Tax tips for part-time workers

Getting a refund from Uncle Sam doesn’t have to be taxing.

You may not have a 401(k) or mutual funds. Heck you may not even have a checking account. But if you’re working part-time jobs, you still need to file taxes.

Filing taxes isn’t tough, but you don’t want to wait until  midnight on April 14 to get started. We’ve put together a few tax tips to make sure you get your maximum refund – and don’t end up getting a nasty letter from Uncle Sam a few months down the road.

1. Understand your paycheck. Your pay stub is chock full of information, including everything from how many sick days you’ve taken to where all that money goes that you’re not getting. Pay attention to what’s in the various fields and ask your manager questions if something doesn’t look right. We break down a sample paycheck in our First Job Guide.

2. Hang on to your W2: If you worked last year, you should have received a W2 tax form in the mail from your employer(s). If you haven’t received this form, contact your employer ASAP, because you’ll need it to file.

3. Don’t be scared: Doing your taxes the first time may be intimidating. Just take it one step at a time, and remember that you’ll probably be getting a tax refund – how sweet is that?! Plus, if you’re a part-time worker, you’ll almost certainly be able to file for free online. Just visit IRS.gov and starting hunting down the 1040EZ form, an easy exercise that should take you less than 10 minutes to complete.

There you go! That’s pretty much all there is to it. Of course, you’ll also want to find out when you need to send in your state taxes. The date varies state by state and can be found quickly online. After all this comes the fun part: waiting for your tax refund to arrive.

Check out SnagAJob.com’s First Job Guide for more tax tips.