ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) – For most Americans, the deadline to file federal tax returns is Tuesday, April 18. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is expecting around 168 million individual returns, but so far has only gotten about 80 million.
David Kembel with Kembel Tax Service said, “People put off bad news. They know kind of what’s coming and they wait a little bit too long, usually, to get into here. And so they’re just kind of not in a big hurry. They know they’re not getting a refund so they’re just going ahead and putting it off until the last second to avoid the bad news.”
Tax experts had been warning Americans for some time to expect lower refunds this tax season because of the ending of several pandemic-era credits.
Kembel said, “I would have to say that none of our clients were surprised. We warned everybody. It was mainly our new clients that came in who we had to explain that to.”
If you are among the millions of people who still have to file a tax return, there are still a couple of things you can do to save some money.
Kembel said, “We like for folks to remember back in 2022 if they did anything energy-saving to their homes — specifically windows, doors, insulation, a new hot water heater, maybe a furnace or air conditioner — there are credits for those. Those are the things that people usually forget.”
Additionally, taxpayers still have time to contribute to Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) for the 2022 tax season. Kembel advises you to reach out to your bank or IRA custodian to contribute.
Kembel said, “[This has to be done by] April 18, and that includes April 18. So they could do it on April 18, but it’s imperative that they let the custodian know that they’re making a 2022 contribution.”
Kembel Tax Service has two locations in Southwest Virginia. One office is located at 3434 Orange Avenue in Roanoke. The second is located at 1905 Electric Road in Salem. You can call (540) 343-4006 or (540) 404-4720 for more information.