Octopus Overlords

Carpet_pissr wrote:Apparently laws about this changed last year, and I read briefly somewhere that it tends to affect 'married, filing jointly with three kids' the most (or at least hits them the hardest for some reason).

This did not affect us this year, despite falling into that category.

Nice refund again this year thanks to that gift that keeps on taking, mortgage interest payments!

Finished it last night. Owed 412. Kind of annoyed becuse I bought the boxed version and it said it included the state. Still had to pay 25 to efile the state which totally wasn't clear on the box. Jerks... Still cheaper than using the web version.

Had to mail out my tax payments yesterday. I'm still irritated and I also want to officially state FU to the idea that I have to pay them.

Filed everything over the weekend. Owed an obnoxious amount.

IRS just took the their extortion money today. A full check up in smoke on pay day. Ah well.

I'm wondering how much more I have to give beyond declaring 0 on my exemptions to get them to stop hitting me with extra. I don't feel like a make a ton of money but after payroll and insurance and income taxes and 401k contribution, I get less than 50% of what they say I getting. Which is to say nothing of the payments the company makes that I never see on check to places like unemployment insurance and short term disability insurance and the payroll taxes they pay that don't show up on my taxes.

I also get sick of them saying payroll taxes aren't income taxes like that somehow makes taking 10% of my earnings less impactful.

Are you doing your own taxes? A 0 exemption should get you money back...especially as a homeowner. I know property taxes aren't that high there but still...

malchior wrote:Are you doing your own taxes? A 0 exemption should get you money back...especially as a homeowner. I know property taxes aren't that high there but still...

I do my own taxes and I agree I should get money back but, nope. When you are single with no kids and have no reasonable/ethical way itemize your life they just keep taking and taking. What they take for 0 does not exceed "the standard deduction" for my wage.

I am a home owner but I paid off my mortgage last year. Even before then, my mortgage interest deduction hadn't over shadowed the standard deduction for the last couple of years. I don't qualify homestead or utility usage deductions or EIC anything else falls outside the itemizing.

I enter my property taxes. I don't know what if any impact they make. I assume they are being deducted, but even then, since the bubble burst and my house became next to worthless, I "only" pay about $1500 a year in property taxes. That's my big financial bright side. I pay less than half the property tax I paid in 2003!!! I still wonder how long that lasts before they drive up millages to make up for short falls.

I'm seriously going to need to reduce the amount that gets withheld from my paycheck. The amount that I'm getting in refunds is pretty ridiculous (to the tune of about 10% of my salary). Not that I'm complaining, but I'd rather just have the money up front than give a 0% interest loan to uncle Sam.

LordMortis wrote:

malchior wrote:Are you doing your own taxes? A 0 exemption should get you money back...especially as a homeowner. I know property taxes aren't that high there but still...

I do my own taxes and I agree I should get money back but, nope. When you are single with no kids and have no reasonable/ethical way itemize your life they just keep taking and taking. What they take for 0 does not exceed "the standard deduction" for my wage.

I am a home owner but I paid off my mortgage last year. Even before then, my mortgage interest deduction hadn't over shadowed the standard deduction for the last couple of years. I don't qualify homestead or utility usage deductions or EIC anything else falls outside the itemizing.

I enter my property taxes. I don't know what if any impact they make. I assume they are being deducted, but even then, since the bubble burst and my house became next to worthless, I "only" pay about $1500 a year in property taxes. That's my big financial bright side. I pay less than half the property tax I paid in 2003!!! I still wonder how long that lasts before they drive up millages to make up for short falls.

Wait, it's been a while since I've done my own taxes but can't you claim 1? Why wouldn't you?

Maybe make your withholding 0 but when you file, you can claim 1.

LordMortis wrote:I do my own taxes and I agree I should get money back but, nope. When you are single with no kids and have no reasonable/ethical way itemize your life they just keep taking and taking. What they take for 0 does not exceed "the standard deduction" for my wage.

I am a home owner but I paid off my mortgage last year. Even before then, my mortgage interest deduction hadn't over shadowed the standard deduction for the last couple of years. I don't qualify homestead or utility usage deductions or EIC anything else falls outside the itemizing.

I enter my property taxes. I don't know what if any impact they make. I assume they are being deducted, but even then, since the bubble burst and my house became next to worthless, I "only" pay about $1500 a year in property taxes. That's my big financial bright side. I pay less than half the property tax I paid in 2003!!! I still wonder how long that lasts before they drive up millages to make up for short falls.

Ok that makes sense - you are nowhere near the standard deduction. That sucks. I have ridiculous property taxes that alone boost us over the std. deduction. And then I can go to town on deductions.

LawBeefaroni wrote:Wait, it's been a while since I've done my own taxes but can't you claim 1? Why wouldn't you?

Maybe make your withholding 0 but when you file, you can claim 1.

You are correct. I am 0 on my W-4s. I am Single and not claimed on someone else's taxes or whatever you call it in Turbot Tax.

All done. 9.5 hours to spare.

malchior wrote:

LordMortis wrote:I do my own taxes and I agree I should get money back but, nope. When you are single with no kids and have no reasonable/ethical way itemize your life they just keep taking and taking. What they take for 0 does not exceed "the standard deduction" for my wage.

I am a home owner but I paid off my mortgage last year. Even before then, my mortgage interest deduction hadn't over shadowed the standard deduction for the last couple of years. I don't qualify homestead or utility usage deductions or EIC anything else falls outside the itemizing.

I enter my property taxes. I don't know what if any impact they make. I assume they are being deducted, but even then, since the bubble burst and my house became next to worthless, I "only" pay about $1500 a year in property taxes. That's my big financial bright side. I pay less than half the property tax I paid in 2003!!! I still wonder how long that lasts before they drive up millages to make up for short falls.

Ok that makes sense - you are nowhere near the standard deduction. That sucks. I have ridiculous property taxes that alone boost us over the std. deduction. And then I can go to town on deductions.

Ya even my hut allows me to itemize since NJ sucks. I'm totally changing my witholding as if I don't pay daycare I will get reamed. I don't like getting reamed.

Octavious wrote: Ya even my hut allows me to itemize since NJ sucks. I'm totally changing my witholding as if I don't pay daycare I will get reamed. I don't like getting reamed.

I usually hit the daycare deduction max some time in May I think.

My dad is going to wtach my daughter this summer and we only do partime during the school year so I might not hit the max.

Would the ultimate procrastination (that still meets the standard deadline)be to fly to Hawaii and turn it in to the post office at midnight?

CPA emailed to say preliminary calculations indicate we're getting refunds, so he's going to file an extension with no payment due. Which I thought he'd already done, but whatever. As long as we don't have to pay out we can take a vacation this summer.

Jaymann wrote:Would the ultimate procrastination (that still meets the standard deadline)be to fly to Hawaii and turn it in to the post office at midnight?

Sure, but you're going to need a supersonic jet.

LawBeefaroni wrote:

Octavious wrote: Ya even my hut allows me to itemize since NJ sucks. I'm totally changing my witholding as if I don't pay daycare I will get reamed. I don't like getting reamed.

I usually hit the daycare deduction max some time in May I think.

Pfff, May? Man day care is cheap where you live.

NickAragua wrote:I'm seriously going to need to reduce the amount that gets withheld from my paycheck. The amount that I'm getting in refunds is pretty ridiculous (to the tune of about 10% of my salary). Not that I'm complaining, but I'd rather just have the money up front than give a 0% interest loan to uncle Sam.

I endeavor to pay as close to zero as possible, with the result about that half the time I wind up paying and have the time I get a refund.

$38 refund this year, which is the closest i've yet gotten to $0.

Kraken wrote:CPA emailed to say preliminary calculations indicate we're getting refunds, so he's going to file an extension with no payment due. Which I thought he'd already done, but whatever. As long as we don't have to pay out we can take a vacation this summer.

This is what my CPA did. I had a last minute (aka one week ago) amendment to a 1099 he had to take care of, plus he wanted to double check the info on my KMP sales worksheet. But, since I'm getting a refund, an extension was approved with zero effort.

Happy tax forgiveness day! Assuming you timely filed and did not commit fraud (or significantly mess up), the federal statute bars you from getting audited after 3 years! So that 2011 tax return filed before April 15, 2012 is probably over -- even if you could have claimed an additional refund.

El Guapo wrote:

LawBeefaroni wrote:

Octavious wrote: Ya even my hut allows me to itemize since NJ sucks. I'm totally changing my witholding as if I don't pay daycare I will get reamed. I don't like getting reamed.

I usually hit the daycare deduction max some time in May I think.

Pfff, May? Man day care is cheap where you live.

It being a work daycare, 50% is subsidized by work, thank Baldur.

Zarathud wrote:Happy tax forgiveness day! Assuming you timely filed and did not commit fraud (or significantly mess up), the federal statute bars you from getting audited after 3 years! So that 2011 tax return filed before April 15, 2012 is probably over -- even if you could have claimed an additional refund.

Thanks! I shall shred my 1981 returns in celebration. You say 3 years, I say 30 just to be safe.

After a couple of years of figuring things out as homeowners we seem to have our taxes down. We got a refund of $7 from the Feds this year. (Although we would have gotten around $900 if not for my wife's dabbling with silly direct sales stuff in her spare time.)

Kraken wrote:

Zarathud wrote:Happy tax forgiveness day! Assuming you timely filed and did not commit fraud (or significantly mess up), the federal statute bars you from getting audited after 3 years! So that 2011 tax return filed before April 15, 2012 is probably over -- even if you could have claimed an additional refund.

Thanks! I shall shred my 1981 returns in celebration. You say 3 years, I say 30 just to be safe.

I've got them back to 96. So you've got over a decade on me.

I did a much better job of keeping track of my deductible expenses this year. Instead of an arm and leg Uncle Sam only got an arm.

Fascinating. Click the link to see if you should get divorced for tax reasons. It only covers up to on dependent, but even at that I can see there have to be a lot of cases where it would make tax sense.

Ha, I have convinced people to get married for tax reasons!

Zarathud wrote:Ha, I have convinced people to get married for tax reasons!

Hopefully they fell into the green regions on the graph!

coopasonic wrote:Hire a professional?

I assume this is a one time thing related to your windfall in 2014? Suck it up!

Considered the professional, and I sure hope it's a one time thing. The more I read about it though, the more I see that it's not necessarily a "wealth" tax, as many middle class families often get hit with it. The one thing I came away with is that it's freaking complex to figure out exactly the formula, or what triggered it, etc. IRS has a "wizard" to walk you through it to see if you need to pay it or not, but it still does not explain the "why" at all.

stessier wrote:

Zarathud wrote:Ha, I have convinced people to get married for tax reasons!

Hopefully they fell into the green regions on the graph!

The 35% (formerly 45%-55%) estate tax on assets over $5.3 million ($10.6 million if married) helped those calculations.

If you were dealing with a windfall from an IRA inheritance, hopefully you had a good advisor.

Finally got our tax returns a couple of weeks ago. The bottom line was not pretty: We owed the feds $1,600 right away, please, and our EST payments went up from $600 last year to $1,050 this year. Since I'd only paid $600 in Q1 I had to come up with $1,450 for Q2...at the same time as that $1,600 balance due. Drained the tax account dry and bled money from the vacation and house accounts, too, and those last two EST payments are going to be a bitch to cover.

This is the kind of thing that turns otherwise nice people into Republicans.

On the bright side, my wife has just about stopped earning 1099 income so I expect to get most of the EST payments back when we file this year's returns.

...and to add more injury to injury the IRS just billed us $220 in penalties and interest for "failure to file." CPA says he didn't e-file for our extension because the IRS site was unreliable on 4/15, so ours was among a batch that got snail-mailed on the 15th.

He has sent the IRS a letter explaining this. No response yet so I don't know if we're on the hook for the punishment or not. If they don't respond before the due date we'll have to pay it or they will heap more interest on the bill.

Taxes, it seems, are not done.

Sorry for the Bump, but I couldn't find a Taxes 2015TY thread and didn't want to start another if one existed.

Usually there are some of you lot that have finished taxes by now. Is the hullabaloo with Turbotax done, or are they up to their shenanigans again with surprise re-pricing?

I was planning on using it again. I only had to do Deluxe last year (as in years past) , as they had the fallback of not expecting me to pay for super duper or whatever the top tier was.

I'm not looking forward to it as our beloved Gov'nor got rid of many credits and deductions except for his wealthy buddies, and even claiming 0/0 I still have to pay in. with 2 dependents.

Ridiculous.

edit: never mind. I found some info: Forbes: turbotax

I am amused with Forbes solution to Ad Blocker usage.

The wife has 3 W-2s this year. I know we've received two of them. Plus first year of home ownership. Normally I'd have been all over it, but I'm waiting for all the crap short of March's health insurance forms to arrive before I start.

I'm expecting a colossal fisting this year. Wife is on me to figure out how bad it's going to be; I'm just not looking forward to it.