When people do their own taxes, mistakes are very common. You’re likely worried about making errors when you’re filling out the forms, and you should attempt to do them as well as you can, but it’s also important to know that you’re not alone if you feel like you may be making some mistakes.
In some cases, it’s just because the tax forms are very complicated. Maybe you were told to take two numbers from different boxes on the form and add them together, and then you have to multiply them by a term that you’ve never heard before. Everything can end up feeling very overwhelming. You may not be confident that you’ve gotten the right numbers. Even if you have tried to do it correctly, you could have made a simple math error or omitted some information just because you didn’t see where you were supposed to enter it.
These mistakes are not tax fraud
The important thing to remember in a situation like this is that mistakes are not an example of tax fraud. Fraud has to be intentional. If you try to add two things together correctly and you simply come up with the wrong number, that is an error that could lead to an audit or some other issues with your taxes, but it’s not intentional fraud.
If you do make a mistake that appears to be fraud, such as leaving out some of your income, but you know that it was an honest error, then it’s very important to understand all the legal steps that you’ll need to take. This can be complex and intimidating, so it may help to work with an experienced team.