How Do I Know How Much Tax I Owe?

How Do I Know How Much Tax I Owe? Answered Here

A lot of people wonder, ”How do I know how much tax I owe?’ So here are some very helpful tips to assist you. 

Here is an overview of taxes owed. If you owe tax to the IRS but aren’t sure how much you owe, there are a few ways to find out. 

You can do that online, over the phone, or via the mail.

The most reliable ways are over the phone or by using the online tool given by the IRS since mail you receive from the IRS might not contain total balances for many years or mail might have been lost.  Below are the details.

How Much Do I Owe to the IRS in Taxes? 3 Ways to Find Out

1) Going Online to Learn How Much You Owe the IRS

The IRS offers an internet tool that will help you figure out how much tax you owe. 

The tool shows the balance for each tax year including any penalties or interest and the principal amount. 

Additionally, it shows payments you’ve made in the last 18 months and your payoff amount.

The tool updates interest and penalties every 24 hours, but it usually takes one to three weeks for payments to post. 

If you’ve sent a payment lately, don t be too worried if it doesn’t appear right away.

To use the service you want your social security number and date of arrival, and to verify your identity, you need your filing status (single, married filing jointly, etc) and your mailing address from the last tax return. 

You also need an email address and a mobile phone with your name on the account.

Finally, you want an account number from a mortgage or home equity loan, a car loan, or a charge card which must also be in your title.

Although this may feel like jumping through a lot of hoops, it’s all in place to help safeguard your identity. 

The IRS pulls a credit report to verify you. This is a soft pull and it does not impact your credit rating.

If you want more details, you may use the online tool to view or print a transcript.  You might also ask the IRS to mail you a transcript that requires five to ten days.

The online service to check how much you owe the IRS is not available in the middle of the night, or during the day on Sunday.  Here are the hours:

Monday to Friday: 6 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. ET

Saturday: 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET

Sunday: 6 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. ET

2) Calling the IRS to Learn How Much You Owe

How do I know how much tax I owe? Here is another way to check.

If you don’t have a cell phone, a loan, or some the other information required for the internet service, you might find out your balance by calling the IRS directly.

Individual citizens may call 1-800-829-1040, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time.

Taxpayers representing business may call 1-800-829-4933, Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. local time.

3) Using the Mail to Learn How Much You Owe the IRS

For those who have a copy of the latest notice mailed to you by the IRS, you can check that for your balance.

Note that the amount shown does not include any interest or penalties assessed because the notice was sent.

Also, many times the IRS will send notices that just contain one year of taxes owed, so in case you owe taxes for multiple years it is very likely you will need to add up the balances on all of the notices (assuming they sent letters for all of the years that are owed).  To get up-to-date info, you want to check online or by calling the IRS.

 This concludes the summary of how do I know how much tax I owe.