Before you put your 2014 federal income tax return in the virtual or physical file drawer, check for items that can affect your 2015 planning. Here are three:

If you qualify for the American Opportunity Credit (AOTC) this year, please be aware of a possible "refund hold" on the credit to verify attendance.

If you were legally married on 12/31/14, the IRS considers you married for the entire year of 2014.

Just before Christmas, Congress finally passed the “tax extenders” for 2014. These “extenders” refer to a set of about 60 tax incentives that are scheduled to lapse after a certain number of years. We have seen Congress act at the last minute three times in the past: October 2008, December 2010 and January 2013.

Hopefully, you followed some of the suggestions we outlined a couple of years ago in Kick off the New Year... by getting organized! to organize your records. If you did, great! This will make filing your tax returns a lot easier this year. It also means that you and your tax advisor can spend more time on tax and financial planning issues for 2015 vs. looking back to 2014.

The GAO says that since FY 2010, the IRS has lost 10,000 employees and had its budget cut by $900 million. More cuts are proposed for the 2015 IRS budget. Identity theft issues, foreign asset reporting, and Affordable Care Act (ACA) responsibilities will continue to absorb personnel and resources.