There are ten mistakes that are most often made when preparing a tax return. I’ll list 5 in this blog and 5 in my next one. The first five are: (1) forgetting to report all of your income (even if you do not receive a W-2 or 1099 for work done, you must report income you know about); (2) filing a paper return.  This is a mistake because paper returns are processed much more slowly than e-filed returns and, if your return is lost, it will be much harder to trace; (3) making careless mistakes, such as leaving off a digit or putting an incorrect digit on your social security number or misspelling your name; (4) not using the correct filing status (single, head of household, etc.) (5) making math errors (the IRS found more than 9 million such mistakes on last year’s returns – always check your math!).  I will tell you the rest in my next blog.