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MadDogMike posted:Take this with a grain of salt since I'm not doing S Corps yet, but based on my reading you may be conflating two separate things. The $5250 thing is for general education assistance (i.e. you offer college aid as a fringe benefit) and you wouldn't be eligible for that as more than 5% owners. Continuing education expenses are something else. If you take a class that either "maintains or improves skills required in your trade or business", OR "is required by law or regulations to maintain your license to practice/status/job", it's a business expense and no real limit per se on that. It just can't be any classes for a new occupation, only your current one. Seems like cyber security training should qualify under that. Gotcha, thanks!
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Sep 19, 2017 22:43
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Okay, I need to know if I'm going to be asked for forms or if I'm going to get turbofucked. I spent five years after college in Japan. During this time, after the first year my parents (who were handling tax stuff for me) were told by my uncle, who is a CPA, that because I was not earning income in the United States, that they did not need to file anything for me. Doing reading well after the fact, everything I'm seeing says that I needed to be filing 1040s with 2555EZs since I wasn't earning anything near the $100k limit. Obviously I haven't heard anything from them but I'm wondering exactly how bad the advice my parents got was. If it's a matter of proving bona fide residency, I have my passport, and I can get access to my payment information pretty easily to prove everything, but I'm concerned.
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Sep 22, 2017 17:21
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I bought a house in September and am looking ahead at my 2017 tax situation. I am wondering about the real estate tax deduction. I will have paid only 3 months at 250 tax. But the real estate tax due in December is 3000, 2250 of which was given from the previous owner, but is in my escrow account now. It seems logical that I can only deduct the 750 that I myself put in the the 3k that was paid in my name, but I wanted to make sure.
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Sep 22, 2017 19:00
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Akujiki posted:Okay, I need to know if I'm going to be asked for forms or if I'm going to get turbofucked. You sorta still should file taxes even if all your income was earned in Japan, and is under the limit (as you state it was), but that'd make your tax liability zero, just to avoid getting angry mail. You won't have to worry about a penalty though, because you have $0 in tax liability, and the penalties are 5% of your tax liability. And 5% of $0 is $0. So basically you maybe should file, just to avoid confused calls from the IRS (if they ever get to you), but don't stress it too hard. Xenoborg posted:I bought a house in September and am looking ahead at my 2017 tax situation. I am wondering about the real estate tax deduction. I will have paid only 3 months at 250 tax. But the real estate tax due in December is 3000, 2250 of which was given from the previous owner, but is in my escrow account now. As I understand it, the deduction of real estate taxes paid is apportioned to buyer/seller based on the sale date of the property, regardless of who actually paid them. So any real estate taxes paid on the home before the sale date, that deduction goes to the seller; any real estate taxes paid after the sale date, those are your deductions. black.lion fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Sep 22, 2017 |
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Sep 22, 2017 19:46
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black.lion posted:You sorta still should file taxes even if all your income was earned in Japan, and is under the limit (as you state it was), but that'd make your tax liability zero, just to avoid getting angry mail. You won't have to worry about a penalty though, because you have $0 in tax liability, and the penalties are 5% of your tax liability. And 5% of $0 is $0. This, plus your your uncle, who is a CPA is a loving idiot. I hope he is an audit specialist just talking out of line. If he's in tax, goddamn.
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Sep 23, 2017 20:45
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sale on Banksy art posted:This, plus your your uncle, who is a CPA is a loving idiot. I hope he is an audit specialist just talking out of line. If he's in tax, goddamn. Noted. I'll be paying a lot more attention now after this scare, but thanks for the information. I assume there wouldn't be a huge issue if I just went ahead and filed everything at once come January when I do this year's paperwork as well?
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Sep 24, 2017 00:21
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Akujiki posted:Noted. I'll be paying a lot more attention now after this scare, but thanks for the information. I assume there wouldn't be a huge issue if I just went ahead and filed everything at once come January when I do this year's paperwork as well? Nope, each year can be filed on its own, no trouble, and since you shouldn't owe anything no penalties for that. Only things I would keep in mind are that you need to convert from local currency to dollars. For one time payments use the date you received it for the exchange rate, for things like salary you earn over the year you use the average exchange rate for the year (I've been using the calculator here myself). Bigger concern is the FBAR/FinCEN 114; you are supposed to report any foreign bank accounts that had more than $10,000 USD at any point during the year and that CAN be given a fine for not doing. Good news is the deadline for this year is October 16, the FBAR is a very simple form you file online and just requires your personal info, SSN, and the bank's name, max value of the account during the year, and account number to fill out. Fortunately it seems the Treasury hasn't really been fining people for late penalties so long as they do voluntarily file it and none of the income from the accounts was significant enough to be taxable, but you definitely want to do that now, not January. Website for that one is here for you. Do note this applies only for accounts actually in foreign countries over the required amount, if you just had US accounts that were accessed in foreign branches or any foreign accounts you had didn't ever hit that $10,000 USD line you don't need to worry about this.
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Sep 24, 2017 17:54
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To be clear, the FinCEN filing requirement is in aggregate, so if your foreign financial accounts add up to more than 10,000 dollars, you are required to report them all.
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Sep 25, 2017 02:13
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Well fortunately that part is easy, all I had was the one bank account. Now I just have to go about getting my old account number since I closed it when I moved back. Should be fun. At the very least it was never much over 20k in converted value (I was stupid, young, and didn't know/think about starting to put away money toward retirement) and I never generated income off of it, so I can't imagine they'll have much to come after me for. Not that I'm really going to try and deceive FinCEN, I'd probably end up reporting MORE money than the account had at any given point, but would they contact the bank in question to reconcile numbers if I gave more round numbers than exact? Japan can be a royal pain in the rear end about obtaining documents, meaning that I might need to mail off my seal to a friend in the town I worked in in order to get everything moving, and it'd honestly be easier if I could guesstimate.
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Sep 25, 2017 04:48
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You don't happen to have a bank book or cash card still? Those would have the account number on them. A former employer might be able to provide it if you asked nicely if you were paid by direct deposit. Or if you ever paid for anything by furikomi bank transfer, the person you paid might have that info.
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Sep 25, 2017 05:48
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sale on Banksy art posted:To be clear, the FinCEN filing requirement is in aggregate, so if your foreign financial accounts add up to more than 10,000 dollars, you are required to report them all. The 2555 Form is income tax, the FinCEN is reporting - unfortunately two different things. From a practical standpoint (which, if the uncle knew about, he should have mentioned) is a) You still have a technical requirement to file, but b) It's difficult for the IRS to track you down. I've fielded calls from people who've been out of the states for years that the IRS eventually tracked down, but really, I doubt they have the manpower to do now. Filing as an overseas taxpayer is a hassle more than anything. When these kind of clients call, I quote them high enough to get them to go away.
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Sep 25, 2017 23:30
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AbbiTheDog posted:The 2555 Form is income tax, the FinCEN is reporting - unfortunately two different things. I have no idea what you are trying to say here, but if a US person has more than $10,000 in non-US bank accounts, mutual funds, or other financial assets including accounts in a business that you have authority over, they are required to report everything on FinCEN 114, not just the items that are over $10k. If you have more than $50k you may have to file a Form 8938 with your tax return as well, depending on whether you live in the US or not and your filing status.
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Sep 26, 2017 01:13
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Abbi is saying that reporting foreign earned income, and reporting foreign-held liquid assets in excess $10,000 are two different requirements. Both of which the op should be mindful of. 
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Sep 26, 2017 14:15
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sale on Banksy art posted:I have no idea what you are trying to say here, but if a US person has more than $10,000 in non-US bank accounts, mutual funds, or other financial assets including accounts in a business that you have authority over, they are required to report everything on FinCEN 114, not just the items that are over $10k. The FinCEN reporting can be done outside of income tax compliance reporting with the 1040, and can be done directly through a website. Sometimes clients get confused between the two - they do one and assume it handles the other.
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Sep 26, 2017 17:33
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AbbiTheDog posted:The FinCEN reporting can be done outside of income tax compliance reporting with the 1040, and can be done directly through a website. Sometimes clients get confused between the two - they do one and assume it handles the other. Doesn't help Schedule B has a section on it related to the FBAR to add to the confusion.
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Sep 26, 2017 21:47
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AbbiTheDog posted:The FinCEN reporting can be done outside of income tax compliance reporting with the 1040, and can be done directly through a website. Sometimes clients get confused between the two - they do one and assume it handles the other. OK, I was confused why you quoted my clarification of FBAR compliance to explain what a 2555 is.
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Sep 27, 2017 00:59
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I bought a rental property last year, and my question relates to the allocation of the cost basis of the property for depreciation. I use the breakdown per my property taxes, but realized the breakdown per my appraisal would be more favorable. It will only be a few hundred a year in extra depreciation Do I need to file an amended return for last year or can I just change the cost basis starting this year and going forward? Do amended returns prompt audits?
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Sep 29, 2017 08:08
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From a technical standpoint, you would either need to amend your 2016 or file a change in accounting method for 2017. The former being much simpler than the latter. From a pragmatic standpoint, there's not much "risk" in just changing the lives on a prospective basis. Especially if it's just a few $100. Amended returns don't prompt audits. Though returns that get amended 4+ times in a single year do tend to attract attention (not your situation).
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Oct 8, 2017 12:50
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I have a question regarding what I can do to reduce MAGI to get below the $186,000 threshold for a married couple to fully contribute to Roth IRAs. Basically, I think we'll have $195,000 to $199,000 in gross income but I'm not sure what we can do to reduce MAGI. I believe that 401k contributions should do part of it but, for various reasons this year, we've done less than we should and it probably only amounts to $7,000 or so. So I think I need to find another $6,000 in the next few months. Basically I plan to up 401k contributions to quite a bit for the last few pay periods of the year to try to hit this, but knowing what else affects this would help. Do pre-tax health insurance premium contributions help? I also assume state income tax FICA and Medicare don't count? Also, obviously the standard deduction and personal exemption aren't part of MAGI, right? We don't have anything other than earned income or loan interest etc, so it may just be 401k contributions that we can use.
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Oct 9, 2017 17:01
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Fuzzie Dunlop posted:I have a question regarding what I can do to reduce MAGI to get below the $186,000 threshold for a married couple to fully contribute to Roth IRAs. Basically, I think we'll have $195,000 to $199,000 in gross income but I'm not sure what we can do to reduce MAGI. I believe that 401k contributions should do part of it but, for various reasons this year, we've done less than we should and it probably only amounts to $7,000 or so. So I think I need to find another $6,000 in the next few months. Basically I plan to up 401k contributions to quite a bit for the last few pay periods of the year to try to hit this, but knowing what else affects this would help. Do pre-tax health insurance premium contributions help? I also assume state income tax FICA and Medicare don't count? Also, obviously the standard deduction and personal exemption aren't part of MAGI, right? We don't have anything other than earned income or loan interest etc, so it may just be 401k contributions that we can use. Pretty much anything on the first page of the 1040. In my life, this has only ever included 401k (not really on the page but it's included in line 1 or whatever), student loan interest, HSA contributions, business expenses, SEP IRA contributions. You can each put $18,000 into your 401k. I dunno what your various reasons are for not doing that, but it seems like a no brainer to me that you guys put the max of $36k into them when you make $200k combined.
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Oct 9, 2017 19:16
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MAGI is basically AGI but they stack your untaxable income back on top, and doesnt' include either your exemptions or your standard/itemized deductions. As for health insurance premiums, did you pay them out of pocket? You can't deduct them if your employer paid them, and unless you're self-employed you won't be taking them above-line, they'll land on your Schedule A. Point being, unless you are self-employed, they won't help with your stated dilemma. If you have a high deductible health plan you can pour money into an HSA which would reduce your MAGI... but I assume if that was the case you'd already be doing that. You could, umm, start a bead-necklace selling business, buy a ton of beads/hemp/seashells/other inventory, sell very few of your products and post a loss? (Don't do this it's a joke) It's a tricky one to answer without you being a client and one of us having access to, like, all your personal ish. Maybe you should hit up a CPA in your area. e: And yea I'm also not sure what reasons are that you aren't maxing out 401k contributions but, you know, do that black.lion fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Oct 9, 2017 |
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Oct 9, 2017 19:28
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Fuzzie Dunlop posted:I have a question regarding what I can do to reduce MAGI to get below the $186,000 threshold for a married couple to fully contribute to Roth IRAs. Basically, I think we'll have $195,000 to $199,000 in gross income but I'm not sure what we can do to reduce MAGI. I believe that 401k contributions should do part of it but, for various reasons this year, we've done less than we should and it probably only amounts to $7,000 or so. So I think I need to find another $6,000 in the next few months. Basically I plan to up 401k contributions to quite a bit for the last few pay periods of the year to try to hit this, but knowing what else affects this would help. Do pre-tax health insurance premium contributions help? I also assume state income tax FICA and Medicare don't count? Also, obviously the standard deduction and personal exemption aren't part of MAGI, right? We don't have anything other than earned income or loan interest etc, so it may just be 401k contributions that we can use. Is there some reason why you can't do back door Roths and stop worrying about reducing your MAGI?
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Oct 9, 2017 21:06
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And now for my own question about contributing to a Solo 401(k). I have a Solo 401(k) which is funded by activities of a side business. I changed jobs in the middle of this year and no longer have access to my previous 403(b). I contributed almost the maximum possible to my 403(b) in salary deferrals before leaving my old job, but not quite. My spouse has access to a 401(k) as of very recently , but even plowing her entire paycheck into the 401(k) will not be enough to completely max out our joint limits. So my question is , how much money can I contribute to my solo 401(k) ? Is it up to our combined $36,000 limit as spouses or is it only up to my personal limit plus the possibility of an additional employer side self contribution? My spouse has no involvement in the side business.
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Oct 9, 2017 21:12
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My tax/accountant guy in the greater Boston area retired last year and I need to find a new one... anyone know anyone around here? Only have until the 15th to do my 2016 taxes and would like to find someone that's a little more creative than H&R Block.
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Oct 10, 2017 22:04
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Zero VGS posted:My tax/accountant guy in the greater Boston area retired last year and I need to find a new one... anyone know anyone around here? Only have until the 15th to do my 2016 taxes and would like to find someone that's a little more creative than H&R Block. Check your PM box.
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Oct 10, 2017 23:27
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Is anyone familiar with reporting income from a Canadian form T5 on a US tax return? Please shoot me a PM if so.
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Oct 11, 2017 17:12
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BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:Is there some reason why you can't do back door Roths and stop worrying about reducing your MAGI? Figured it would be easier to reduce MAGI by a few $1,000 most of which would be done by 401(k) contributions which we should be doing anyway. That's on the list for next year though. Thanks for the responses everyone, turns out we had already contributed a bit more than I estimated and it was easy enough to increase contributions for the remainder of the year to get under. And rest easy that next year is double max 401(k).
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Oct 11, 2017 23:22
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Quick question, I just found out that I can take my $200 MA state refund, and apply it to next year's tax liabilities. Can I do that multiple years in a row, i.e. rolling over the payment year after year to grow my balance? Reason being that each time I get a $200 refund, MA automatically takes it all to pay down a 20-year old student loan (balance of like $2k) and charges something like a $75 "administration fee" each year as well. But on the years I owe money, they don't take anything. So it makes sense to roll over my refunds for as long as I can in the hopes that in a few years I'll owe a bunch and can then funnel this in. kefkafloyd posted:Check your PM box. Thanks, I'll give them a call today.
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Oct 13, 2017 07:47
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Is there some reason you don't just pay down that student loan balance so this problem goes away?
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Oct 13, 2017 13:29
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Zero VGS posted:Quick question, I just found out that I can take my $200 MA state refund, and apply it to next year's tax liabilities. Won't work, they'll apply it to your balance first and then roll over the excess.
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Oct 13, 2017 17:13
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KYOON GRIFFEY JR posted:Is there some reason you don't just pay down that student loan balance so this problem goes away? Principal of the thing, I withdrew properly and they acted like I didn't. I'd like to go to my grave still owing the money if I can manage... Epi Lepi posted:Won't work, they'll apply it to your balance first and then roll over the excess. ...guess I can't manage.
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Oct 14, 2017 04:46
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Zero VGS posted:My tax/accountant guy in the greater Boston area retired last year and I need to find a new one... anyone know anyone around here? Only have until the 15th to do my 2016 taxes and would like to find someone that's a little more creative than H&R Block. According to one of my coworkers H&R block can be extremely creative including telling you to deduct mileage for driving to your normal place of employment and also deducting $25 for lunches that you did not buy nor eat.
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Oct 18, 2017 20:32
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scrubs season six posted:According to one of my coworkers H&R block can be extremely creative including telling you to deduct mileage for driving to your normal place of employment and also deducting $25 for lunches that you did not buy nor eat. Hah, well I didn't need to do any of that, I was way within the standard deduction for head of household. The part I was concerned about is, my parent has 0 income and rents an apt from me, and gets disability/unemployment checks. I can technically charge any amount up to the whole check, but I was just trying to figure out how to do it and not jeopardize the low income perks for them (fuel assistance, food stamps, etc). I don't actually care how much I get, I was just trying to figure out the optimal amount to benefit us both the most. I saw there was even stuff like gifting money around. I was in a hurry until I realized that all that started in 2017, not the 2016 taxes i was doing.
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Oct 18, 2017 20:52
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I live in Oregon but next year we will earn more than the max for the childcare tax credit in OR. I think we will still qualify for the federal credit, but we also have access to dependent care accounts through payroll deduction. WE have one kid in day care and the other is in school, but we might end up paying for after school care and we pay for day camps in the summer for her for the purpose of child care. Which is better? Is the smartest thing to pay the first 6k out of pocket and then use the dependent care account after that? Does using a dependent care account at all disqualify us for the credit? I am anticipating somewhere around $9-$11k in child care costs per year.
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Oct 19, 2017 06:26
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scrubs season six posted:According to one of my coworkers H&R block can be extremely creative including telling you to deduct mileage for driving to your normal place of employment and also deducting $25 for lunches that you did not buy nor eat. Sorry, not all of us created equal, yeah. Though honestly “find a good preparer” can be enough of a crapshoot anywhere I recommend if you do find one to hold on to them. therobit posted:I live in Oregon but next year we will earn more than the max for the childcare tax credit in OR. I think we will still qualify for the federal credit, but we also have access to dependent care accounts through payroll deduction. WE have one kid in day care and the other is in school, but we might end up paying for after school care and we pay for day camps in the summer for her for the purpose of child care. Which is better? Is the smartest thing to pay the first 6k out of pocket and then use the dependent care account after that? Does using a dependent care account at all disqualify us for the credit? I am anticipating somewhere around $9-$11k in child care costs per year. Dependent care benefits (money paid by your employer and listed in box 10 of the W-2) limit the credit for child care. It’s kind of complicated, but basically you can exclude up to $5000 in dependent care benefits from taxable income, but whatever is excluded gets directly taken out of the $3000/$6000 limit on expenses for the credit. So if you took $5000 in dependent care benefits for two kids you’d only be allowed to use a max of $1000 in expenses to calculate the credit. If you had $6000+ in benefits you couldn’t take any credit at all, and $1000 in said benefits would be taxable income because it’s over the $5000 benefit exclusion limit. You can do the math on the page 2 of Form 2441 if you need to see the effects.
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Oct 19, 2017 18:16
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I was directed here from newbie finance thread to get some help with finding an appropriate accountant. I'm undergoing a "major life change" and I am unsure who I should hire to help me with my taxes. This past year I recieved life insurance from my dads passing, which took me off of my SSI disability I had had since about 2011. I'm in a complex situation with his house, too. I'm currently the executor. I managed to get a nice job, for me, considering I had little to no work history or degree. It isn't high income but it isnt minimum wage. Much better than SSI, for sure. All of this happened in the past year, and I have never done my taxes. I think maybe my mom helped me once when I was 20 and worked at a mall for 5 months. Can anyone give me some good suggestions on who to hire for help? I need all the help I can get.
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Oct 20, 2017 22:15
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Just got married last week, and now I have some questions moving forward. Me: Annual income $75k, currently filing Single witholding 2 on my W4 Wife: Annual income $65k, Single withholding 1 or 2 (not sure) We don't own any property, nor do we have kids. We have Roth IRA's, but that's it, and we won't be itemizing deductions. So, the questions: 1) How should we file for 2017 taxes? Will we get screwed going MFJ since we haven't been claiming that all year? 2) What should we both change our W4 to? When should we make that change? Added bonus question: I pay alimony from a previous marriage (roughly 13k a year). Should that also factor in my withholdings since I claim that as a deduction? nwin fucked around with this message at 14:13 on Oct 21, 2017 |
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Oct 21, 2017 14:04
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nwiniwn posted:Just got married last week, and now I have some questions moving forward. Unless you divorce her on December 31st, 2017, you can only file MFJ or MFS. It is unlikely that the latter option is beneficial for you outside of income-based student loan repayment plans. Since you make similar incomes, you should absolutely NOT change your withholding rate to married. Leave it on Single or Married, but withhold at the higher Single rate. You can try using the IRS withholding calculator to see if 1 or 2 exemptions is recommended.
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Oct 21, 2017 14:15
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Ancillary Character posted:Unless you divorce her on December 31st, 2017, you can only file MFJ or MFS. It is unlikely that the latter option is beneficial for you outside of income-based student loan repayment plans. Since you make similar incomes, you should absolutely NOT change your withholding rate to married. Leave it on Single or Married, but withhold at the higher Single rate. You can try using the IRS withholding calculator to see if 1 or 2 exemptions is recommended. Gotcha-thanks. Just so I understand, if I were to change it to married, I would get much less withheld, which would end up potentially making me owe at year-end, correct?
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Oct 21, 2017 14:26
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nwiniwn posted:Gotcha-thanks.
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Oct 21, 2017 17:10
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