Filing Refund Claims and Amended Tax Returns
Filing your income tax return for the year may not be the last word on the subject. After you have submitted the return and paid your taxes, you may find that, due to error or for some other reason (such as a retroactive law change), you have overpaid what you really owe. How to you get the overpayment back?
The IRS does not send out overpayments automatically; you need to file a refund claim by submitting an amended return, Form 1040X. This action must occur within set time limits; act too late and your overpayment can no longer be recouped. Sometimes, however, you must decide whether it makes sense to submit a refund claim and, if you want to go ahead, how to do it correctly.
Of course, after you file the return, you may learn that you omitted some income by accident or because of circumstances beyond your control (such as a revised information return from a mutual fund company in which you own shares). You should file an amended return to report the omission and pay any additional tax (and interest) owed—before the IRS catches up with you and your interest has grown even more.
