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Taxes, taxes, taxes! Everyone has to do them and it can get really frustrating to do. There is a lot of legal jargon that you are going to have to familiarize yourself with and it can be really intimidating. Now that tax season is over, everyone should have gotten their taxes in. If you are one of the unlucky, you don’t have to worry. The law is on your side of this. When you are past the cut off date of April 15th and you realize that there is a mistake on your taxes, you can file what is called an Amended tax return. It is not that hard to do and you are going to be able to escape from paying those overpriced fees that the IRS is going to want to place on you or the audit that can cost you a lot of headache too. Here is a step by step process of what you are going to have to do when filing an amended tax return:

Contact the IRS
Whenever you are going to need to make a correction on your taxes, you need to contact the IRS and inform them of the issue. They are always going to be willing to help you file and extension on your taxes so that you can make the changes and you are going to have to file some extra forms because of it, but you are not going to be penalized for it. Many people ignore this process because they feel that the IRS knows about the problem already. This is not the case. Give them a call an inform them to save yourself the headache.

File a new 1040
Now before you even fill this out, you are going to have to make sure that you have all your paperwork correct. The IRS is going to go over this with a fine tipped comb and you are going to have to make sure that they are good so that you are not in danger of an audit. When filing out the form, you are going to have to match up with Form 1040 to the different lines on Form 1040X. This is going to be a little taxing on your time, but it needs to be done.

File a 1040X
You need to be able to have both the 1040 and the 1040X side by side because you are going to be working on both forms. Get the information from one form and transfer it to the other. The 1040X is going to have three collums. Filing an amended tax return has the benefits of being able to change your mistakes but it is never a fun task. Once you have filled out the information, then you need to change the info. Directly on the tax you are going to find something like this:

“We are reporting additional wages (1040 line 7) and additional withholding (1040 line 63) from a W-2 we forgot to include on our previous tax return. This resulted in changes to our adjusted gross income (line 37), taxable income (line 42), total tax (line 62), and refund (line 71). Enclosed is a new 1040, as corrected, with a copy of the W-2 attached.” (2010. http://www.irs.gov)
That is what is going to be the change instructions and how to go about doing it all. You are going to be a little stressed over it but you will get it done.
Review and Check
Always make sure that you do this step. You don’t want to have to file another one of these forms. You need to be able to get it right the second time. You are going to notice that you are going to have a lot of questions and concerns. On a legal stance, this is just something that you have to do to avoid any problems with the IRS. You don’t want to be the one getting fined for back-due taxes. You need to be able to have your head in the game and get the right forms in.

Sign and Date
Never Forget! You are going to have to do the form over again if you forget this simple, yet forgotten, piece of your taxes. It is not hard to do yet many people do it all the time. When you have filled out the right forms and have all your correct information in the right spots, you are going to be able to get all the forms that you are going to need. It is not difficult to get the paperwork signed if you pay attention to what is going on with your paperwork in the first place.

After all of that, you are going to be able to have everything under control and hope that you are not going to have to owe too much. In many cases you get back money. On a legal stance, the IRS is going to work with you. Many people have false impressions of the IRS saying things like, “They are only after my money!” You have rights as a citizen and you are not going to have any problems if you have the right tools to begin with.