Tax Day is coming. You haven’t filed yet. In truth, you haven’t even started.
Preparing a tax return can trigger paroxysms of stress at the best of times. If you’re rushing to finish your taxes ahead of the April 15 deadline, you may be rushing things. Between stress and haste, you could wind up making costly errors.
Here, then, is a list of common mistakes people make before filing their taxes, adapted from a March 25 list published by the Illinois CPA Society. To honor the Land of Lincoln, we’ll include comments from Illinois accountants.
Your Name
You probably won’t forget to write your name on your return. But you need to take care how you write it.
Accountants say you should type your name on your return exactly the way you wrote it on your last return, and as it appears on correspondence from the IRS — and on your Social Security statements. Ideally, all of those names should match: The same letters, spaces, capitalizations and initials.
“If you misspell your name, you could create filing delays,” said Charlene Rhinehart, a Chicago CPA. “You want to make sure everything is consistent across the board.”
Filing Status
There are a few things to consider when you pick a filing status. If your household situation changed in the last year, your status may have changed. Even if not, accountants say, you should think before you choose one.
Married folks, in particular, should consider filing jointly. Separate filers tend to reap fewer tax benefits. For a start, the standard deduction for joint filers is twice as large.
“You could miss out on valuable deductions and credits if you go the ‘married filing separately’ route,” Rhinehart said.
If you have divorced, you may be eligible for head of household status, which also brings tax benefits, said Larry Johnson, a CPA in Springfield, Illinois.
Social Security Number
No single piece of data on a tax return, perhaps, matters as much as your Social Security number. It serves as your individual tax ID number.
You probably know your Social Security number by heart. Even so, double-check that you’ve entered it correctly. If not, “it could lead to a rejected return,” Rhinehart said.
Income
The goal here is both accuracy and thoroughness: You need to make sure all of your income from 2025 finds its way onto your tax return.
If you’re a salaried employee, the key form is probably your W-2. But you should also gather all of your 1099s, the forms that report income not earned directly from an employer. There are many kinds of 1099s, covering income from interest, dividends and other sources.
You may have to download some forms yourself. Make a list of all the forms you expect, the CPA Society suggests, and check them off as you find them.
Direct Deposit Information
The Trump administration is phasing out paper checks from the IRS, largely because mailed checks are targets for fraud.
“You can get a paper check,” Johnson said, “but I don’t know a good reason to get a paper check.”
The fastest and safest way to get a refund in 2026 is via direct deposit. But take care that you enter your account and routing numbers correctly. Make a mistake, and your refund will be delayed.
Your Signature
After all your hard work, don’t forget to sign and date your return. The IRS can’t accept it without a signature.
That April 15 Deadline
Your tax return is due on midnight, April 15.
Let’s talk briefly about what happens if you miss the deadline.
If you fail to file your return on time, the standard penalty is a whopping 5% of any tax you owe for every month the return is late, up to 25% of the unpaid balance.
If you file a return but don’t pay any taxes you owe, you typically face a much smaller monthly penalty: 0.5% of any unpaid amount.
And here’s an important point: That late payment penalty applies even if you get an extension.
“People may think that an extension to file gives them more time to pay,” Rhinehart said. It does not.
When you request an extension, it’s best to pay any tax you think you owe. That way, you won’t face penalties later on.
Check Your Work
Both Rhinehart and Johnson recommend that taxpayers read over their entire tax return one last time before hitting the “file” button.
That step is especially important if you’ve prepared the return in a hurry.
When you finish your work, Rhinehart said, consider setting it aside until the next day, when you can review the return “with a fresh set of eyes.”
Consider Last-Minute IRA, HSA Contributions
This last item isn’t about mistakes so much as missed opportunities.
The Illinois accountants note that you can contribute to a tax-advantaged Individual Retirement Account or Health Savings Account for 2025 all the way up to April 15, 2026.
Those contributions are a great way to reduce what you owe to the IRS. Contributions to an IRA or HSA reduce your taxable income and, thus, your tax.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Tax Day is coming. Avoid these common IRS filing mistakes.
Reporting by Daniel de Visé, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
