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Giftcardshavebecome the go-to gift for millions of people. They might seem like the perfect pres- ent because they're so easy to pur- chase. You don't have to put the ti- niest bit of thought into this type of gift, and a gift card is generally well-re- ceived, unless, of course, they get stuck with cards from retailers or restau- rants that end up filing for bankruptcy before they get a chance to redeem them. Millions of consumers with gift cards to Ameri- can Apparel, RadioShack, Wet Seal, Sports Author- ity, The Sharper Image, Brookstone and other brands on the growing list of recently bankrupted or financially ailing busi- nesses need to pay atten- tion to what follows. Even though I am not a fan of gifts cards, in the past I have suggested that if you buy one, you should choose a card issued by a retailer — not one issued by a bank — because re- tailer gift cards are gen- erally free of expiration dates, annoying fees and other gotcha's. Consumers should think twice about retailer-is- sued gift cards. Store-is- sued cards are not as good a deal as you'd think dur- ing these hard economic times because of the dan- ger of bankruptcy and/or some other court-approved reorganization. Never forget this: Gift cards are not the same as cash. When you buy a gift card, you are purchas- ing store credit. You may know something about store credit if you've ever tried to return something for a full refund only to be offered store credit in the amount you wanted re- funded. Unlike a refund, store credit can only be used at that same store. Retailer bankruptcy fil- ings over the past couple of years have left millions of dollars in gift cards in peoples' hands with no way to spend the credit. Some bankrupt retailers have obtained court ap- proval to continue accept- ing gift cards, but that's rare. When The Sharper Im- age filed for bankruptcy reorganization in 2008, an estimated $20 million in gift cards and gift certif- icates were unredeemed and, at that point, were no longer acceptable. Even now, all these years later, you can still find angry messages in online forums from frustrated people who say they were ripped off by The Sharper Image. Always keep in mind that if that retailer or res- taurant files for bank- ruptcy — which we usually hear about after the fact — you may have no way to spend your credit. GIFT CARD GIVERS: Rather than making gift cards your gift of choice, start purchasing authen- tic gifts for your friends and relatives. If you can- not bring yourself to break the gift-card habit, at least make sure it's for a store or restaurant that is not on the brink of ruin. GIFT CARD RECIPI- ENTS: Check your stash. If you have cards for re- tailers who are filing for bankruptcy protection, find out if that card is still valid. If it is, run — don't walk — to that store and spend the credit. Sure, the credit may not be enough to buy what you really want, or it may be credit to a store you aren't that fond of. But that's the way it is. Chalk it up to the fact that you got a gift you're not that crazy about. If the card is for a restaurant, plan to go this weekend and enjoy a meal. When it comes to gift cards, the message is clear: It's time for all of us to adopt a use-it-or-lose-it attitude. Wouldyouliketosend a tip to Mary? You can email her at mary@ everydaycheapskate.com. EVERYDAYCHEAPSKATE Beware of the risk with gi cards The Cottonwood Garden Club will be holding its an- nual Garden Tour, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 21. Tickets are $15 and are available at Wyntour Gardens, Sierra Print- ing, Elegant Bean, and Cindy Lu's Mini Mart. Tour will include four lo- cal home gardens, ideas for your home gardens, refresh- ments, plus support the club's community activities. A bonus plant and bake sale will be held that day as well. For more information, contact event coordinator 347-3852. COTTONWOOD Club to hold annual Garden Tour Mary Hunt COURTESYPHOTO Christopher James Morcom, le , poses with his parents, James and Delores Morcom of Manton, and older brother, Chrioni Morcom. Christopher James Mor- com, the son of James and Delores Morcom of Man- ton, will be graduating from the American Inter- national School-Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in June and has been accepted a US Air Force Reserve Officer's Training Corps scholar- ship in Computer Sciences to study at the Illinois In- stitute of Technology in Chicago on the Henry T. Heald and STEM Schol- arships as well as the IIT Exelon Summer Institute program on a full schol- arship. Christopher was born in Boise, Idaho while his par- ents were serving on active duty at Mountain Home Air Force Base. He has an older Brother, Chrioni, who graduated from AIS-R in 2013, is living in New York City and is expected to enlist in the military this fall. Christopher went with his parents to Saudi Ara- bia in 2004 and attended the International Schools Group Dhahran Academy for elementary and mid- dle school. Christopher is the grandson of Vietnam veteran Wayne Mor- com and Kathy Mor- com, who works with the SERRF after school program. They live in Manton. EDUCATION So n of M an to n ma n earns full scholarship You can fix mistakes or omissions on your tax re- turn by filing an amended tax return. If you need to file one, these tips can help. 1. Must be filed on pa- per. Use Form 1040X, Amended U.S. Individ- ual Income Tax Return, to correct your tax return. It can't be e-filed. You can get the form on IRS.gov/ forms at any time. See the Form 1040Xinstruc- tions for the address where you should mail your form. 2. Amend to correct er- rors. File an amended tax return to correct errors or make changes to your original tax return. For ex- ample, you should amend to change your filing sta- tus, or to correct your in- come, deductions or cred- its. 3. Don't amend for math errors, missing forms. You normally don't need to file an amended return to cor- rect math errors on your original return. The IRS will automatically cor- rect those for you. Also, do not file an amended re- turn if you forgot to attach tax forms, such as a Form W-2 or a schedule. The IRS will mail you a request for them in most cases. 4. Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement, errors.Some taxpayers may receive a second Form 1095-A be- cause the information on their initial form was in- correct or incomplete. If you filed a 2015 tax re- turn based on the initial Form 1095-A and claimed the premium tax credit using incorrect informa- tion from either the feder- ally-facilitated or a state- based Health Insurance Marketplace, you should determine the effect the changes to your form might have on your return. Comparing the two Forms 1095-A can help you assess whether you should file an amended tax return, Form 1040X. 5. Three-year time limit. You usually have three years from the date you filed your original tax return to file Form 1040X to claim a refund. You can file it within two years from the date you paid the tax, if that date is later. That means the last day for most people to file a 2012 claim for a refund is April 18, 2016 (April 19 for taxpayers in Maine and Massachusetts). See the Form 1040X instruc- tions for special rules that apply to some claims. 6. Separate forms for each year. If you are amending more than one tax return, prepare a 1040X for each year. You should mail each year in separate envelopes. Note the tax year of the return you are amending at the top of Form 1040X. Check the form's instructions for where to mail your return. 7. Attach other forms with changes. If you use other IRS forms or sched- ules to make changes, make sure to attach them to your Form 1040X. 8. When to file for cor- rected refund. If you are due a refund from your original return, wait to get it before filing Form 1040X to claim an additional re- fund. Amended returns take up to 16 weeks to pro- cess. 9. Pay additional tax. If you owe more tax, file your Form 1040X and pay the tax as soon as you can to avoid possible penalties and interest from being added to your account. Use IRS Direct Pay to pay your tax directly from your checking or savings ac- count. 10. Track your amended return. You can track the status of your amended tax return three weeks af- ter you file with 'Where's My Amended Return?' It is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Viet- namese and Russian. The tool can track the status of an amended return for the current year and up to three years back. If you have filed amended re- turns for multiple years, you can check each year, one at a time. Each and every tax- payer has a set of funda- mental rights they should be aware of when deal- ing with the IRS. These are your Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Explore your rights and our obligations to pro- tect them on IRS.gov. TAX TIPS Am en di ng y ou r ta x re tu rn : 10 s ug ge st io ns The National History Day — California held its State Competition over the May 7-8 weekend at Wil- liam Jessup University in Rocklin. Four history projects from Tehama County, all created by students at Ber- rendos Middle School, at- tended the state-wide com- petition. Two of the projects made the state finals, which means their proj- ect was among the top 15 projects in their division in the entire state of Cali- fornia. One of the projects is viewable at http://media. wix.com/ugd/189c6c_73e7 b2f00e53444ab3981396c9 eab101.pdf. Mindy Dent, the Te- hama County History Day Coordinator, teacher at Berrendos Middle School, organized the competi- tion at Berrendos Middle School. The top four groups from the Berrendos com- petition went down to the state competition. Colby Smith, a 7th grader, en- tered the Junior Individ- ual Website Category and created a website on Walt Disney: Exploring the New Age of Animation, http://59876798.nhd.wee- bly.com/. His project was nomi- nated among the top 15 in his category for the state of California. Caden Sand- ers, Thomas Moore, and Todd Bell, all 6th graders, entered the Junior Group Exhibit Category and cre- ated an exhibit entitled, Exchange of Ideas with the Telegraph. They were nominated as finalists, being among the top 15 in their cate- gory for the state of Cal- ifornia. Two history projects from Red Bluff made it to the top 15 in all of Califor- nia. 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