What next step do you take when you discover inaccuracies in your filed tax return records? The solution depends on the circumstances and nature of change.

What happens when your past year dividend income suddenly changes after you receive an updated form from a brokerage house or financial institution? In most cases, the difference is only a few dollars. For such cases, tax experts confirm many people ignore the change even if it means the difference would attract a minimal refund. It is definitely not worth it to spend so much money paying your tax preparer to hand in updated returns.

Things are different if you are notified of a pending refund involving a huge amount of money. In an April “tax tip, the IRS indicated that you need to hand in the correct tax return if there was a mistake in the original filing status. This change could have affected income, deductions or credits. Those affected are advised to use Form 1040X but also refer to regulations stipulated by each state. (A good number of states subscribe to their internal income tax rules).

At what point should you file a amended tax return? This is not simple. IRS has advised people due for refunds from their initial returns to wait until they get the refund before handing in Form 1040X to claim for extra refunds. It also takes 12 weeks to complete processing requests for amended returns. You are however free to cash the initial refund while expecting the extra refund.

IRS further directed those who discover later they paid less tax to remit the balance of payments within the shortest time possible. This is to avoid any accumulation of interests and penalties.

How do you interpret the status of your amended return? You should wait for three weeks and then visit the IRS website (irs.gov). Go to “Where’s My Amended Return?”Alternatively, you can get in touch using 866-464-2050. The IRS recommends using the tracking feature to know the status of an amended return that can provide data from the current year dating back to three years.