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What's New for Tax Year 2015
Health care: individual responsibility. You must either:
See Form 8965 for more details. Premium tax credit. You may be eligible to claim the premium tax credit if you, your spouse, or a dependent enrolled in health insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplace. See Form 8962 for more information. Advance payments of the premium tax credit. Advance payments of the premium tax credit may have been made to the health insurer to help pay for the insurance coverage of you, your spouse, or your dependent. If advance payments of the premium tax credit were made, you must file a 2014 tax return and Form 8962. If you enrolled someone who is not claimed as a dependent on your tax return or for more information, see the Instructions for Form 8962 Form 1095-A. If you, your spouse, or a dependent enrolled in health insurance through the Marketplace, you should have received Form(s) 1095‐A. If you receive Form 1095‐A for 2014, save it. It will help you figure your premium tax credit. If you did not receive a Form 1095‐A, contact the Marketplace. Expired tax benefits. At the time this publication was prepared for printing, certain tax benefits had expired. These included the deduction for educator expenses and the tuition and fees deduction. In addition, the health coverage tax credit has expired. You can find out whether legislation extended these and other tax benefits to allow you to claim them on your 2014 return at www.irs.gov/formspubs. Medicaid waiver payments. If you received certain payments under a Medicaid waiver program for caring for someone who lives in your home with you, you may be able to exclude these payments from your income.If you reported these payments on your return for 2013 or an earlier year, see www.irs.gov/Individuals/Certain-Medicaid-Waiver-Payments-May-Be-Excludable-From-Income. You may want to file Form 1040X to amend that prior year return. Mailing your return. If you live in Missouri and need to make a payment with your paper return, you will need to mail it to a different address this year. See Where Do I File? later in this chapter. Direct deposit. To combat fraud and identity theft, the number of refunds that can be directly deposited to a single financial account or prepaid debit card is now limited to three a year. After this limit is exceeded, paper checks will be sent instead. Direct Pay. The best way to pay your taxes is with IRS Direct Pay. It's the safe, easy, and free way to pay from your checking or savings account in one online session. Just click “Pay Your Tax Bill” on IRS.gov. Who must file. Generally, the amount of income you can receive before you must file a return has been increased. See Table 1-1, Table 1-2, and Table 1-3 for the specific amounts. File online. Rather than filing a return on paper, you may be able to file electronically using IRS e-file. Create your own personal identification number (PIN) and file a completely paperless tax return. For more information, see Does My Return Have To Be on Paper , later. Change of address. If you change your address, you should notify the IRS. You can use Form 8822 to notify the IRS of the change. See Change of Address , later, under What Happens After I File. Enter your social security number. You must enter your social security number (SSN) in the spaces provided on your tax return. If you file a joint return, enter the SSNs in the same order as the names. Direct deposit of refund. Instead of getting a paper check, you may be able to have your refund deposited directly into your account at a bank or other financial institution. See Direct Deposit under Refunds, later. If you choose direct deposit of your refund, you may be able to split the refund among two or three accounts. Pay online or by phone. If you owe additional tax, you may be able to pay online or by phone. See How To Pay , later. Installment agreement. If you cannot pay the full amount due with your return, you may ask to make monthly installment payments. See Installment Agreement , later, under Amount You Owe. You may be able to apply online for a payment agreement if you owe federal tax, interest, and penalties. Automatic 6-month extension. You can get an automatic 6-month extension to file your tax return if, no later than the date your return is due, you file Form 4868, Application for Automatic Extension of Time To File U.S. Individual Income Tax Return. See Automatic Extension , later. Service in combat zone. You are allowed extra time to take care of your tax matters if you are a member of the Armed Forces who served in a combat zone, or if you served in the combat zone in support of the Armed Forces. See Individuals Serving in Combat Zone , later, under When Do I Have To File. Adoption taxpayer identification number. If a child has been placed in your home for purposes of legal adoption and you will not be able to get a social security number for the child in time to file your return, you may be able to get an adoption taxpayer identification number (ATIN). For more information, see Social Security Number (SSN) , later. Taxpayer identification number for aliens. If you or your dependent is a nonresident or resident alien who does not have and is not eligible to get a social security number, file Form W-7, Application for IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, with the IRS. For more information, see Social Security Number (SSN) , later. Frivolous tax submissions. The IRS has published a list of positions that are identified as frivolous. The penalty for filing a frivolous tax return is $5,000. Also, the $5,000 penalty will apply to other specified frivolous submissions. For more information, see Civil Penalties , later. |
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