More Info Needed For Certain Tax Credits

Do the following three items apply to you?
• Are you claiming your dependent children?
• Did you pay for any education expenses?
• Did your family income situation change and it’s lower than $50K?
If yes, then IRS would want to know and want to have more information.
Hello, this is Noel Dalmacio, your ultimate CPA at lowermytaxnow.

When you are claiming your children for tax credit purposes, you may be asked how long your children lived with you over the past year, or whether they lived with an ex-spouse, relatives or other guardian.
Now for education purposes, which can give you up to $2,500 of tax credit, you are now required to provide Form 1098-T from the college or university. You will also need receipts for related expenses. No Form 1098-T, no tax credit.
Lastly, if your family income drastically changed and it’s under $50K and as a result, you were entitled to earned income credit (EIC), you may be asked additional questions regarding your dependents’ social security numbers and dates of birth. Why? Because these two items were the major source of what the IRS calls “improper payments or refunds.”
IRS estimates that of the $66 billion in EIC funds paid in 2015, nearly a quarter or $16.5 billion were collected by filers who didn’t qualify to receive them. As a result, the IRS is requiring tax preparers aka “yours truly” to ask more questions.
So starting this year, if we don’t document the compliance with these new requirements, I could face fines of up to $510 per return. What?
To summarize, if I asked you more questions than usual or if I requested for additional documents, be aware that it’s just a new requirement to claim the above credits.

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Until then, this is Noel Dalmacio, your ultimate CPA at lowermytaxnow.com.