If you're a traditional employee, every year you receive a W-2 form from your employer that records your earnings for the year and the amount of taxes withheld from those earnings. IRS 1099 forms are complements to the W-2 form for non-traditional employee relationships. They are generally designed to record sources of income that have not been subjected to withholding – in other words, sources where an employer has not already paid the corresponding taxes.

If you are self-employed, you know the IRS form 1099-MISC that reports payments made to you over the course of the year. However, there are many different types of 1099 forms – and not all of them increase your tax bill.

SSA-1099 – Your Social Security benefits are recorded here. No more than 85% of your benefits can be s...

Like most Americans, you probably want to get through your taxes as quickly as possible. Since the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was passed in 2017, fewer of us will itemize, and those who do may find fewer deductions available. However, do not rush through your return so quickly that you simply take the standard deduction and ignore deductions that can bring you a healthy refund. Consider these commonly overlooked tax deductions.

1. Charitable Contributions – You may not feel that you give enough to charity for it to matter, but every little bit helps when itemizing deductions. Any gift to a qualifying charitable organization may be deducted. The IRS website has an online search tool to verify the qualified status of any organization, but the receiving organization should be able to provide you with proof. For tax year 2019, you may deduct donations worth up to 60% of you...

Every direct employee of a company should receive a W-2 form in January. The W-2 is the base document that defines your tax obligations, so it is important that you review and understand yours. However, some people are confused by some of the form's numbers — for example, why the wage listed on a W-2 form does not always match their salary — and simply fill in the information from each box into their tax forms without giving it a thorough review to verify that the information is correct.

Employers can and do make mistakes on W-2s, and these errors can cost you money as well as time and effort to correct downstream tax ramifications. Let's take a look at the W-2 form in a bit more detail.

Understanding Your W-2 Tax Forms

First, verify the pertinent baseline information in the spaces labeled with letters, namely your Social Security number and both addresses (yours and your employer's). Assuming that's correct, look at the block of eight boxes in the uppe...

Congratulations! You have just been handed your first little bundle of joy in the hospital and have embarked on the long journey of parenthood. It is a trip full of joyful experiences that make the corresponding aggravations worthwhile, and it comes with many benefits — some of which are tax-related. You can look forward to taking advantage of these child-related deductions and benefits.

• Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) – Designed to help lower income taxpayers, the EITC is a tax credit that is scaled along with income and the number of dependents claimed. See IRS Publication 596, "Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)" for details on qualifications and the scaling criteria. T...