IRS Offers Tips for Preparing Your Tax Return

Editor's Note: For the next five days, Patch will publish a new IRS Tax Tip.

The deadline is looming to pay your income taxes.

Taxpayers will have until Tuesday, April 17, to file their 2011 tax returns. Since April 15 falls on a Sunday this year, and Emancipation Day, a holiday observed in the District of Columbia, falls this year on Monday, April 16, taxpayers get two extra days to finish their forms and get them postmarked before midnight on Tuesday.

While the IRS says they expect to receive most of the 144 million individual returns before April 17, some people are waiting until the last minute.

On the IRS website, the agency offers 10 tips to help taxpayers still working on their tax returns:

1. File electronically
2. Check the identification numbers
3. Double-check your figures
4. Check the tax tables
5. Sign your form
6. Send your return to the right address
7. Pay electronically
8. Follow instructions when mailing a payment
9. File or request an extension to file on time
10. Visit IRS website

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