During this tax season you need to be aware of the common mistakes made when filing tax returns.
"The biggest mistake that gets a lot of people in trouble is they don't report everything," said accountant Gerald Paschal who has been filing peoples taxes for more than 30 years
Paschal says he sees his fair share of mistakes many of which happen when people don't claim all of their income in a rush to file and get a quick return.
"In April they end up owing $13-1,400 but they already spent their refund and don't have the money to pay it back," said Paschal.
Paschal suggests watching out for deductions you might qualify for he says many times big tax credits are over looked.
"When you're going to school there's a tax credit, if you buy energy efficient things for your home there are tax credits for those, mileage for charitable contributions," said Paschal.
"Trying to file before you get your w-2 that's a common one too." Said Lumberton resident Lisa Kankelfitz.
She says she's known people who have missed out on about three thousand dollars trying to file their taxes too early and not claiming all the deductions they could have.
"You know a lot of people are impatient trying to file before and kind of get mixed up leaving some money out somewhere," said Kankelfitz.
And because taxes change from year to year both Paschal and Kankelfitz agree that your best bet to avoid common mistakes is taking your taxes to a pro.
"You save on getting a preparer but you missed out on $3-400 you could've had," said Paschal.
"I goes step by step but it doesn't tell you what all you can get so it's better to go to a tax preparer to do that so you can get all your money back," said Kankelfitz.
Paschal says other common mistakes people make is forgetting to sign and date the return and entering their social security number incorrectly or not at all.
Also for newlyweds who legally change their last name remember to change it at the social security office as well.
