The income tax filing deadline is fast approaching.

Certified Public Accountant with Henkel and Associates Tom Kennedy reminds everyone who haven’t filed their 2022 income taxes need to do so by the federal deadline of April 18th and the state deadline of April 30th. Kennedy points out the documents to have on hand when filing income tax returns include bank statements, including any 1099 forms, a W2 form from your employer, along with investment statements. Kennedy notes those with college loans may not have to file the interest that was collected in 2022 due to the covid pandemic freezing that payment.

“You know a lot of people that have interest that they get to deduct on their tax return, which is not a big number usually I think it’s capped at $2,500 with income. You probably won’t have interest to deduct if you’ve done the freeze on your college payments or your loan payments back. So that’s just a deduction that they may not have.” 

Kennedy explains how long someone should keep any previous income tax returns in case the IRA wants to do an audit.

“You can only get audited three years back. So you should at least keep three years of your personal returns. But if you have anything as something you’re going to sell later that you bought that has basis in something that shows what you paid for some land or something like that, you want to keep that documentation until you sell it, so it could be forever. But three years is all the way they (the IRS) can go back.”

Kennedy adds anyone that wants to file for an extension on their income tax returns may do so by April 18th and then they won’t have to pay income taxes until October 15th for federal and October 30th for state.