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Came across a 1099-R I didn't remember for 2013, and after some fast math seems like I might owe 7 dollars for my mistake. I should actually do something about this, right? I feel like an idiot filing an amended return for a few bucks.
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Jan 28, 2015 04:47
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Marman1209 posted:Came across a 1099-R I didn't remember for 2013, and after some fast math seems like I might owe 7 dollars for my mistake. File your amended return immediately before the IRS identifies you under code section 203(c) and sends you to jail for underreporting of income.
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Jan 28, 2015 04:52
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Admiral101 posted:File your amended return immediately before the IRS identifies you under code section 203(c) and sends you to jail for underreporting of income. Figured. Turbotax seems to have an amend option, I'll see how that goes.
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Jan 28, 2015 06:11
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Didn't get any replies to this a few pages back. Is this complicated enough that I should hire a professional?potatoducks posted:I started working last year as an independent contractor for a hospital and have set up a home office. As far as I understand it qualifies: I don't use the room for anything else, I do my administrative duties there i.e. read trade journals, and I don't do my administrative duties anywhere else. I want to deduct the mileage from my home office to the hospital but want to make sure that I am doing it correctly. What I currently do is wake up, read a page or two out of a journal in my home office before going to the hospital, and read another page or two in my home office after coming back from the hospital.
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Jan 28, 2015 14:05
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potatoducks posted:Didn't get any replies to this a few pages back. Is this complicated enough that I should hire a professional? I would hire a professional. The business deductions and self employment rules are the easiest way to end up with things like massive fines and prison time. Even if you didn't get an answer here it's a complicated enough situation with big enough consequences that I wouldn't trust random internet advice. There's a thread going right now who just got back from 2 years in federal prison for spurious deductions: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3693917&pagenumber=1
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Jan 28, 2015 14:18
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Marman1209 posted:Came across a 1099-R I didn't remember for 2013, and after some fast math seems like I might owe 7 dollars for my mistake. I once received a notice saying I owed an additional $2, but that the IRS was letting it slide. This time.. This was back in '03, I think. You might be above the cutoff, however.
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Jan 28, 2015 15:57
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AbbiTheDog posted:a) Depends on the country, you'd need to look it up. If you "opt in" to a qualifying country's equivalent system, you can exempt yourself from US Social security. Thanks for the answers. Re: b), is there no statute of limitations on how far back? Here, for example, I would only have to file back taxes for the past 5 years.
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Jan 28, 2015 16:18
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:Thanks for the answers. In general, the IRS considers you current if you have filed for the most recent 6 years. The flip side of paying the SE tax is that you will eventually qualify for social security payments if you get enough quarters. Sorry that the tax system is abusing you though.
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Jan 28, 2015 18:46
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furushotakeru posted:In general, the IRS considers you current if you have filed for the most recent 6 years. I could always just give up my US citizenship so I guess I have no one to blame but myself  Just to wrap this up, could I, in principle, file taxes for just 2009-2014 and be current? That wouldn't be so terrible, since it would just be one year of self-employment tax that I'd need to pay (plus I guess interest and penalties?). Obviously if this falls under the "advice on avoiding the law" feel free to tell me to hire someone or whatever.
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Jan 28, 2015 20:23
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Tyro posted:If you sell a property (rental or primary dwelling - curious if this makes a difference) and had to pay contractors to do some repairs, and paid over $600 each, would you need to file 1099s for the contractors? If they did work for your business (i.e. a rental property) and they were independent contractors (i.e. not working for a business like an electrician or plumbing company) then yes you'd have to issue 1099s to them.
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Jan 28, 2015 21:15
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:I could always just give up my US citizenship so I guess I have no one to blame but myself Yes, if you filed 2009-2014 (including the year you already filed) then the IRS would generally consider you to be "current".
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Jan 28, 2015 23:21
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Posted something similar a while ago, but didn't get an answer. I earn approximately 60k/year at my main job. I have a secondary job that will bring in an extra 20-30k or so. I have 1 exemption listed on my W-4 on both jobs. Is this the right thing to do or should I add in something special on the 2nd job's W-4 as far as additional taxes?
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Jan 29, 2015 03:40
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Your best bet is to fill out the worksheet here and see: http://apps.irs.gov/app/withholdingcalculator/
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Jan 29, 2015 03:58
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My wife got a fellowship for phd research, half of which was a paid to her last year and the other half this year. It is my understanding that the fellowship money is taxable if it was spent for things such as room/board or travel, and the the only non-taxable bits are what was spent on tuition or books, etc. The problem is that I didn't know this until yesterday. We haven't kept track of exactly where that money went, i.e. whether we paid for this or that book from "fellowship money" or "my job money" or whatever. I want to pay what I should, but I guess the question is whether or not the fellowship granting body (a major university in this case) reports the fellowship to the government (federal/state) and if/how I should go about reporting it as income. edit: For what it's worth, the fellowship granter didn't send any sort of W-2 type form devilmonk fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Jan 29, 2015 |
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Jan 29, 2015 04:56
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I am pretty sure I know the answer to this after nearly passing out from boredom reading IRS forms, instructions, and rules: I got married in December. My wife was receiving an advance premium tax credit and made just about 100% of FPL, while I had employer sponsored coverage and made over 800% FPL. It looks like the alternative calculation is to take both incomes and split it 50/50 to calculate what PTC she was eligible for pre-marriage, which if I understand correctly means we're paying it all back, since her income would be considered ~450% FPL. I'm not concerned about paying it back, since I was paying tax at a single rate and ended up overpaying a ton. I just want to make sure that I'm not overlooking something (I don't think I am in this case).
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Jan 29, 2015 05:30
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On top of my salary, I am reimbursed for mileage. Do I get to deduct that as a business expense, or does the compensation negate that?
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Jan 29, 2015 07:28
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Happiness Commando posted:On top of my salary, I am reimbursed for mileage. Do I get to deduct that as a business expense, or does the compensation negate that? Generally no you can't deduct it. You can take a deduction for the difference between their rate and the IRS's rate, but that has to be more than 2% of your AGI to get any deduction and you have to itemize. Most likely you won't have enough to worry about it. potatoducks posted:Didn't get any replies to this a few pages back. Is this complicated enough that I should hire a professional?
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Jan 29, 2015 19:52
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Married filing jointly vs separately... I made 59000 and my federal tax withheld was 6785 (then SS was 3545 and medicare was 830) My wife had three different jobs, totaling 5500, with federal tax withholding of 75, SS 340, medicare 85. So, the problem I see is I paid a decent amount of taxes (claiming 1), and my wife hardly paid anything (she claimed 0, but didn't make enough to be taxed that much. I entered my W-2 first and the refund was pretty decent, but with every one of her W-2's I added, it fell a few hundred dollars. So my questions are: 1) Would it be worth it to file Married Filing Separately 2) How can I make it so this doesn't happen next year? Have an additional amount withheld from her paychecks or mine maybe? I see she's over the threshold for income (I think it's 3500 if married), so she does have to file. edit: I should add, we could both easily fill out a form 1040EZ (well, not if we file separate), I would think. No property, no investments (save for a Roth IRA which doesn't do anything apparently), standard deductions, no schooling expenses or anything like that nwin fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Jan 29, 2015 |
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Jan 29, 2015 19:58
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nwin posted:Married filing jointly vs separately... This is why it is a bad idea to look at the results after you enter each form. Only the complete return reporting all income and deductions is relevant, not the interim results while the return is being prepared. You are almost guaranteed to pay more taxes between the two of you if you file as MFS. The system is designed that way. I'm sure you can play with your software for a few minutes and verify or discredit this.
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Jan 29, 2015 20:36
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Mr. Powers posted:I am pretty sure I know the answer to this after nearly passing out from boredom reading IRS forms, instructions, and rules: Unfortunately I'm just not that familiar with the way this calculation is done yet so I don't have an answer for you, sorry. Hopefully someone else can answer.
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Jan 29, 2015 20:37
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Mr. Powers posted:I am pretty sure I know the answer to this after nearly passing out from boredom reading IRS forms, instructions, and rules: I am also not 100% sure, but my understanding of taxes and the ACA would lead me to believe that you will owe back all of the money she was subsidized. First of all, your tax status is treated as married for the whole year, because you were married on or before December 31st. Unless there is a specific rule in the affordable care act to deal with couples that get married during the calendar year (and I read it a few years ago, I don't remember anything like that), then I believe the calculated subsidies as a single person are completely irrelevant. With that in mind, the poverty line doesn't change much from a single household to a double household. If your wife was at 100% FPL (i.e. $11670) and you were at 800% FPL (i.e. $93,360), then as a married couple you are now at about 667% of FPL ( (11670+93360)/15730). It sounds like you already know this, but my understanding is that the ACA will basically front you some subsidies based on the estimates you tell them, but you will have to reconcile it all in the taxes eventually. On the plus side, the two of you combined will probably owe far less in federal income tax than the two of you owed separately. That is a nice benefit of the high earner/low earner marriage.
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Jan 29, 2015 20:49
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Droo posted:I am also not 100% sure, but my understanding of taxes and the ACA would lead me to believe that you will owe back all of the money she was subsidized. I had to do a lot of digging to find the info. In form 8962 there are references to an alternative calculation for year of marriage, so I went to the instructions for form 8962, which has you answer some questions to see if you can use the alternative calculation, and then there's a draft publication 974 that actually contains the form for the alternative calculation. I also found a web page that linked to a PDF of the IRS's final rules on how the PTC from 2012. That last document is the one that convinced me we were probably going to be paying it all back. Related, if I find out six months from now that I've completely misunderstood something and we don't actually owe the advanced PTC, is that a situation where I could amend our return and get the money back? Thanks to both of you for the reply and I'm sure you'll be as excited as I was to read all these rules.
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Jan 29, 2015 21:20
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mcpringles posted:Put yourself in the shoes of the IRS. Do you think they would allow your office if all you do is put your foot in the door for 5 seconds? You can talk to a tax professional but they will probably tell you not to do it. Well I would say something like "Nice job fulfilling the letter of the law with your impeccable electronic documentation that we will have to take at your word is contemporaneous because really how is anyone supposed to tell. I really admire all the meticulous advance planning you did in order to minimize your tax burden without crossing any legal boundaries." Keep in mind that I actually do use my home office for reading medical journals which qualifies as administrative activities under IRS Publication 587. If I have to keep reading before I leave for the hospital and after I come back, then fine it's not a huge deal. I always thought that taxes were pretty cut and dry, but apparently that's not the case anymore when you start talking about documentation and how to prove things. Thanks for the input.
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Jan 29, 2015 21:35
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Mr. Powers posted:Thanks to both of you for the reply and I'm sure you'll be as excited as I was to read all these rules. Well that looks particularly horrible even for tax forms. Here is the closest layman explanation I see: Taxpayers compute the alternative premium assistance amounts for each taxpayer for each full or partial month the taxpayers are unmarried as described in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, except that each taxpayer treats the amount of household income as one-half of the actual household income for the taxable year and treats family size as the number of individuals in the taxpayer's family prior to the marriage. The taxpayers may include a dependent of the taxpayers for the taxable year in either taxpayer's family size for the pre-marriage months. So I see how you came up with your 450% number now - and assuming she can't actually claim you personally as her dependent (heh) then what you originally said seems right. You have 3 years to file an amended return, and it's actually pretty easy to do.
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Jan 29, 2015 21:44
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This rule would be pretty crummy with the right numbers maximizing crumminess. One party taking a large PTC based on an estimate income, falling way short of that income, marrying someone making just enough for them to have to repay it. My situation isn't that far off, except I managed to massively overpay since a 2014 marriage wasn't planned. Thanks for the help.
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Jan 29, 2015 21:51
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potatoducks posted:Well I would say something like "Nice job fulfilling the letter of the law with your impeccable electronic documentation that we will have to take at your word is contemporaneous because really how is anyone supposed to tell. I really admire all the meticulous advance planning you did in order to minimize your tax burden without crossing any legal boundaries." It seems like they have made the mileage deduction contingent on the home office deduction. So if you claim the home office space, then you can also claim the mileage. However, based on your description I am not sure you qualify for the home office deduction. I think you would be hard pressed to show "substantial and regular use". quote:2. Principal Place of Your Business. You seem pretty similar to the Doctor example at the bottom here: https://pdxcpa.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/office-in-home-and-mileage-deductions/. Also, remember that the IRS didn't pass all the retarded tax laws, they are just stuck enforcing them. You can blame Congress and lobbyists for how ridiculous the tax code is.
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Jan 29, 2015 21:55
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BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:If they did work for your business (i.e. a rental property) and they were independent contractors (i.e. not working for a business like an electrician or plumbing company) then yes you'd have to issue 1099s to them. That makes sense, luckily the guy I hired is incorporated as a business.
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Jan 29, 2015 22:21
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I got my 1099-T for the upcoming semester. I wasn't enrolled in school last year but can I still claim it for the 2014 tax year? box 7 is checked for " Check this box if the amount in box 1 or 2 includes amounts for an academic period beginning January -. March 2015." Does that mean I can only claim it next for the lifetime learner credit next year? Thanks in advance
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Jan 30, 2015 02:09
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mcpringles posted:Generally no you can't deduct it.
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Jan 30, 2015 03:07
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I know nobody can really answer this, but I suddenly owe $1200 and I don't have a clue what changed from last year other than I'm making a couple thousand more a year. How can I avoid this in the future? Because this is two years in a row that I've owed money and I don't have a clue what I'm doing wrong. We bought a house in 2013 and that was the first year we owed, but it was pretty break-even. Just had to pay out like $100, but we got $60 back from the state. Now we own on both. I can't figure it out. Should I take my taxes to a professional rather than running TurboTax? I'm all the way to choosing a payment method and Save/Quit until I figure out if I hosed something up.
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Jan 30, 2015 03:49
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New Leaf posted:I know nobody can really answer this, but I suddenly owe $1200 and I don't have a clue what changed from last year other than I'm making a couple thousand more a year. How can I avoid this in the future? Because this is two years in a row that I've owed money and I don't have a clue what I'm doing wrong. We bought a house in 2013 and that was the first year we owed, but it was pretty break-even. Just had to pay out like $100, but we got $60 back from the state. Now we own on both. I can't figure it out. Should I take my taxes to a professional rather than running TurboTax? I'm all the way to choosing a payment method and Save/Quit until I figure out if I hosed something up. they typical questions are: What are you claiming on your W-4? What is your bonus structure? What alternate income do you have? If your spouse/partner works, have you done the W-4 worksheet correctly?
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Jan 30, 2015 04:34
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TenjouUtena posted:they typical questions are: What are you claiming on your W-4? What is your bonus structure? What alternate income do you have? If your spouse/partner works, have you done the W-4 worksheet correctly? No dependents, bonuses tend to just get lumped into our paychecks for the quarter, wife halfheartedly sells Pink Zebra (look it up) but made less than $100 last year so it doesn't count. We work at the same company so everything should be the same.
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Jan 30, 2015 04:37
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New Leaf posted:I know nobody can really answer this, but I suddenly owe $1200 and I don't have a clue what changed from last year other than I'm making a couple thousand more a year. How can I avoid this in the future? Because this is two years in a row that I've owed money and I don't have a clue what I'm doing wrong. We bought a house in 2013 and that was the first year we owed, but it was pretty break-even. Just had to pay out like $100, but we got $60 back from the state. Now we own on both. I can't figure it out. Should I take my taxes to a professional rather than running TurboTax? I'm all the way to choosing a payment method and Save/Quit until I figure out if I hosed something up. If I were you, I would dig out your two W2 forms from 2012 (was that the last year you didn't owe?) and compare them to now. If you suddenly owe money AFTER buying a house, then something either changed or something is wrong. I would guess that you or your wife changed withholding exemptions like 3 years ago and just forgot about it, and that would be really obvious by comparing your W2 forms for the last few years.
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Jan 30, 2015 04:56
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potatoducks posted:Well I would say something like "Nice job fulfilling the letter of the law with your impeccable electronic documentation that we will have to take at your word is contemporaneous because really how is anyone supposed to tell. I really admire all the meticulous advance planning you did in order to minimize your tax burden without crossing any legal boundaries." I don't think your home office will qualify as your principal place of business. You aren't the first doctor to try to end run around business travel deductions for a daily commute. If you actually did some significant administrative work like scheduling and paperwork in your office bookending your regular day you'd have a stronger case. At any rate home office business deductions are supposedly a huge red flag for audits.
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Jan 30, 2015 05:06
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BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:I don't think your home office will qualify as your principal place of business. You aren't the first doctor to try to end run around business travel deductions for a daily commute. If you actually did some significant administrative work like scheduling and paperwork in your office bookending your regular day you'd have a stronger case. At any rate home office business deductions are supposedly a huge red flag for audits. How dare you. I don't have a commute. I work about 12-16 hours in my office each week which I consider to be "substantial and regular use". Aside from reading medical journals and books (which specifically counts as "administrative or management duties" as per IRS publication 587 pages 4-5 example 3), I also use it to handle all of the paperwork involved in running my business: logging my miles, keeping track of my hours worked, answering my e-mails, cashing my checks, doing my business related taxes, arranging schedule changes with other physicians, etc. Yeah I agree I have a greater than average chance of being audited. That's cool. That's why I've documented the poo poo out of everything. Hope they enjoy my time-stamped selfies. potatoducks fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Jan 30, 2015 |
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Jan 30, 2015 07:26
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potatoducks posted:How dare you. I don't have a commute. physicians.txt (just because the state considers you legally qualified to spam out vicodin, adderall, and amoxicillin scripts does not mean you know more about fields unrelated to medicine than actual subject-matter experts. i can document the poo poo out of my poo poo, but that doesnt make it anything other than poo poo, and what you "consider" terminology to mean compared to the actual usage is worth about the same)
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Jan 30, 2015 07:44
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How convenient that the home office use went from a few minutes a day to 12-16 hours a week.
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Jan 30, 2015 13:57
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PCjr sidecar posted:physicians.txt Yeah I think you're presuming a level of arrogance here that doesn't actually exist. Don't get too excited. The bottom line is that things are vague. I've asked these questions in a few different places and responses have ranged from "I don't think that flies" to "Yeah that should work." Anyways, thanks for the replies. I'm definitely going to consult a tax professional to see whether I qualify, and if not, what new administrative things I have to do in my home office to make sure that I can 100% get my deduction in the future. I have a feeling that I can see 10 different CPA's and get 10 different responses, but what can you do? smackfu posted:How convenient that the home office use went from a few minutes a day to 12-16 hours a week. Nah, nothing like that. I use it all the time for work related purposes, but usually on nights and weekends. The "few minutes" just refers to what I make sure I do immediately before I leave in the morning and immediately after I get home in the evening in order to bracket my driving. potatoducks fucked around with this message at 14:05 on Jan 30, 2015 |
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Jan 30, 2015 13:58
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Droo posted:If I were you, I would dig out your two W2 forms from 2012 (was that the last year you didn't owe?) and compare them to now. If you suddenly owe money AFTER buying a house, then something either changed or something is wrong. I would guess that you or your wife changed withholding exemptions like 3 years ago and just forgot about it, and that would be really obvious by comparing your W2 forms for the last few years. Two years is when she would have taken the job at my company, so that's entirely possible. Three years ago she was making peanuts compared to what she's making now, so that may have an effect. Also, my memory is flawed- the house purchase went on last year's taxes, but we purchased the house in 2013. That said, the only question on TurboTax that I didn't recognize or know how to handle from last year was something regarding "points" as it applies to our mortgage. I had the online 1098 (?) that I was working from but it didn't mention points at all. Our mortgage is through Wells Fargo if that makes a difference. I had no idea what they were talking about, so since it gave me a "none of the above" option I ran with it. I figured if I was supposed to know what points were I would know. Would that make a big difference? Edit: Also, I had an IRA I was contributing to, but when we were saving for the house I stopped making contributions. Then, the company changed from an IRA to a 401k and my IRA wasn't "old" enough to transfer over, so I never signed up again.. New Leaf fucked around with this message at 14:13 on Jan 30, 2015 |
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Jan 30, 2015 14:09
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New Leaf posted:No dependents, bonuses tend to just get lumped into our paychecks for the quarter, wife halfheartedly sells Pink Zebra (look it up) but made less than $100 last year so it doesn't count. We work at the same company so everything should be the same. Without knowing exactly what's going on, I would venture to guess that your wife and your W-4s are filed wrong, as you make more money the different would be exacerbated. For instance, if you are both counting enough exemptions for both of you, that would cause issues like that, especially if you have gotten substantial raises. The other thing that might be going on is the payroll system isn't taking your bonuses into account when calculating withholding, and it's a significant portion of your income. Droo posted:If I were you, I would dig out your two W2 forms from 2012 (was that the last year you didn't owe?) and compare them to now. If you suddenly owe money AFTER buying a house, then something either changed or something is wrong. I would guess that you or your wife changed withholding exemptions like 3 years ago and just forgot about it, and that would be really obvious by comparing your W2 forms for the last few years. This is also a good idea. New Leaf posted:That said, the only question on TurboTax that I didn't recognize or know how to handle from last year was something regarding "points" as it applies to our mortgage. I had the online 1098 (?) that I was working from but it didn't mention points at all. Our mortgage is through Wells Fargo if that makes a difference. I had no idea what they were talking about, so since it gave me a "none of the above" option I ran with it. I figured if I was supposed to know what points were I would know. Would that make a big difference? If you paid points into your mortgage that is something you most likely would (and should) know.
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Jan 30, 2015 14:11
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