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urnisme posted:The employer contributions should be included in the code W account in box 12 of your W2-the contributions you made pre-tax through patrol deductions should also be in that amount and are treated as employer contributions. The employer contributions count towards your maximum contribution for the year too, right?
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Feb 14, 2015 20:14
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Boris Galerkin posted:Cool, that answers one question. I'm still at a standstill on filing because I'm not sure if/how to report employer contributions to my HSA. Any employer contributions tax free, and the amount deducted from your paycheck is already factored in to your W-2 box 1 income (also reported in box 12, code W). Unless you made separate contributions to your HSA (ie you transferred money directly into your account outside of work contributions) you do not report any contributions on your return. e;f;b
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Feb 14, 2015 22:27
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So my Daughters mother and I are separated. Would filling out a 8332 allow me to claim the child tax credit while still allowing her to claim head of household and get the earned income credit? She already filed and got the eic, and when I tried to file mine it got rejected saying that my daughter was already claimed as a dependent. I want to get the child tax credit but don't want to screw up her return at all.
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Feb 15, 2015 00:38
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Harminoff posted:So my Daughters mother and I are separated. Would filling out a 8332 allow me to claim the child tax credit while still allowing her to claim head of household and get the earned income credit? She already filed and got the eic, and when I tried to file mine it got rejected saying that my daughter was already claimed as a dependent. I want to get the child tax credit but don't want to screw up her return at all. No, dependents can only be claimed on 1 return per year. She would need to file the 8332 if she is the custodial parent (i.e. gets to claim them on tax forms) to release you for that year to claim a credit.
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Feb 15, 2015 01:16
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In August 2014, I moved from Michigan to Indiana. I'm using H&R Block's online tool to file my taxes for both states and federal, and I have a question about the Indiana return. I moved to Marion County in Indiana, which has a fairly high local tax rate. However, my company has not withheld local taxes from my paychecks (according to my W-2), and the H&R Block tool hasn't asked me anything about Marion County taxes. That struck me as a red flag, since I figured I'd have to pay at least some county taxes because I lived here for a third of the year, but maybe not? According to page 53 of Indiana's part-year resident tax booklet (actual form here: CT-40PNR), it says the following: quote:County Where You Lived Defined If that's true, then I lived in Michigan at that time and therefore Marion County taxes don't kick in for me until 2015. My employer has started withholding Marion County taxes from my paycheck with my 2015 wages, as well, which makes me think that I'm reading this correctly. Long story short: am I right in thinking that I don't need to worry about Marion County taxes for 2014, and that I'll start paying those in 2015? Any/all help would be greatly appreciated, thank you! EDIT: Cool, thanks! surf rock fucked around with this message at 14:38 on Feb 15, 2015 |
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Feb 15, 2015 03:41
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surf rock posted:Long story short: am I right in thinking that I don't need to worry about Marion County taxes for 2014, and that I'll start paying those in 2015? Yes.
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Feb 15, 2015 05:16
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Can anyone give me an idea about what to expect from filing an innocent spouse form? Basically my ex entered information wrong either knowingly or unknowingly, said she would file an appeal, still hasn't. Do I have a shot in hell?
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Feb 15, 2015 11:47
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Harminoff posted:So my Daughters mother and I are separated. Would filling out a 8332 allow me to claim the child tax credit while still allowing her to claim head of household and get the earned income credit? She already filed and got the eic, and when I tried to file mine it got rejected saying that my daughter was already claimed as a dependent. I want to get the child tax credit but don't want to screw up her return at all. Only 2 child benefits can be transferred from the custodial parent to the non-custodial parent: the dependency exemption and the child tax credit. Your daughter's mother should sign an 8332 to allow you to claim the exemption and the child tax credit. She will still use your daughter as a qualifying person for the head of household filling status and earned income credit (and child and dependent care credit if she paid anyone to watch your daughter while she worked or went to school). If the rejection says that your daughter has already been claimed as a dependent, her mother claimed her for everything and you'll have to file on paper-and her mother should amend her return to remove your daughter as a dependent and remove the child tax credit for your daughter.
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Feb 15, 2015 16:00
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baquerd posted:The employer contributions count towards your maximum contribution for the year too, right? Yes
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Feb 15, 2015 16:01
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kaishek posted:I'm pretty sure I know the answer, but I'm pissed nonetheless. If your 1099 says that basis wasn't reported to the IRS, then it wasn't reported to the IRS, even if it's on the form they sent you. So if you don't report the basis, the IRS will assume it's $0 and send you a notice in about 6 months, saying that you owe that extra bit of tax. If your income is under $60,000, you can still file for free using https://www.myfreetaxes.com
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Feb 15, 2015 16:08
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I got my tax refund this past week. The next day, my employer issued a corrected W-2  Fortunately it was just the employer-paid healthcare costs.
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Feb 15, 2015 17:31
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urnisme posted:Only 2 child benefits can be transferred from the custodial parent to the non-custodial parent: the dependency exemption and the child tax credit. Your daughter's mother should sign an 8332 to allow you to claim the exemption and the child tax credit. She will still use your daughter as a qualifying person for the head of household filling status and earned income credit (and child and dependent care credit if she paid anyone to watch your daughter while she worked or went to school). If the rejection says that your daughter has already been claimed as a dependent, her mother claimed her for everything and you'll have to file on paper-and her mother should amend her return to remove your daughter as a dependent and remove the child tax credit for your daughter. Although first he should see if the kid's mother is even on board with this whole thing. While she is permitted to allow him to claim those two things, she is not required to. Even if, say, the divorce decree or court order allows him to do so every so often, the IRS don't care. They will just mechanically apply those rules, and if he doesn't meet the criteria and she doesn't want to sign the form/amend her tax return, he's kind of out of luck.
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Feb 15, 2015 18:24
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sullat posted:Even if, say, the divorce decree or court order allows him to do so every so often, the IRS don't care. True, but the court would definitely care. He needs to go back there if his wife isn't following the order.
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Feb 15, 2015 18:59
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sullat posted:Although first he should see if the kid's mother is even on board with this whole thing. While she is permitted to allow him to claim those two things, she is not required to. Even if, say, the divorce decree or court order allows him to do so every so often, the IRS don't care. They will just mechanically apply those rules, and if he doesn't meet the criteria and she doesn't want to sign the form/amend her tax return, he's kind of out of luck. It is through the court, and I do have the signed 8332 form. The thing is she states she didn't get the child tax credit only the eic so I don't get why it's coming back as our daughter already being claimed as a dependent. What would she have to amend and what would she lose? Harminoff fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Feb 15, 2015 |
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Feb 15, 2015 19:09
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Please excuse my extremely non practical and probably already answered question. If an employer pays an employee with something that is not money, does the employee owe income tax on that non currency income? Hypothetically, if I get paid in crypto currency and only crypto currency and I directly trade that crypto currency for goods and services thus never exchanging them for money, do I still have to pay income tax on the value of the crypto currency? Obviously it would be difficult to sustain a reasonable lifestyle with only businesses that accept crypto currency. I'm not trying to avoid paying taxes. This is purely an academic question. I would assume crypto currency could be used interchangeably with cupcakes or watermelons or anything thats not legal tender.
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Feb 15, 2015 20:09
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Shaocaholica posted:Please excuse my extremely non practical and probably already answered question. http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc420.html
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Feb 15, 2015 20:14
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Ah, thanks!
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Feb 15, 2015 20:18
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Yes of course. Bitcoin is even specifically mentioned:Publication 525 posted:If your employer gives you virtual currency (such as Bitcoin) as payment for your services, you must include the fair market value of the currency in your income.
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Feb 15, 2015 20:23
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I changed jobs last year and got a pension benefit statement in the mail a few weeks ago. It says it's for reporting on the 8955-SSA but all I can find out about that involved plan ADMINS. Am I supposed to do something with it?
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Feb 15, 2015 21:48
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Harminoff posted:It is through the court, and I do have the signed 8332 form. The thing is she states she didn't get the child tax credit only the eic so I don't get why it's coming back as our daughter already being claimed as a dependent. What would she have to amend and what would she lose? OK, sorry, I thought this was one of the situations where there was a dispute. You need to include it with your tax return. Now, I would still talk to your baby mama and find out what she did on her return; if she listed the child on the top of her form, then she claimed the exemption. She might have received the "additional child tax credit" if she was getting a large refund, if her tax was zero or close to it. I don't know. The other possibility is identity theft (someone has acquired the kid's name and SSN and used it). In either case you'll need to file a paper return this year. This sounds more like the former situation (she claimed the exemption and the tax credit), if she did, then she would need to file an amended return. She'd be giving up $1000 for the child tax credit and pay an additional tax of (dependency exemption * her marginal tax rate).
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Feb 16, 2015 04:05
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EDIT: Never mind, I figured this out. By switching to the desktop version of TurboTax and looking in Forms view at the Form 8606, I was able to figure out the issue here: TurboTax wasn't accounting for my total basis in traditional IRAs (line 2); instead of having $5500 on that line, TurboTax had $0. (This is kind of silly since that line just gets plucked from last year's Form 8606, which was computed in TurboTax, but whatever.) turns out the issue stems from a question in TuboTax that asks if you had and tracked non-deductible contributions to a traditional IRA. In my case, I should have answered yes, and then put in the prior basis. Once I did this, Form 8606 correctly updated. I do think it's inefficient, or at least unintuitive, that TurboTax doesn't just automatically carry forward the basis from last year (i.e., line 14 from last year's 8606), at least in the case of someone who, like me, also did last year's taxes with TT. But so be it. (I'm leaving my original post below the asterisk, in case it might help anyone else who encounters this issue.) * I'm experiencing some backdoor Roth-related chaos, and wondering if my financial advisor led me stray. For the past two tax years I've been above the income limit for contributing to a Roth IRA. In December 2013 I opened my first nondeductible traditional IRA, to which I made the maximum contribution for the 2013 tax year ($5500). I converted the entirety of this traditional IRA to a Roth in May 2014. In the interim, I correctly filed Form 8606 for tax year 2013, indicating on that form the nondeductible contribution of $5500 to a traditional IRA. All's good so far. In July 2014 I made my nondeductible traditional IRA contribution for tax year 2014 (again, the maximum $5500). This was converted to a Roth in Jan. 2015, a few weeks ago. That's where things get not-so-good. My financial advisor took care of these contributions and conversions. She has said that her firm likes to wait about six months between a contribution to a nondeductible traditional IRA and conversion to a Roth IRA. That is probably overly cautious, but caution is fine from my perspective, and I understood that the risk of waiting six months is that if my IRA were to appreciate in value, I'd have to pay taxes on the earnings. (In fact, by the time I converted my 2013 contribution, in May 2014, my IRA had lost about $100; and by the time I converted my 2014 contribution, in Jan. 2015, my IRA had lost nearly $650. Yeah, it's kind of crazy that my IRA lost 12% of its value in six months, but that's not really the crux of the issue.) The crux of the issue is this: It seems that, because I had some money in my traditional IRA (~$4850) as of 12/31/14, a substantial portion of my backdoor Roth conversion during 2014 won't be tax-free, *even though it easily could have been, since I converted the entire value of all my IRAs at the time of the conversion (in 5/2014)!* I'm not sure how the math on this works, but this issue, according to TurboTax, seems to cost me about $1000 in taxes. (In other words, if I lie to TurboTax by indicating that the balance of my IRAs as of 12/31/14 was $0, then my tax burden decreases by nearly $1000!) TurboTax is saying that only 54% of my IRA distribution for 2014 non-taxable. I hope someone tells me I'm misunderstanding something here, and that there's just some trick here to the way I need to convey the circumstances to TurboTax. At the moment, though, it certainly appears to be the case that my F.A. could have saved me $1000 simply by converting my 2014 contribution a few weeks earlier than she did (in Dec. 2014 instead of Jan. 2015). All that would have entailed was making the conversion 5.5 months after the contribution instead of 6 months after, which would still have been unbelievably cautious. Am I indeed misunderstanding something here, or have I just become another cautionary tale about how one should not trust financial advisors overmuch, and should diligently research and question their decisions, and all of that? Actie fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Feb 16, 2015 |
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Feb 16, 2015 04:44
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Actie posted:For the past two tax years I've been above the income limit for contributing to a Roth IRA. In December 2013 I opened my first nondeductible traditional IRA, to which I made the maximum contribution for the 2013 tax year ($5500). I converted the entirety of this traditional IRA to a Roth in May 2014. First and foremost, your financial adviser is poo poo because they are having you wait 6 months between contribution and rollover. There is no legal basis for this, it's only idiocy as far as I am aware. That said, if you had any traditional IRA balance that was made on a pre-tax basis prior to rollover, you owe taxes on that for the rollover, and from what it sounds like, you may also owe back-taxes for the previous year because this wasn't properly figured in then. As much as it sucks, if you have $10k in a traditional IRA that you contributed pre-tax (deductible), and then contribute $5k post-tax (non-deductible), any rollovers to a Roth IRA are taxed as if you earned 66.67% of the rollover amount.
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Feb 16, 2015 04:55
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I never had to deal with this but I got curious and found a step-by-step for turbotax that might help: http://thefinancebuff.com/how-to-report-backdoor-roth-in-turbotax.htmlActie posted:(In fact, by the time I converted my 2013 contribution, in May 2014, my IRA had lost about $100; and by the time I converted my 2014 contribution, in Jan. 2015, my IRA had lost nearly $650. Yeah, it's kind of crazy that my IRA lost 12% of its value in six months, but that's not really the crux of the issue.)
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Feb 16, 2015 04:57
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baquerd posted:First and foremost, your financial adviser is poo poo because they are having you wait 6 months between contribution and rollover. There is no legal basis for this, it's only idiocy as far as I am aware. I had absolutely no traditional IRA balance that was made on a pre-tax basis prior to conversion. The entire IRA balance at the time of conversion was post-tax, nondeductible. That was my first traditional IRA, and the only contribution I had made to it (prior to conversion) was the post-tax, nondeductible contribution I made in Dec. 2013 for tax year 2013. (As I mentioned in my post, subsequent to the conversion in May 2014, I made another post-tax, nondeductible contribution for tax year 2014, and then converted that in Jan. 2015. The issue seems to be that I had money in the IRA as of 12/31/14.) slap me silly posted:I never had to deal with this but I got curious and found a step-by-step for turbotax that might help: http://thefinancebuff.com/how-to-report-backdoor-roth-in-turbotax.html Thanks. I had seen that link and followed the instructions to the extent they were relevant. (My circumstances are slightly different that the ones in that blog post, since my contributions and conversions were made in different tax years.) Indeed, all the money in my IRAs is in an emerging markets fund. But in the context of my entire portfolio managed by this financial advisor, emerging markets equities amount to less than 10%.
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Feb 16, 2015 05:07
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So I'm trying to wrap my head around estimated taxes for 2015. I expect to fall under one of the safe harbor provisions for this year but I still want to understand estimated taxes for the coming years. I'm a salaried employee with a sizable amount of RSUs and ISOs which I'll be selling starting in May. Would I need to pay the estimated taxes only within the quarters in which I sell the RSUs and ISOs, or would I have to estimate at the beginning of the year how much I expect to sell them for and spread that amount evenly across the four quarters of the year?
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Feb 16, 2015 17:55
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Dazzo posted:So I'm trying to wrap my head around estimated taxes for 2015. I expect to fall under one of the safe harbor provisions for this year but I still want to understand estimated taxes for the coming years. I'm a salaried employee with a sizable amount of RSUs and ISOs which I'll be selling starting in May. Would I need to pay the estimated taxes only within the quarters in which I sell the RSUs and ISOs, or would I have to estimate at the beginning of the year how much I expect to sell them for and spread that amount evenly across the four quarters of the year? You can "spread" out your income to determine estimates. NOTE: The Form 2210 is not exactly quarterly. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f2210.pdf *OR* you can adjust your withholdings later in the year. Withholdings are treated as being made equally all year, no matter when it actually happens. Form W-4 will allow you to have a flat dollar amount of extra withholdings done.
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Feb 16, 2015 21:05
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AbbiTheDog posted:You can "spread" out your income to determine estimates. NOTE: The Form 2210 is not exactly quarterly. To be clear, I have to start paying estimated taxes on income I don't know the true value of and I have not yet earned OR jack up my W-4 withholding after the fact to catch up? There's no option for cutting the government a check immediately after earning the income for the full amount owed?
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Feb 16, 2015 22:36
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Dazzo posted:To be clear, I have to start paying estimated taxes on income I don't know the true value of and I have not yet earned OR jack up my W-4 withholding after the fact to catch up? There's no option for cutting the government a check immediately after earning the income for the full amount owed? Or you could hit the IRS safe harbor for estimates for 2015, run a projection near the end of the year, and send them a 4th quarter voucher (due 1/15/16).
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Feb 16, 2015 23:15
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Have a question about weather or not I should seek a CPA to compile my return. From my main job I took in ~$85,000. From secondary income I made less than $10,000 as a free-lance web developer. I will need to pay taxes on that income. What I may need help on is understanding how to make deductions on business expenses for my secondary income. I have used taxslayer in the past but it doesn't seem straight forward to perform these types of deductions
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Feb 17, 2015 04:38
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It might not be totally cost effective for one year, but if you are paying attention you can learn a lot for the future.
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Feb 17, 2015 04:50
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DholmbladRU posted:Have a question about weather or not I should seek a CPA to compile my return. From my main job I took in ~$85,000. From secondary income I made less than $10,000 as a free-lance web developer. I will need to pay taxes on that income. What I may need help on is understanding how to make deductions on business expenses for my secondary income. I have used taxslayer in the past but it doesn't seem straight forward to perform these types of deductions If you don't have any business expenses and records thereof that 10K is gonna translate into a lot of self-employment tax. Do you keep separate bank accounts for your web development business? Do you track receipts, have good records of your home office (presumably you're doing this work somewhere, and if it's not exclusively for that work you're kinda boned), et cetera? If you've never done a schedule C before and don't have the foggiest, going to a CPA is probably a good idea. TurboTax and H&R Block at Home are pretty good for making the form easy to fill out but they can't answer questions like "does this qualify as a business activity" and "can I legitimately take this deduction." I'm in a similar situation in terms of having a W2 job and freelancing work that amounts to about 15-20% of my yearly income and I used to be a bit scared of schedule C but thanks to some help from a professional and personal accounting software (I used to keep all my books in excel!) it's a lot less painful. kefkafloyd fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Feb 17, 2015 |
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Feb 17, 2015 05:24
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kefkafloyd posted:If you don't have any business expenses and records thereof that 10K is gonna translate into a lot of self-employment tax. Do you keep separate bank accounts for your web development business? Do you track receipts, have good records of your home office (presumably you're doing this work somewhere, and if it's not exclusively for that work you're kinda boned), et cetera? Yeah this year might be a learning experience which would help me reduce my tax burden next time around. Unfortunately I don't have property specifically for this business, I did have a room in my house(shared) which was used for this purpose. I do have records of all income and business related travel, so hopfully that will help
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Feb 17, 2015 05:35
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kefkafloyd posted:If you don't have any business expenses and records thereof that 10K is gonna translate into a lot of self-employment tax. Do you keep separate bank accounts for your web development business? Do you track receipts, have good records of your home office (presumably you're doing this work somewhere, and if it's not exclusively for that work you're kinda boned), et cetera? CPA here. You don't *NEED* a CPA. The only thing a CPA can do, technically, that nobody else can do is prepare financial statements that have a compilation/review/audit report (we also have state governing bodies to ensure we're not complete scam artists). Other than that, an EA/LTC/LTP can do the job as well. Just call around and get someone that has experience with schedule C. If you have a banker/investment advisor/lawyer/insurance agent ask them for a referral.
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Feb 17, 2015 17:46
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AbbiTheDog posted:CPA here. You don't *NEED* a CPA. The only thing a CPA can do, technically, that nobody else can do is prepare financial statements that have a compilation/review/audit report (we also have state governing bodies to ensure we're not complete scam artists). Other than that, an EA/LTC/LTP can do the job as well. Sorry, I didn't intend to imply that only CPAs could do it. "Consult a tax professional" is what I meant. My guy is a CPA, so that's just what I'm used to. He was recommended to me by my insurance agent, so double recommend the "ask those guys for a referral."
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Feb 17, 2015 18:03
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kefkafloyd posted:...He was recommended to me by my insurance agent, so double recommend the "ask those guys for a referral." Seconding, (thirding?) this advice. I always handled my own, but screwed up a few years back and got a notice from Uncle Sam 'requesting' a huge chunk of money. My auto/home/misc insurance agent recommend the guy that he used for his personal and business stuff. He managed to handle it very quick and easy for me with a simple letter and some documentation, (since it was an 'easy fix), and I have stayed with him since. I 'might' go back to doing them myself next year since I am no longer a homeowner/renting out my house, but will decide that next year. For the time being though, he's worth every penny.
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Feb 17, 2015 18:19
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kefkafloyd posted:Sorry, I didn't intend to imply that only CPAs could do it. "Consult a tax professional" is what I meant. My guy is a CPA, so that's just what I'm used to. He was recommended to me by my insurance agent, so double recommend the "ask those guys for a referral." No worries. I've worked with great LTCs/unlicensed preparers, and I've seen poo poo work from "expert" CPAs. It all depends on the person, not the title.
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Feb 17, 2015 19:47
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This year I have a huge state refund and owe a bunch in federal taxes. Will my state refund be automatically offset by the balance I owe the feds?
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Feb 18, 2015 15:47
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Koppite posted:This year I have a huge state refund and owe a bunch in federal taxes. Will my state refund be automatically offset by the balance I owe the feds? Don't think that's possible. Can always file your State, then once you get the refund file your Fed. (That's how I used to always handle it when I still lived in a State with State income taxes).
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Feb 18, 2015 16:46
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Before I lived in a state that had a reciprical agreement with the state I worked in, I used to have to file for a full refund from state #1 and use that to pay for state #2. Every year.
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Feb 18, 2015 16:57
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NY state let me schedule a direct debit in the future. I filed both returns ASAP, I'd get my Federal refund when they felt like sending it to me, and then the NY payment didn't get taken until April 15. There's no national tax clearinghouse or anything like that.
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Feb 18, 2015 17:32
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