Don't Mess With Taxes

Most of us nowadays file our taxes electronically, but there still are some paper holdouts. Those folks soon will be getting their tax packets, or most of them, in their snail mail boxes.

The IRS says it's sending 16.5 million 1040 packages to taxpayers who have filed paper tax returns in the past. But, notes the IRS, the tax packages don't contain any tax credit or other forms that are related to the end-of-year alternative minimum tax (AMT) law changes.

As noted earlier (in this blog item), since the 2007 tax year AMT adjustments didn't become law until Dec. 26, five forms are still in the process of being vetted by the IRS; the agency has finished the necessary computer programming checks on seven other forms.

But none of the dozen documents are in the packages that are now in the mail.

That means that paper filers will have to use their computers at least a little bit to print out the documents that they'll then mail back to the IRS. The forms are available at the IRS' Forms and Publications Web page.

The five forms that the IRS still isn't ready to process are:

• Form 8863, Education Credits   
• Form 5695, Residential Energy Credits   
• Schedule 2,  Child and Dependent Care Expenses for Form 1040A Filers
  
• Form 8396,  Mortgage Interest Credit   
• Form 8859,  District of Columbia First-Time Homebuyer Credit

If you need one of those, don't think about filing them or your other return data, either electronically or the old-fashioned way, until Feb. 11. That's the target date the IRS has set for its computer systems to be able to process returns that include these five frustrating forms.

And even if you are using tax software to complete your 2007 return, keep checking with the manufacturer's Web site to make sure you have, or get, the latest iteration so you'll have the proper forms to shoot off to the IRS in February.

One Don't Mess With Taxes reader, however, has a nifty way to get around the delay if you're planning to claim the Child and Dependent Care credit and usually file a 1040A. Instead, suggests Ed, file the long Form 1040 and use Form 2441 to claim the credit. That way your refund won't be delayed.

Sneaky, Ed! I like the way you think!