Aaaah……The week after tax season (and the first full weekend home in two and half months) is the best week in a tax accountant’s life!

If you haven’t filed your tax return by now, you should probably consider filing for an extension. It is a lot easier to file for an extension than it is to amend a return later for a mistake you made trying to rush your return to completion. Even more costly is if the IRS finds a mistake you made and assesses underpayment penalties and interest.

Generally speaking, the Ohio tax laws follow federal rules. There are, however, several important differences you should know about. This week, we will look at several of those differences.

As we explained a few months ago (TTW#116) we will occasionally print questions our clients ask as our Tax Tip of the Week article. Here are a few that we have come across so far this tax filing season:

If you were legally married on 12/31/11, the IRS considers you married for the entire year of 2011.

Are you or someone you know, getting close to drawing Social Security? Do you think the only choices available are whether to start drawing at age 62, full retirement age (FRA), or later? You may have more options than you think… and those choices may not be presented to you unless you ask. Calculations are made based on your FRA and then reductions or credits are applied.