Should you file income taxes?

By Jerry Heskett

Many people, especially Seniors, are not required to file a tax return. But just because they are not required to file, there are good reasons to file.

The first reason is the prevention of identity theft. That is, someone else is filing a tax return using your Social Security Number and receiving money that is rightfully yours. During a normal tax season, where people normally file year after year, it is estimated that less than 1 percent of the returns filed would have a rejection because someone else has already filed a tax return in your name.

This last year was a real eye opening. The State of Maine was giving a stimulus payment to most people in the state. One of the requirements was that you had to file a Maine Tax Return for tax year 2021 by Oct. 31, 2022. The people that filed in the spring, received the $850 checks in the mail and those people that did not normally file had to now file a return.  

As a result, several sites that were normally closed, opened up to do tax returns to assist them. So now we filed tax returns for people that did not normally file. The rejection rate for tax returns that had already been filed by someone else was much larger than the normal tax season.   

The second reason to be filing your income taxes is money. Normally in order to receive a refund in your income taxes, you have to have withholding from the money you earned or from the retirement funds you are receiving.  For the State of Maine, it is possible to receive a refund without any withholding. The two programs are Property Tax Fairness Credit and Sales Tax Fairness Credit. Both programs do have income limitations.

The PTFC may result in a refund if what you pay for property tax or rent is high compared to your total income. Property tax is greater than 4 percent of your total income, rent is greater than 26.67 percent of your total income). 

The STFC will result in a refund if your total income is not too high. For 2022, filing Single and income less than $21,850 you would receive $130, for Married Filing Jointly and income less than $43.700 you would receive $185.

So, consider doing yourself a favor and file your income taxes.

Heskett, a resident of Palmyra, is a local AARP tax preparer.