Octopus Overlords

Oh right that's how I ended up getting some money back. Damn the man!

Lassr wrote:Finished mine this weekend. Getting back less than last year. About the only difference; there is no $800 credit for making work pay this year so I guess that could have lowered it some.

Great, so that plus my paying down mortgage, suggests I'm in for an even bigger hit this year. I don't get it. I claim 0. No deductions. You'd think that would mean they'd take the full taxable amount out of my check and then at the end of the year they'd refund my mortgage interest and my personal deduction. Not so much. I'm beginning to wonder if the payroll company isn't doing stuff wrong or that I'm felling out my deferal rate on my 401k incorrectly in turbo tax and I'm paying taxes on my 401k at the end of the year every year, thinking my contributions are being held pre tax.

LordMortis wrote:
Great, so that plus my paying down mortgage, suggests I'm in for an even bigger hit this year. I don't get it. I claim 0. No deductions. You'd think that would mean they'd take the full taxable amount out of my check and then at the end of the year they'd refund my mortgage interest and my personal deduction. Not so much. I'm beginning to wonder if the payroll company isn't doing stuff wrong or that I'm felling out my deferal rate on my 401k incorrectly in turbo tax and I'm paying taxes on my 401k at the end of the year every year, thinking my contributions are being held pre tax.

Sure doesn't sound right.

You do claim claim 1, when you file, right?

LawBeefaroni wrote:

LordMortis wrote:
Great, so that plus my paying down mortgage, suggests I'm in for an even bigger hit this year. I don't get it. I claim 0. No deductions. You'd think that would mean they'd take the full taxable amount out of my check and then at the end of the year they'd refund my mortgage interest and my personal deduction. Not so much. I'm beginning to wonder if the payroll company isn't doing stuff wrong or that I'm felling out my deferal rate on my 401k incorrectly in turbo tax and I'm paying taxes on my 401k at the end of the year every year, thinking my contributions are being held pre tax.

Sure doesn't sound right.

You do claim claim 1, when you file, right?

I don't know. I can't remember. I follow the bouncing Turbo Tax ball, so I don't remember what I do, aside from answer their questions. I claim standard deduction as I don't do anything with my life to itemize. That's all I remember.

How do you expect to get mortgage interest back if you don't itemize?

Property taxes and mortgage interest are the only reason my tax bill isn't 8 billion dollars. TY NJ for killer property taxes AND house prices. Booyah!

pr0ner wrote:How do you expect to get mortgage interest back if you don't itemize?

Yeah, that requires Sched C, doesn't it? If that's his only deduction, though, he still might be better off with the standard.

Kraken wrote:

pr0ner wrote:How do you expect to get mortgage interest back if you don't itemize?

Yeah, that requires Sched C, doesn't it? If that's his only deduction, though, he still might be better off with the standard.

When you itemize, you still get your own deduction - like $3500 this year, right? - plus the interest. Isn't the standard deduction like $7000? So as long as you pay more than $4000 in interest, you would be better off itemizing, no?

stessier wrote:

Kraken wrote:

pr0ner wrote:How do you expect to get mortgage interest back if you don't itemize?

Yeah, that requires Sched C, doesn't it? If that's his only deduction, though, he still might be better off with the standard.

When you itemize, you still get your own deduction - like $3500 this year, right? - plus the interest. Isn't the standard deduction like $7000? So as long as you pay more than $4000 in interest, you would be better off itemizing, no?

It's been so many years since I could take the standard deduction or use the short form that I really have no idea anymore. Most of our deductions are home office-related.

Looking at my tax forms from last year, I get a tax exemption of $3650 for being single, and then I itemize my deductions on top of the exemption on Schedule A.

The standard deduction for 2011 is $5800, so if Mortis's state, local, and property taxes and mortgage interest are more than that, and he's still taking the standard deduction because he doesn't do anything with his life to itemize, it's no wonder he's getting screwed over come tax time.

stessier wrote:

Kraken wrote:

pr0ner wrote:How do you expect to get mortgage interest back if you don't itemize?

Yeah, that requires Sched C, doesn't it? If that's his only deduction, though, he still might be better off with the standard.

When you itemize, you still get your own deduction - like $3500 this year, right? - plus the interest. Isn't the standard deduction like $7000? So as long as you pay more than $4000 in interest, you would be better off itemizing, no?

Having bought a house right before the crash and not being able to qualify for the "Making Homes Affordable" lower interest rate refi, I do pay more than $4000 in interest and have property taxes and my vehicle registration every year. Some years I also give enough to charity to warrant keeping track of what I give to charity. That's all I ever enter because realistically that's all I ever can enter unless I want to be creative, which I don't. As far as I'm concerned being creative is cheating.

What I send in is what Turbo Tax tells me to send in.

[quote="pr0ner]The standard deduction for 2011 is $5800, so if Mortis's state, local, and property taxes and mortgage interest are more than that, and he's still taking the standard deduction because he doesn't do anything with his life to itemize, it's no wonder he's getting screwed over come tax time.[/quote]

As a single office drone what is there to declare? That's probably why I'm blown away at how much people get back and get so annoyed when I see how much of my check they take and then at the end of the year see them telling me it wasn't enough.

My W2s came in this weekend, so I'll sit down with TT this week and see how it works out. If the past five years are an indicator, I'll get about one to two hundred back from the state and owe eight hundred to a thousand to the fed.

LordMortis wrote:I'm blown away at how much people get back and get so annoyed when I see how much of my check they take and then at the end of the year see them telling me it wasn't enough.

As someone that regularly gets back between $6-$8K a year, keep in mind that that is my money that the govt. withheld, so it's not like I am using any kind of special tax voodoo to get back mucho dinero (I use TT and send in what they tell me, also).

The fact that I am filing jointly, have 3 kids and a home mortgage DOES help, however, if that's what you are referring to?

Hopefully this year the refund is much much lower (ideally it would be $1,000 or less IMO) as I made some adjustments with the payroll person to withhold less. "Loaning" the govt. several K of my cash, interest free, is not my idea of sound financial practice.

LordMortis wrote:As a single office drone what is there to declare? That's probably why I'm blown away at how much people get back and get so annoyed when I see how much of my check they take and then at the end of the year see them telling me it wasn't enough.

My W2s came in this weekend, so I'll sit down with TT this week and see how it works out. If the past five years are an indicator, I'll get about one to two hundred back from the state and owe eight hundred to a thousand to the fed.

You really need to have someone sit down with you and go over your W-4 and how you're preparing your taxes. If you're complaining about how much you owe to the feds, you're either claiming the wrong number of exemptions on your W-4, or you aren't taking all the deductions you're entitled to.

Also, you're not "cheating" by deducting everything you're entitled to. Like state income taxes - did you know you can legally deduct those?

pr0ner wrote:You really need to have someone sit down with you and go over your W-4 and how you're preparing your taxes. If you're complaining about how much you owe to the feds, you're either claiming the wrong number of exemptions on your W-4, or you aren't taking all the deductions you're entitled to.

Also, you're not "cheating" by deducting everything you're entitled to. Like state income taxes - did you know you can legally deduct those?

Turbo Tax takes care of that and does it automagically for me. I know this because I get taxed on my state refund every year precisely because it was deducted the year before. I claim 0 exemptions and that's sort of the foundation of my thought. For me not to owe more money at the end of the year I'd have to ask the Fed to withhold more 0 exemptions.

As to deductions I'm entitled to, like I said I'd have to get creative to consider myself entitled to more. Under normal circumstances I don't have any work expenses to deduct. I'm an office drone.

If you claim 0 exemptions, you shouldn't be owing the Feds more money come Tax Day. Something's clearly wrong, and being apathetic about it's not going to fix it.

Seriously, claiming zero and having a mortgage you should be getting a rather large return rather than paying out. If you do not look into this further you are allowing yourself to get screwed out of a lot of money that belongs to you.

And you can amend previous returns:

Generally, to claim a refund, Form 1040X must be filed within 3 years from the date of your original return or within 2 years from the date you paid the tax, whichever is later. Returns filed before the due date (without regard to extensions) are considered filed on the due date.

pr0ner wrote:If you claim 0 exemptions, you shouldn't be owing the Feds more money come Tax Day. Something's clearly wrong, and being apathetic about it's not going to fix it.

I agree something is wrong. That was where I started my whole complaint. I'm trying to figure out if Turbo Tax and I are not communicating properly or if the payroll company is not with holding correctly. Likely this year, I will sit down and try to figure out who things are supposed to look based on this sort of stuff, trying to figure out how much is 10%, how much is 15% and how much is 25%.

http://www.savingtoinvest.com/2010/04/2 ... s-new.html" target="_blank

But even then I have still have to figure what is income for tax purposes and what isn't. Theoretically, I am deferring taxes on 7% of my income for my company maintained 401k. I am also paying to health insurance that is supposed to be pre tax. That's actually my biggest fear is that I'm not telling Turbo Tax about this correctly, and I can't figure out where to ask it beyond just plugging in information from W-2 Boxes when asked to.

Perhaps I am being taxed fairly and the payroll company don't do the withholding I would expect them to by exempting nothing but it sure as hell doesn't feel like it when I take 0 exemptions and a combined Soc Sec, Med Care, and the Fed, take about 20% (and another 4% for state) of my check and then at the end of they year come around asking for more.

Do you have a lot of non-wage income? Other than an error, that's all I can figure.

PLW wrote:Do you have a lot of non-wage income? Other than an error, that's all I can figure.

Currently about $10 a year in interest income from a money market savings account that I don't even need to report I guess. That's it.

LordMortis wrote:
But even then I have still have to figure what is income for tax purposes and what isn't. Theoretically, I am deferring taxes on 7% of my income for my company maintained 401k. I am also paying to health insurance that is supposed to be pre tax. That's actually my biggest fear is that I'm not telling Turbo Tax about this correctly, and I can't figure out where to ask it beyond just plugging in information from W-2 Boxes when asked to.

You shouldn't have to tell Turbo Tax about any pre-tax deductions from your paycheck. Federal Taxable Gross in your employer's income statement should be adjusted to reflect any pre-tax deductions.

So for example if your gross is $10 and you put $1 into 401K and healthcare, your federal taxable gross on your employer statement should be $9.

However, if you're giving Turbo Tax your gross before 401K/healthcare, and not your federal taxable gross, that's a problem.

Do you fill in TT manually, or are you able to download your W2 electronically? If it's electronic, there really is almost no chance of error.

LawBeefaroni wrote:You shouldn't have to tell Turbo Tax about any pre-tax deductions from your paycheck. Federal Taxable Gross in your employer's income statement should be adjusted to reflect any pre-tax deductions.

So for example if your gross is $10 and you put $1 into 401K and healthcare, your federal taxable gross on your employer statement should be $9.

However, if you're giving Turbo Tax your gross before 401K/healthcare, and not your federal taxable gross, that's a problem.

And that's my fear of something being wrong and something I will need to look at closely this year to make it sure looks right. All I ever do is follow the instructions without understanding what they mean. Take the number from line 3 and enter here. Take them number 12b and enter here. Etc... I never see or understand what is going on behind the scenes... Maybe I should just do thing by hand long form, something I've never done since I moved off 1040EZ.

stessier wrote:Do you fill in TT manually, or are you able to download your W2 electronically? If it's electronic, there really is almost no chance of error.

I check every year and every year neither my bank nor our payroll company is set to fill stuff in electronically. If it they ever do, I'll be even more divorced from understanding how my taxes work.

Finished this afternoon. Texted my wife to let her know they were done and she just got irritated that the standard deduction was a better deal than itemizing. Like itemizing is some magical method where your refund magically becomes thousands of dollars just because..

The tax return gods really smiled on me this year. I made a lot more money than in previous years and probably should have made some withholding adjustments as a result, but just never got around to it. Oh well. I know it was my money to begin with, but the huge refund is still kinda nice.

Aargh, stop reminding me that I have to start mine someday.

Need to gather docs this weekend, which should be easy since we pretty much already did that for the mortgage folks a few weeks ago.

Spent about 35 minutes this morning entering my info to H&R Block online. The savaging that I took last year (owed about $9000) paved the way for decent returns this year.

Submitted mine about 12:30 this morning. $4500 of my extorted funds are being returned to me, and most will go directly toward retiring debt (but I'd be lying if I didn't think hard about buying a motorcycle...)

Just filed my return. Took just under two hours from starting to gather the paperwork to now. Used TurboTax and it was painless as always.

Our return was about $1200 less this year because we refinanced our house last year and paid less in interest as well as the new mortgage company paid our property tax by the due date (1/20/2012) rather than in the last calendar year. I'm try to decide if it is worth the hassle to get the to pay in the calendar year. We've already lost last year's deduction, but going forward we will always have one. On the other hand, if they pay 2012 tax this year, we'll double up and get an even bigger return next year. Might be nice.

For the first tiem ever, I was dead even. I think it was actually a $27 return, but I just told them to keep it for next year.

I almost started organizing and filing papers today, when an excuse fortuitously materialized. I think I need the calendar to say March before I can feel any motivation.

Finally got my 1099-DIV (after I got the "we're allowed to take even longer!" notice back on Feb 15). My refund goes down every year, from the investments doing better and less mortgage interest. I'm almost tempted to refinance just for the interest deduction, but every scenario I play out has me paying the house off in the same amount of time no matter what so I would just be wasting money on re-fi fees.

killbot737 wrote:Finally got my 1099-DIV (after I got the "we're allowed to take even longer!" notice back on Feb 15). My refund goes down every year, from the investments doing better and less mortgage interest. I'm almost tempted to refinance just for the interest deduction, but every scenario I play out has me paying the house off in the same amount of time no matter what so I would just be wasting money on re-fi fees.

WARNING WARNING! The following is highly risky and not recommended for anyone!!

With interest rates what they are, you could do a cash out refinance and invest the excess. if you can get a 3.51% APR for 15 years (that's what I got) I only have compound the equity at 2% (not including tax deductions... which I don't have) to break even. Add in the inflation protection of equities, and it's a very compelling case.

That being said, you're still leveraging yourself so I don't recommend it.

I don't think I have to do anything risky like that, I'm think I pretty solid financially. I'm not risk averse, but I don't want to put myself out that way. I thought about it before but decided I'd rather definitely reduce debt than possibly increase wealth. I've only got 7 years left on the mortgage and I'm putting a ton of money in investments already.

Finally got my part of our taxes done today. Now the workbook goes to the wife. I either lost or never got our 1099-HC, and you can't file state taxes without proof of health insurance, so there's no particular hurry until we can get a replacement form.

It looks like our gross income fell by $10,000 or so this year, so I'm cautiously optimistic about the bottom line.

Finished the first pass with Turbo Tax - ouch. Still, that's indicative of a very good year (which it was). Now I'll sit on it for a month at .1% or whatever my base savings is now, and submit next month. Still, the underpayment charge was only $20, which is worth it if only to have avoided estimated tax payments last year (I hate those damned things).

Did anyone else's refund get DRASTICALLY delayed recently? I filed at the end of February and until a couple of days ago my refund was due in today. I didn't get it so I went back to the IRS Where is my Refund site and it is telling me April 24th. That seems a bit extreme to me.

malchior wrote:Did anyone else's refund get DRASTICALLY delayed recently? I filed at the end of February and until a couple of days ago my refund was due in today. I didn't get it so I went back to the IRS Where is my Refund site and it is telling me April 24th. That seems a bit extreme to me.

I filed Feb 25 and it was deposited in my account on 3/6.

Two days before I was ready to e-file my MIL's last tax return, her estate's lawyer asked to see the returns, the documentation, and last year's returns for good measure. Taxes suddenly got a lot more expensive and complicated. (We're talking about $7,000 of taxable income.) I should've just e-filed and said "oops! Sorry, too late." But with lawyers involved that probably just would've made it worse.

And do you think the PDFs were good enough? Noooooo, I had to print out paper copies of everything. Grrrr.