Don't Mess With Taxes

Millennials are relishing their influence in the current presidential campaign, especially on the Democratic side where they're helping make the nomination race very close.

But when it comes to taxes, this younger generation apparently is not nearly as confident.

A recent survey by NerdWallet and Harris Poll found that millennials fear tax season more than other tax-paying age group.

Fear of filing mistakes: The reason for the dread? Potential tax mistakes.

Around 80 percent of the young adult taxpayers told pollsters that making an error on their 1040s was a major filing concern. That's understandable. Making a tax mistake can be costly.

But only 60 percent of taxpayers age 55 and older shared that fear. I guess experience does count at tax time. That, or all us older filers are just used to making and correcting mistakes, on our taxes and elsewhere.

Paper or online surprise: One thing that's helped millions of taxpayers reduce their filing mistakes is tax preparation software.

And the survey did find that using tax software was the most popular method of filing taxes last year across all age groups.

But according to the poll, many millennials prefer to go old-school at tax time.

That's right. The generation that seems to rely on digital devices for almost everything prefers using paper to fulfill filing responsibilities at a higher rate than do older taxpayers, according to the survey, which was, yes, conducted online.

Filers in the 18- to 34-year-old age group report a higher rate of mailing paper tax returns, 17 percent versus 8 percent among taxpayers ages 35 and older.

Take that all y'all who've ever questioned old dogs learning new tax tricks.

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