Each year, millions of taxpayers are surprised and/or disappointed with the results of their tax return. Many people simply expect to get money back without completely understanding how changes in their life will affect their tax refund. Fortunately, there are great tools for estimating your 2020 tax refund.
Estimating the amount you'll get back or the amount you owe is difficult, even for tax professionals. In fact, the IRS reported that 20% of paper returns have an error. For that reason, the IRS recommends e-filing in 2020. Returns that have been e-filed only have errors about 1% of the time. In addition, numerous tax laws change each year. That means whatever you used to estimate your taxes last year might no longer be a valid way to estimate this year's taxes.
If your salary, employer, marital status, medical expenses, additional income and living arrangements did not change from 2008, you can probably assume that the amount you owe or the amount you get back will be similar to last 2020 tax refund calculator year. However, if any of the above changed, even slightly, you may be surprised at how big of an impact it can have.
So what do you need to estimate your 2020 tax return? Obviously, you'll need your W-2 and any additional paperwork related to earnings, including those earned from interest, a side-job or anything else. Also, be able to provide information about your house, donations, family and education. Based on those few key inputs you'll be able to use a free tax refund calculator to estimate your 2020 tax return.