Things to Do After Filing Your Return

Hopefully you've filed a return or asked for an extension of time to file. The next steps are to make sure you stay on top of your tax situation for 2008.

The most immediate concern is checking on the status of your refund. If your refund hasn't been deposited to your bank account or been mailed to you in the three to four weeks after you filed, you can check its status on the IRS Web site using the Where's My Refund application. You should allow at least 7 days from the time you file your return before checking with the IRS.

You will also want to find out how much of the stimulus rebate you might receive later this summer. The IRS has an Online Stimulus Payment Calculator. Simply type in some numbers from your completed tax return and you'll see how much of an additional rebate you'll be receiving. The IRS has also posted a schedule of when these payments will be sent out.

Now may be the time to adjusted your paycheck withholding. By adjusting your withholding, you'll make sure that you have just enough money deducted from your paycheck to cover your taxes, but not too much to have a huge refund, nor too little to have a sizable balance due. You can calculate how many withholding allowances to claim using the IRS' withholding calculator, and then use those figures to fill out a new W-4 and submit it to your employer's payroll department.

You will also want to keep your finished tax returns in a safe place. You'll want to keep a copy of the return, plus any supporting documents, for at least three years. That's how long the IRS has to ask any additional questions (a.k.a. audit) your return. Along with the actual return itself, you will want to retain copies of any tax software you downloaded or purchased, in case you need to run the software again to make changes. My own tax drawer has been growing lately, and so I've decided to save copies of my returns in a PDF file format, along with scanned images of my supporting documents. This could be easily stored on a thumb drive and put in a safe deposit box as a backup copy in case I lose my paper files.