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Miriam: With tax season in full swing, be careful when putting your tax
documents together, because going through them too fast, it can end up
costing you. Stephen Schwartz with Kars for Kids is here to tell us how to
avoid making the top mistakes when filing. So good morning to you.
Stephen: Good morning Miriam. Thank you for having me.
Miriam: It's good to have you on. Of course. So let's go through some
of this list here. Tell us, what are some of the top mistakes
that we make and how to avoid them.
Stephen: Absolutely. Absolutely. What I brought with me are five tips
for your viewers so that they can file and get the maximum
deduction that they're entitled to this year. The number one
tip, we are a car donation charity. The number one tip we've
identified is don't forget to put the car donation on the tax
return. If one of your viewers has generously donated a car,
they should take full advantage of that deduction.
Miriam: Okay.
Stephen: And all they need is the receipt and a Form 8283, which is
provided by the car donation charity, such as Kars for Kids.
Miriam: Okay.
Stephen: And by the way, if your viewers forget anything I'm saying, we
put all of these tips on our website, Kars4Kids.org/taxtips.
Miriam: Okay. That's definitely a good tip for sure. What's another
one too that we always forget about?
Stephen: So the second tip that we have is home improvements can be a
tax deduction. We're talking about doors, windows, and new
roofs.
Miriam: Okay. That's good, especially with spring now, right? So people
may be doing changes even from last year or whatnot. And moving
on, what's the next one we have? Number three?
Stephen: So, the third tip is actually related to that second tip. When
doing the home improvement deduction, that's an extremely
complicated deduction. So we recommend that folks either look at
the rules really carefully or consult a professional tax person
on that one.
Miriam: Okay. And then another one too. What else are you seeing people
making similar mistakes with?
Stephen: So number four is student loans, federal student loans. Those
are deductible and for dependents as well.
Miriam: Okay. And I know I have a student loan myself, as many people
do out there. So that's definitely, probably a common mishap,
you know?
Stephen: Yeah. Yeah. No, education's very expensive, and the government
recognizes that. Also the government wants people to advance
themselves and to get more degrees. So they allow the federal
student loans to be deducted.
Miriam: Well, that's good, and that's good for us to know too. Number
five, if we're going to round out maybe the top five here, what
else would you say is most important for people to know?
Stephen: So the last tip is we're saving all this money on deductions.
Why not file for free? A lot of the national tax services are
posting online. You can file free returns. And we actually
posted links to those services as well on our website,
Kars4Kids.org. Kars with a 'K' and the number '4'.
Miriam: Okay. And I know that's helped over time. That's kind of
evolved, hasn't it? So that people can go online and do it all
yourself. And it's very simple we should add, right?
Stephen: Yeah. Yeah. A lot of these deductions are very, very simple.
Miriam: And self-explanatory.
Stephen: Absolutely.
Miriam: So that's good. And one more time it is Kars4Kids.org/tax tips,
to help you out there. And of course, thank you so much, sir,
for coming on and telling us all this stuff and for more
information, too, about Kars for Kids. We appreciate it.
Stephen: Thank you so much Miriam.
Miriam: All right. Well, happy filing I guess, right?
Stephen: Yes, yes.
Miriam: You're the expert.