-term stability. It’s not something that you should put off until you’re well into your twenties or thirties. By starting now, you can lay the foundation for a successful life. With any luck, you’ll be able to live debt-free. Keeping a budget, filing your taxes online and reconciling your bank account are just a few things you can do. Learn more about developing financial responsibility below.
Avoid Serious Consequences
It’s easy to brush off the importance of being financially responsible. However, some very serious consequences can rear their heads sooner rather than later. From running up a huge amount of debt to ending up in jail for not paying your taxes, ignoring the importance of financial responsibility can wreak havoc on your life. The good news is that it’s not too difficult to get where you need to be.
Use Your Computer to Create and Manage a Budget
You can’t hope to live within your financial means without creating a budget. In years past, the only way to do so was by whipping out a pencil and a sheet of paper. These days, it’s a lot easier. Whether you use Excel to create a spreadsheet, or if you invest in high-quality budgeting software, getting started is a snap. There are even websites that automatically import all of your bank account and credit card information, so you can always see where you stand.
Reconcile Your Bank Account
Just because you rarely write checks doesn’t mean that you don’t have to worry about balancing your checkbook. Without periodically reconciling your bank account, you could miss discrepancies that could add up to a lot of money. When you do write a check, make sure to deduct the amount of the check from your balance immediately. It may not clear right away, but you need to pretend that it has. Otherwise, you could end up with bounced checks, overdraft fees and all kinds of trouble.
File Your Taxes Online
It is your responsibility to file your taxes every year. No one else is going to do it for you. Many young adults get refunds, so that is an added incentive. However, even if you owe money, you need to stay on top of your tax situation. You don’t have to be a math whiz to do so, and you don’t have to pay an accountant to do it for you. More people are choosing to file taxes online and you can too. It’s a fast, easy, affordable and convenient way to take care of this important business.
Keep an Eye on the Future
Finally, as difficult as it may be to believe, you’re going to retire someday. It’s easy to think that you can put off worrying about retirement, but it really pays to start planning for it as early as possible. Start socking away money now. It will compound over the years, which means that you’ll accumulate quite a nest egg. By doing this, you’ll stay ahead of the curve and set the stage for a financially stable life.
Photo credit
Jeana Olchowy is a part of an elite team of writers who have contributed to hundreds of blogs and news sites. Follow her @jolchowy25.
Welcome to the November 22, 2011 edition of Tax Carnival Ecstasy. In this issue we have 19 great tax and finance related articles from some very good blogs. Emily Everet starts off the carnival with an explanation of How Your Company Benefits Are Taxed. SteveR has information on Home Energy Tax Credits that you can receive from the purchase of new appliances. We have an explanation of How To Claim Disability Living Allowance from Jay Speaks. And finally, Mark Roberts takes a look at the Standard Deduction for 2011. Hope you enjoy the articles, bookmark, share, tweet, like on Facebook and come back again.
Adriana Roux presents Occupy Movement Reclaims Foreclosed Homes in Oakland posted at Bankruptcy Attorney NJ RSS Feed, saying, “Occupy Wall Street has swept the globe gaining strength in various major cities across the world. In particular, Occupy has ignited strongly on the West Coast where Oakland protestors are expanding their occupancy to foreclosed homes in the northern part of California.”
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Emily Everet presents How Your Company Benefits Are Taxed posted at P11d, saying, “If you receive benefits or gifts from your company they will usually need to be taxed. This post outlines what you need to know and how much you will be taxed.”
Jay Speaks presents How To Claim Disability Living Allowance posted at Disability Living Allowance, saying, “This weeks post outlines how to claim disability living allowance, either online or by telephone.”
Mark Roberts presents Explaining the Standard Deduction posted at Tax Brackets, saying, “Your standard deduction reduces the amount of your income that is taxed. This blog post explains the standard deduction, how much it is and when you can’t claim.”
retirement
Jason P. presents Money 101: What is Compound Interest? posted at One Money Design, saying, “I’m always amazed to read a good overview of how compound interest works. Hopefully, some parents will use this as a resource to teach their children this wonderful financial principle.”
SteveR presents When is Borrowing from Your 401k a Good Idea? posted at 2009 Taxes, saying, “While many financial experts claim you should avoid borrowing from your 401k as much as possible, it may be your only financial life line in certain situations.”
Martha Stewart presents 15 Incredible Businessmen Who Refused to Retire posted at onlinemba.com, saying, “For many who reach the top echelons of business, retirement is a time to enjoy the spoils of a life well lived and years of hard work and perseverance. Others, however, take a different approach.”
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Linda Rodriguez presents Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act posted at Credit Cards for Fair Credit, saying, “You may now be wondering exactly what your rights are under this act. Your information is being sold, and you should know exactly what you can do to prevent damage to your credit and future as well as fix any current credit problems.”
Maria Clark presents Credit Card Debt or Emotional Roller Coaster? posted at Credit Cards for Bad Credit Resource, saying, “Most of the information you will find online about credit card debt covers the financial struggles you will face. However, there are very few resources to help those with credit card debt handle the situation emotionally.”
Linda Rodriguez presents What is the difference between fair credit and poor credit? posted at Credit Cards for Fair Credit, saying, “The difference between fair and poor credit is significant, but is frequently determined by each individual lender.”
Dorothy presents Credit Card Clauses to Avoid posted at Secured Credit Cards, saying, “When you are looking for a credit card, it can be easy to try and find the offer with the lowest interest rate, no annual fees, and the best rewards. However, there is much more to credit cards than the benefits you see initially.”
Gemma Flannery presents 3 Things You Should Know About Emergency Tax Codes posted at Tax Codes, saying, “You may be put on an emergency tax code if your employer doesn’t know which tax code to place you on. This blog posts highlight 3 things you should know about the emergency tax code.”
tips
SteveR presents Will Obamas New Lifeline Catch Any Fish? posted at FastSwings, saying, “We all know that many homeowners have lost their homes to foreclosure in recent years and many more are unable to afford their mortgage payments.”
Deborah Brown presents 3 Clauses to Be Aware of in Personal Loans posted at First Credit Card, saying, “Most banks use early repayment penalties in order to discourage borrowers from paying off their debts early. This is because the longer a borrower takes to pay off their debt, the more money they will have to pay the bank in interest.”
SteveR presents Reasons to Use a Demo Account posted at Forex Trading System Central, saying, “When it comes to trading Forex it is important that you have significant experience and practice, which can best be attained through using a demo account.”
Amy Gardner presents 3 Real-Life Stories of People Crushed By Payday Loan Debt posted at Disaster Strikes, saying, “There are thousands of stories online about people who have struggled with payday lending. Some accounts are worse than others, but their personal experiences always seem to have similar results; they all end up in a worse position than they were before their payday loan.”
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of tax carnival ecstasy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
Did You Forget To File Your Returns on April 15th with the IRS?
Are you late filing your tax returns and has April 15th already passed? In case you could not file your tax return or request for an extension of time, here some ways to clear your past due.
The Internal Revenue Service happens to be a bit sensitive regarding filing of tax returns. Even if you are unable to pay, it prefers you to do a file your return or take a filing extension. In the worst situation, the IRS simply puts you on a payment … Read the rest
Did You Forget To File Your Returns on April 15th with the IRS?
Are you late filing your tax returns and has April 15th already passed? In case you could not file your tax return or request for an extension of time, here some ways to clear your past due.
The Internal Revenue Service happens to be a bit sensitive regarding filing of tax returns. Even if you are unable to pay, it prefers you to do a file your return or take a filing extension. In the worst situation, the IRS simply puts you on a payment plan. If you are unable to file anything, then you will definitely receive a lot of unexpected attention from the authority.
Normally, you should make a point to always pay your taxes. Otherwise, it might bring on huge penalties as well as interests. In case the IRS happens to have any doubts, you might finally end up paying interest and penalties of up to 25% of your taxes. It’s really a huge charge!
In case there is a refund due for you, then there is no worry for you regarding any penalties even if you couldn’t file your taxes. This is because they owe you money. But are you crazy? Why are you giving the government a loan that is interest-free? You couldn’t have used that money for other purposes? Just be quick to get your return filed. Very few people will let go of their refunds. Always remember that you will lose your refunds if you fail to claim within three years from the original date of filing them. Truly speaking, if you are so lazy, then you deserve to lose your money!
In case you have to pay taxes but you don’t have money, then there is an alternative for you. You can even pay taxes to the IRS through credit cards. It’s definitely not a great option, as its interest rates are higher. But you cannot be audited by the credit card companies.
That some taxpayers may be unable to pay their taxes fully is well understood by the IRS. So to be on the safer side, even if you are unable to pay, it is always good to file your return.
