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Ancillary Character posted:Is everything else with your situation the same between 2014 and 2015, ie, you worked the same job for the ENTIRE year both years, you had the same withholdings, same situation with investment income, interest income, eligible for the same tax credits, deductions, etc? If things between 2014 and 2015 were different, that can potentially account for the discrepancy in your refund. I did start a new job, but only because the company I used to work for split up. My salary hasn't changed due to this. Looking at the 1040s for the two years, the numbers are virtually identical. The AGI went from $115k to $118k, otherwise things look very similar except for big differences on lines 15b and 16a. Yes, backdoor IRA. While I do want a bigger refund, my main concern is why the values from 1099-R ended up on different lines on the 1040. I'll call them up tomorrow and schedule a quick appointment just to be sure this is not a mistake.
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Feb 14, 2016 05:56
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AbbiTheDog posted:I can't speak for Furu since I don't work with him, but in my practice we had to terminate around 20% of our clients and raise prices since I can't find staff to work. The government and our professional standards (read: insurance company) require us to spend more and more time on returns to get them out the door, and we found we were having issues as well. Working 100 hour weeks is not good for you. Well, I'm not young anymore but I am considering seeing about getting schooling starting this fall to prep for going for CPA if I can (I'm hoping that won't involve me having to do a full degree program considering I already have a BA and MS in Biology), so there's that at least  .Hot Dog Day #91 posted:I under withheld this year, and ended up owing about 2000. In what was probably stupid, I asked the IRS for a payment plan. I can actually pay the amount in full. I didn't see the harm in a payment plan versus dropping 2000 at once. If you withhold enough to cover the tax, there's no "requirement" to make estimated tax payments as I recall; as long as the IRS gets the money so you aren't owing yet more money you can't immediately pay next year they aren't terribly picky about how you do it. If anything I'd get nervous with estimated payments while on a payment plan for a previous year because I'm concerned the IRS will screw up and take the estimated payment as payment on the outstanding balance by mistake. Possible paranoia on my part, but then again I spent this summer helping people deal with IRS letters so I know the kind of interesting actions they can occasionally take. But withholding on your W-2 and such is pretty clear-cut as being to pay future taxes instead of past ones. But as mentioned if you can pay the whole thing off by 4/15 it's better to do so and save money in the long run on penalties/interest. theHUNGERian posted:While I do want a bigger refund, my main concern is why the values from 1099-R ended up on different lines on the 1040. I'll call them up tomorrow and schedule a quick appointment just to be sure this is not a mistake. Never hurts to ask for an explanation, god knows if it is a mistake it's better to correct it before 4/15 and the aforementioned penalty/interest circus kicks in.
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Feb 14, 2016 07:51
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MadDogMike posted:Never hurts to ask for an explanation, god knows if it is a mistake it's better to correct it before 4/15 and the aforementioned penalty/interest circus kicks in. Agreed. I didn't ask it during the appointment because I didn't have the 2014 return in front of me. Only when I got home and looked at both side-by-side did I notice the asymmetric entries.
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Feb 14, 2016 08:32
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I have a question about deducting health insurance premiums. First my background: My employment status is.... really weird. I'm a postdoctoral fellow and the agency that pays me is very explicit that I'm not an employee, and my income is not salary or wages but rather a non-qualified fellowship/scholarship. So they don't withhold nor do they pay payroll/FICA tax, but they insist that I don't have to pay self-employment tax either. It sounds really weird I know but we already talked about it ITT and my So to summarize, I have NO tax withheld, no W2. I do pay income tax on it (as a non-qualified fellowship), but I do not pay self-employment tax and I am not considered self-employed. They send me a "statement of earnings" that is like a 1099 but not technically a 1099. The agency that pays me also has a health plan with a premium of $Y/month. My take-home pay is $X/month. So my taxable "fellowship" amount (aka my income) that I pay tax on is actually $X+Y. To be clear, X+Y is what I'm reporting and what I'm paying taxes on. X+Y is the amount reflected in the "statement of earnings" document. Y is pretty significant, too, it adds an extra 8% onto my gross income. In this situation, can I deduct health insurance premium of $Y/month, as an itemized health expense? The literature I've found on it is not entirely helpful to my peculiar case, because it tends to lump people into two categories: 1) People who are regularly employed, have tax withheld, get a W2, and have their health plan deducted from their pre-tax income. Like this. In other words, in a way their employer has already deducted the cost from their gross income, by not including it in their reported income. These people can't deduct it because it's already not part of their reported gross income (or do I understand it wrong?). 2) People who are self-employed and fill out the special self-employment forms and all that. I'm neither of those things. My health insurance premium is part of my gross, taxable income, but I'm not self-employed. So what do I do?
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Feb 14, 2016 15:59
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Welp day 21 is today and still no refund or update. Guess I am calling tomorrow. This sucks 
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Feb 14, 2016 16:06
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Quick question regarding capital gains on home sale (yes I am trying to get in with a CPA but it's a struggle this time of year - mainly trying to get answers to satiate my mind rather than make decisions based off what I hear here) We are selling our only home, purchased in September 2013. We moved in immediately and have lived here since then. However, I was slow to change my legal residence to our new address and didn't complete this until mid-2014, and thus my 2013 taxes were done using my mothers address in another state. It wasn't malicious, just slow as I didn't own a car or have any driving reason to get this done. That said, we have utilities, services (Internet, etc) in our name to match the required residence time period. Is this sufficient to cover residence requirements? Or are we totally screwed? IRS guidance says if you own more than one home the tax returns / ID can be used to help determine which is your primary residence, but this is our only home. 2014 and 2015 returns reflect our current home address.
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Feb 14, 2016 16:12
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Pub 523 posted:If you own or live in more than one home, the test for determining which one is your main home is a “facts and circumstances” test. Just don't try and claim the exclusion on the other house as well.
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Feb 14, 2016 17:02
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Obscurity posted:Welp day 21 is today and still no refund or update. Guess I am calling tomorrow. This sucks I think you'll be calling Tuesday, tomorrow is a federal holiday. E: well I stand corrected! BonerGhost fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Feb 14, 2016 |
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Feb 14, 2016 17:20
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NancyPants posted:I think you'll be calling Tuesday, tomorrow is a federal holiday. He can call sullat fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Feb 14, 2016 |
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Feb 14, 2016 17:45
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I called today and it says they were closed
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Feb 14, 2016 18:36
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My wife and I are trying to figure out the best way to manage her 403b/IRA/Roth contributions. We both have 403b plans at work but hers has terrible fees so she would be better off with an outside IRA or Roth if she can put money there. Is there anywhere that clearly explains how the income based phase outs work for IRA/Roth? I know we're somewhere in the phase out range but I'm not sure how it actually works. Every website I go to has a different answer and it's really confusing. There's also some loophole supposedly where we can make an IRA in her name but make the contributions from me so we use my IRA allowance but I'm not sure if this is actually legal or just a crazy idea. Has anyone heard of that before?
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Feb 14, 2016 19:11
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Thanks for the quick answer friends. I'll pay it off in one transaction and move on.
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Feb 14, 2016 21:06
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Hello friends! I seem to have found myself in a bit of a pickle regarding excess contributions to a Roth IRA. I realize that I have hosed up 2014 and will need to amend it, but the question is how to file 2015 properly and amend 2014. Please send help. Here's what happened: In 2014, I started making real money and hit the Roth IRA contribution phase-out. In January 2015, I contributed $5,500 to my Roth IRA, which was unfortunately more than I should have contributed (the maximum allowable was $3,950). I read up on the IRS' website that if I remove the excess contribution before I file my tax return, then it is treated as if it was never contributed. So, I went on Vanguard.com and took a distribution of $1,550 and thought everything was good. On my 2014 1040, I file that I had contributed the maximum amount ($3,950) and had taken a non-taxable IRA distribution of $1,550 (in box 15a on the 1040). I didn't file any supplementary schedules regarding this transaction (no 8606 or 5329). In February 2016, I received a 1099-R from Vanguard for the 2015 distribution of $1,550. Because I never told Vanguard what I was doing, they put a Distribution Code J (Roth IRA early distribution). Realizing this was probably wrong, I finally did what I should have done last year and called Vanguard. Here's what Vanguard told me: I hosed up 2014 because I never called them and asked for a "withdrawal of excess contribution". Because this was never done correctly through them, they said that the 1099-R for 2015 is correct and should be treated as a non-taxable return of basis from my Roth IRA. Also, because I didn't do it "the right way" through Vanguard, the IRS would view the Roth IRA as being over-funded in 2014. As a result, I will have to take the "withdrawal of excess contribution" now (i.e. in 2016) and pay a penalty on the excess contribution on my 2014, 2015 and 2016 returns. Obviously this would require me to amend my 2014 return and it will affect my 2015 return if I'm supposed to be paying a penalty for that excess contribution balance. I have so many questions... 1) Is Vanguard BSing me? Just because I didn't fill out the Vanguard form to take the distribution, I still removed the cash from the account prior to my 2014 tax filing. The extra amount was removed, why can't Vanguard just change the distribution code on the 1099-R? 2) If Vanguard is correct, how exactly should I be amending my 2014 return? 3) If I'm supposed to take a non-taxable return of Roth IRA basis in 2015, should the basis that I claim in 2015 be the total amount including the excess contribution, or less the excess contribution? 4) How does the 2015 return work if I'm referencing line items from my 2014 return that will only be there once I amend it? For example, if on my 2015 return I claim that my 2014 return has an excess contribution balance, but the 2014 return as-filed does not. The balance will only be there once I amend it. Perhaps rather than answering my questions outright, someone with experience in these matters can tell me how they did it. If someone with experience here is willing to actually look at my forms, I will gladly pay them.
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Feb 14, 2016 21:50
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Turbotax overcharged me by sneaking their $40 premium benefits package on after I had declined it in purchase order screen. I think because I flipped between paying via the refund and paying on my credit card, which happens after confirming the order.
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Feb 15, 2016 16:37
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So.. my wife did a lot of overtime in the recent year so it says she owes roughly $1500 back in taxes. Is there anyway to lower this amount by perhaps depositing a lump sum amount into her 401k? Or will it not make a difference or is this not even possible? Also, I assumed she gets taxed more when she works overtime to begin with on her weekly statements so I wasn't expecting to pay back. Is this not the case with US overtime? Sorry for the dumb questions, I'm not too familiar with the US tax system. She lives in WA state which has no state tax.
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Feb 15, 2016 17:37
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MadDogMike posted:Well, I'm not young anymore but I am considering seeing about getting schooling starting this fall to prep for going for CPA if I can (I'm hoping that won't involve me having to do a full degree program considering I already have a BA and MS in Biology), so there's that at least Not to be a downer, but just an FYI: Larger firms typically do not want to hire "non traditional" junior staff. Younger staff cost less, typically have no kids, and you can ship them to God knows where to work on an out-of-the way client and they can go for a couple of weeks - no anchor to tie them down. Smaller, local firms don't like to hire ANY junior staff, since it's such a huge time sink in terms of effort, money, and inefficiencies and there's a five year "training period" for accounting staff (yes, it takes them that long to figure out most of what the heck is going on). There's no guarantees the staff will be here two weeks from now, much less five years from now. Try and get as much real-world accounting experience you can if you're going to be an "older" CPA candidate. Learn quickbooks, read up on tax laws on your own, etc. Learn how to do basic T-account reconciliations, that gets you surprisingly far with accounting issues.
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Feb 15, 2016 17:56
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My wife was on short-term disability for maternity leave 3 months in 2015. We haven't gotten a form from Cigna but she checked with HR and gotcompany HR posted:neither Cigna nor [company] provides tax documents for that benefit. You will want to check with your tax advisor to see if you will be required to report those payments on your taxes. It is a taxable benefit and the premiums are taxed each pay period. Thank you. Since from here we already paid taxes on the premiums, the disability payments are exempt from additional taxes, right? There was no reporting of the income on her employer's W-2. Hed fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 21:15
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Are there any tax sites that will efile a Schedule D statement of capital losses/gains for free? I used to file my very simple return with Taxact, then switched to TurboTax a couple years back and really liked them. However I started a little stock trading this year and TurboTax now wants to charge me 50 bucks to file my return.
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Feb 17, 2016 14:38
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I think taxact charges for schedule D but I think it's only 
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Feb 17, 2016 14:40
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Man this year really sucks. I am already at 24 days. We called and they said "Everything looks good it's just still processing. Allow another week and if no update call back". Every year since I could file it's taken about a week and a half to get my taxes..this year we're going on 4 weeks.
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Feb 17, 2016 14:58
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Obscurity posted:Man this year really sucks. I am already at 24 days. We called and they said "Everything looks good it's just still processing. Allow another week and if no update call back". Every year since I could file it's taken about a week and a half to get my taxes..this year we're going on 4 weeks. We get it, you spent your refund already and really need the money.
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Feb 17, 2016 17:39
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I got a new job in 2015 and wasn't sure how things would pan out with taxes but ended up with a return close to $2000 (plus another $500 for CA SIT). I'd like to decrease my withholding to keep a bit more for myself throughout 2016 but I'm not sure how I can do that precisely. I currently claim 1 allowance. If I upped that to 2 would it do the trick? Or should I set my allowances to 0 and manually set a $ withholding amount with estimation of what my taxes will be? I'm in a fairly standard situation: no dependents and no house or investments coming up this year, just a known salary pay with deductions for 403(b) and HSA. I do not want to owe anything next year, I just want a smaller refund.
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Feb 17, 2016 18:25
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Sales tax deduction on 1040...i'm using the tax estimator tool on the IRS website: https://apps.irs.gov/app/stdc/stdc.html how do i determine the number of exemptions for this calculator?
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Feb 18, 2016 00:12
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alnilam posted:I'm neither of those things. My health insurance premium is part of my gross, taxable income, but I'm not self-employed. So what do I do? If your health insurance is paid from taxable income, it can be claimed as part of medical expenses as part of taking an itemized deduction via Schedule A. This is subject to a 10% of AGI floor, and you need to have enough itemized deductions to make it worth filing with an itemized deduction over the standard deduction overall, but they could be deducted there. You can NOT put them on line 29 of the 1040 if that's what you are asking, that is very specifically for self-employed people. Teeter posted:I got a new job in 2015 and wasn't sure how things would pan out with taxes but ended up with a return close to $2000 (plus another $500 for CA SIT). I'd like to decrease my withholding to keep a bit more for myself throughout 2016 but I'm not sure how I can do that precisely. I currently claim 1 allowance. If I upped that to 2 would it do the trick? Or should I set my allowances to 0 and manually set a $ withholding amount with estimation of what my taxes will be? The way extra allowances work is that each allowance calculates your withholding as if you had one exemption per allowance on your tax return. Hence why most single people use 1 allowance which reflects their own personal exemption. So if you add another exemption, your income will effectively be reduced by $4000 for calculating withholding. How much this reduces your refund depends on your bracket situation pretty much; for a bracket of 15% a reduction of $4000 taxable income would lead to a refund that was about $600 lower, 25% bracket about $1000, etc. Final change in tax refund of course will likely be different but this gives you a rough idea. So calculate accordingly and add additional $ withholding to the W-4 if you want to bring your refund to a certain amount. Honestly though it gets odd enough to work things out I'd recommend if you make any changes to withholding you keep money available to potentially pay by April 15th if you owe, just in case something went wrong. Also each W-4 is designed along the principle of you only having the one W-2 when it calculates withholding; if you have more than one W-2 for income it can get to be very difficult math, to put it mildly. AbbiTheDog posted:Not to be a downer, but just an FYI: Thanks for the advice, I appreciate the insight. I'm still debating the actual CPA thing (especially since I heard something to the effect of maybe needing a masters degree AND 24 credits of business classes to sit the exam locally, in which case I might reconsider). On the bright side in addition to H&R Block rolling out a new setup for certain businesses which apparently might be a full time thing for CPA trained people, I have family who own a CPA firm who are already just delighted I'm interested in going towards that line of work, especially if I might consider more familial employment opportunities . Between that and living in Delaware, where you can't hurl a brick without hitting a bank or conveniently incorporated business, I'm hopeful I have some possibilities to consider.
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Feb 18, 2016 03:04
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Just wondering if I understand how long term capital gains work for dividends I was trying to find out what the tax rate is for dividends, and what I found is that its 0% for the ordinary 10 and 15% income brackets. But I'm confused if this means that the 0% tax bracket for capital gains applies to the dividend amount or normal income+dividend. So does this mean that if I only pay tax on dividends if I make ~$37,000+ in dividends, and only then pay tax on the excess over the ordinary 15% bracket? Or does it mean if my income + dividends exceeds the 15% bracket ($37,000) then I pay tax on the dividends? But if income + dividend is less than that then dividends are taxed at 0%? Probably a stupid question, but I'm guessing the answer is the second alternative. $37,000 in dividends alone seems like way too much to go untaxed.
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Feb 18, 2016 08:07
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Ludwig van Halen posted:So does this mean that if I only pay tax on dividends if I make ~$37,000+ in dividends, and only then pay tax on the excess over the ordinary 15% bracket? Or does it mean if my income + dividends exceeds the 15% bracket ($37,000) then I pay tax on the dividends? But if income + dividend is less than that then dividends are taxed at 0%? Suppose you make $35k from income and $5k from qualified dividends, and the 15% tax bracket ends at $37k. You pay 0% tax on $2k of dividends and 15% tax on $3k of dividends.
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Feb 18, 2016 15:03
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baquerd posted:Suppose you make $35k from income and $5k from qualified dividends, and the 15% tax bracket ends at $37k. You pay 0% tax on $2k of dividends and 15% tax on $3k of dividends. Ok. That's what I thought but the IRS wording was kind of weird
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Feb 18, 2016 17:43
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I don't really understand the Obamacare exemptions for people who don't want health insurance, where is it spelled out exactly how these work and specifically what qualifies as an "unaffordable insurance" exemption.
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Feb 18, 2016 18:07
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MadDogMike posted:If your health insurance is paid from taxable income, it can be claimed as part of medical expenses as part of taking an itemized deduction via Schedule A. This is subject to a 10% of AGI floor, and you need to have enough itemized deductions to make it worth filing with an itemized deduction over the standard deduction overall, but they could be deducted there. You can NOT put them on line 29 of the 1040 if that's what you are asking, that is very specifically for self-employed people. Thank you, the itemized deduction was what I was referring to. The 10% AGI threshold is weird as hell, it means that if I find a way to spend an extra $900 on health things, then I get $1400 back... Talk about perverse incentives.
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Feb 18, 2016 18:27
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alnilam posted:Thank you, the itemized deduction was what I was referring to. It's a haircut, not a threshold. If you spend 11% of AGI you get 1% as a deduction.
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Feb 18, 2016 18:54
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Series DD Funding posted:It's a haircut, not a threshold. If you spend 11% of AGI you get 1% as a deduction. Ohh... okay that makes a lot more sense. Thanks.
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Feb 18, 2016 18:56
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Pryor on Fire posted:I don't really understand the Obamacare exemptions for people who don't want health insurance, where is it spelled out exactly how these work and specifically what qualifies as an "unaffordable insurance" exemption. You're supposed to pay the "I'm a dumbass" tax in this situation
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Feb 19, 2016 02:06
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I'm going to be itemizing for the first time this year and I'm having a little trouble understanding how to calculate the state income tax deduction. It seems like it's purely cost-basis accounting. Is that right? Is there any offset for having claimed the standard deduction in a prior year? For example: Husband has $1k withheld from his paycheck every month of 2015. Wife makes an estimate payment of $2k on January 15, 2015 for Q4 2014 estimated taxes, then 2,500 in June and September, and another 2,500 in January 2016 for Q4 2015. In April she owes another 2,500 estimated payment but they deduct the $300 refund on their 2014 return and pay 2200. By my reading the correct deduction on the 2015 return is $21,200 (12*1000 + 2000 + 2200 + 2*2500). Is that right, or do you include the 2016 January payment instead of the 2015?
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Feb 19, 2016 02:19
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Pryor on Fire posted:I don't really understand the Obamacare exemptions for people who don't want health insurance, where is it spelled out exactly how these work and specifically what qualifies as an "unaffordable insurance" exemption. I am not a tax expert. Most commonly, one who is ineligible for marketplace subsidies (for example, a person whose spouse is offered affordable employer-sponsored coverage with spousal coverage at any additional cost) may apply for an "unaffordable" exemption if the marketplace does not offer an unsubsidized bronze-level plan at a premium below 8.05% of your household income. Link (see Coverage is considered unaffordable at the top of the chart & Aggregate self only coverage considered unaffordable halfway down the chart for the example above) https://www.irs.gov/Affordable-Care-Act/Individuals-and-Families/ACA-Individual-Shared-Responsibility-Provision-Exemptions Of course there are other examples in the chart as to what other ways an exemption may be granted due to unaffordable coverage.
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Feb 19, 2016 07:06
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Does anyone know how the first time homebuyers $10k/person penalty-free IRA withdrawal allowance works for married couples? Specifically, does $10k have to come from my IRA and $10k from her IRA, or can the entire $20k come from the wife's IRA?
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Feb 19, 2016 16:20
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Situation: Married filing jointly, 1 child Total gross income ~30,000 Short term capital gains ~30 Short term capital loss ~150 After standard deduction, retirement saver's credit, EIC, and child tax credit, my effective tax rate is 0% and I receive all of my federal withholdings for 2015 back. Am I able to carry over the additional $120 in capital losses to future years, or am I required to apply it to my regular income this year despite not having any tax bill for that income? Gray Matter fucked around with this message at 18:12 on Feb 19, 2016 |
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Feb 19, 2016 17:56
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Gray Matter posted:Situation: No.
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Feb 19, 2016 18:24
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sullat posted:No.
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Feb 19, 2016 18:39
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Gray Matter posted:Thanks. So to make sure I'm understanding correctly, if I had $3120 in losses this year, I would have to apply $3000 of that to my current income and carry forward $120? yep.
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Feb 19, 2016 19:43
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Hed posted:My wife was on short-term disability for maternity leave 3 months in 2015. We haven't gotten a form from Cigna but she checked with HR and got Just to wrap this up it looks like she pays payroll taxes on her STD premiums, so I reasonably believe the plan benefits to be exempt from the same.
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Feb 20, 2016 03:47
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