SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - Tax season is here and you have less than 8 weeks until the deadline to file your taxes. But there are a number of lesser known tax credits you may qualify for.
When it comes to taxes many of us focus on deductions, trying to keep ourselves in the lowest tax bracket possible so we owe the government less. But credits are, in most cases, even better than deductions.
IRS Spokesman Richard Cowley says, “With credits you're actually reducing dollar for dollar the amount of tax you're paying.” Cowley says some of the lesser known tax credits available this year are the adoption credit, savers credit, and electric vehicle credit.
You qualify for the adoption credit if you adopted, or attempted to adopt a child and spent money on court costs, attorney fees, travel expenses and other expenses related to the adoption.
For the electric car credit you have to have bought the vehicle after December 31, 2009. It must have been bought new, have four or more wheels, weigh less than 14,000 pounds, require a battery, and can be recharged from an external source of electricity.
To qualify for the savers credit, formally known as the retirement fund, you must have been born before January 2, 1992, not a full time student during the year, and not a dependent on someone else's tax return. There are also some income limitations.
Cowley says, “Credits can range anywhere from a couple thousand dollars up to tens of thousands of dollars.”
So why have these credits not gotten more attention? Cowley says, “There's not that many people doing those types of things and it is more expensive for those types of things.”
If you've already filed your return and qualify for any of these tax credits, you can filed an amended tax return which is a form 1040X. The processing time for those is usually 12 to 16 weeks.
