8 Steps to Prepare Your 2022 Federal Income Tax Return

3. Know your standard deduction

If you are confident you will take the standard deduction, which is $12,950 for single filers and $25,900 for joint filers in the 2022 tax year, which will reduce some of your paperwork. (If you are 65 or older, the standard deduction is $1,400 higher per person for married couples filing jointly; so if you and your spouse are both 65 or older, the standard deduction is $2,800 more. If your filing status is single and you’re 65 or older, you get an additional $1,750 for your standard deduction.) It doesn’t make sense to go through the time and effort to itemize if your itemized deductions are less than the standard deduction.

“The standard deduction was a huge game-changer as far as documentation and the amount of time and stress on people to pull things together,” says Downey. She says taxpayers can look at their return last year, consider what changed this year and make a rough calculation if they are anywhere close to exceeding the standard deduction — a difficult feat if they have no mortgage and don’t have high medical bills.

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If you plan to itemize deductions, you will need to comb through your checkbook, credit card statements and receipts if you haven’t been tracking items like charitable contributions during the year. That takes time, but the effort may be worth it, particularly if you’ve taken out a mortgage or incurred large medical expenses. Also, states have different limitations on itemized deductions, so some expenses may be deductible on your state return even if you take the standard deduction on your federal filing, Ford notes.

For the 2022 tax year, you can deduct up to $300 (for single filers) and $600 (for joint filers) for cash charitable deductions, even if you take the standard deduction. As with last year’s taxes, you can only deduct medical expenses that are above 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income.

4. Figure out your cost basis

If you sold stocks, bonds or other securities in 2022, you will need to know the cost basis, or what you paid, to calculate any gain or loss on the sale. Before 2011, brokers were not required to report cost basis to the IRS so they may not have records of what you paid, requiring you to collect this information. If you don’t use a broker, you are responsible for figuring out your cost basis.

If you sold a home, you want to compute your purchase price and any improvements to determine if you need to report a capital gain. Up to $250,000 of the gain on a home sale can be excluded for single filers and up to $500,000 for those filing joint returns. Even if the home sale falls below those amounts, the sales transaction needs to be reported to the IRS, Ford notes. “People don’t always realize that,” she says.

5. Track down missing documents

While many documents will be pushed to you automatically, others will require you to be proactive. “If you receive unemployment compensation, you typically have to go online to print that out. You will not receive that in the mail,” says Ford, noting many states require residents to go to a portal to print the 1099-G, which summarizes unemployment dollars received and certain other government compensation, such as state and local tax refunds. For charitable contributions of $250 or more, you need a written acknowledgment from the nonprofit. If the organization did not send the letter yet, or you’ve lost it, now is the time to contact the charity to request a copy.

If you got divorced in 2022, your preparer will want a copy of the divorce decree, Ford says. The decree can contain important information, such as which parent can claim any dependent children that year, she says.

6. Know what to ignore

When using an accountant, you can skip giving the preparer monthly brokerage statements — only the consolidated 1099-B is needed. Likewise, the CPA does not need IRA statements, only the 1099-R if there were distributions, Ford says. For IRA or SEP contributions, the taxpayer does not need to give the CPA any documentation. “They just need to let us know that they’ve actually done it,” Ford says.

7. File early and beat the scammers

You might not be motivated to dive into tax prep, but scammers are already plotting their nasty tricks. “Be very diligent and careful because there are a lot of scams and fraud,” advises Downey. One illegal tactic is to file a fraudulent return, using your Social Security number, before you can submit your return. Filing early helps reduce this risk.

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