With each passing year, my tax return gets more complicated. I remember the good ol’ days of the 1040EZ form. It was a one sided form that took about 30 minutes to complete and double check. I always got a refund and in those days I wondered why everybody made such a big deal of something as simple as taxes. I had heard of audits but didn’t know anybody who had actually been audited. After all, I was in college. If the IRS wanted to audit me or any of my friends, I would take my 1040EZ and my one W-2 showing a few thousand dollars in income and listen to the auditor laugh.
On the IRS Website, I found an article talking about the five important changes for the 2008 tax year. Many of these changes I was unaware of so let’s take a look and see which of these may be important to you as you complete your 2008 taxes but also plan ahead for 2009.
Each year at tax time there is a rise in a certain type of crime: Phishing. If you don’t know what Phishing is it’s when criminals try to trick you in to giving them your personal information. This can include credit card and social security numbers, bank account information and other information that is exclusive to you. Having this information allows criminals to commit identity fraud against you. As most people know, identity theft can range from slightly annoying to financially devastating.
