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quote:Once you file a joint return, you can't choose to file separate returns for that year after the due date of the return. Long as he got it in by 4/
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Apr 19, 2018 08:19
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Ixian posted:Is there some magical card out there that has rewards that outmatch the 2-3% fee by a meaningful amount or are people just dumb at math? Usually the latter, but this time around you could get 5% on a Chase Freedom Unlimited using PayPal (one of the current quarterly categories) and supposedly one of the online tax payment places took paypal. I didn't look into it when I heard about it because I didn't actually owe the feds anything.
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Apr 19, 2018 15:08
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SiGmA_X posted:Looks like IRS fees are in the 1.87-1.99% range - There are a handful of 2% cards out there, plus some people might be wanting signup bonuses. But most people are just simply BWM. Figured as much. There's convenience fees on top of the IRS fee - TurboTax for example charges 2.49%, total, and you know a lot of the people who pay this way are using TT to do it even though you can pay the IRS directly whether you used TT to do your taxes or not. Anyway, even with a truly awesome rewards card I can't imagine you'd do much better than coming out on par. And if folks are doing it because they don't have the money...doesn't the IRS give you up to 5 years, at a 3% annual rate, for their installment plan? And if you owe more than 10k they can't turn you down and rarely turn anyone down in any case? No credit card is going to match that. You can get 0% intro rates, sure, but those don't come with matching reward points and have other restrictions. I know I'm just banging my head against a wall built by people who can't do math but I do have friends who do this and some of them I care about enough to try to talk them out of it.
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Apr 19, 2018 16:30
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Interest rate is at 5% now. IRS also charges penalty of about 3% on top of that. Also they can turn you down in a number of cases.
sullat fucked around with this message at 17:32 on Apr 19, 2018 |
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Apr 19, 2018 17:28
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Ixian posted:Is there some magical card out there that has rewards that outmatch the 2-3% fee by a meaningful amount or are people just dumb at math? I pay my estimated taxes with my 2% Citi DoubleCash card (and sometimes a new card for the signup bonus) since the fee for one of the credit card processors is 1.87%. It usually nets me like $6 or $7 for no work on my part and during previous years the convenience fee was also deductible since I itemize, so that was slightly more money in my pocket as well.
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Apr 20, 2018 00:30
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Question about IRA contribution limits. I know it's 5,500 or your "taxable compensation for the year" if that's less than 5,500. For this purpose, how exactly does the IRS define taxable compensation? Like which line on my 1040? I'm asking because my salary is extremely weird to say the least. It is not considered salary or wages but rather a stipend, and
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Apr 20, 2018 16:30
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Here’s the detailed explanation: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590a#en_US_2017_publink1000230355quote:Scholarship and fellowship payments are compensation for IRA purposes only if shown in box 1 of Form W-2.
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Apr 20, 2018 18:48
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smackfu posted:Here’s the detailed explanation: https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590a#en_US_2017_publink1000230355 Thanks, that answers my question pretty exactly, though not in my favor.
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Apr 22, 2018 01:02
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Well gently caress, I totally forgot to file my tax extension. What do I do, just mail it today and hope they don't notice? It the penalty even that bad if I missed by a few days? I am probably owed money as opposed to owing.Ixian posted:Is there some magical card out there that has rewards that outmatch the 2-3% fee by a meaningful amount or are people just dumb at math? If you're a veteran, USAA has a card that gives 2.5% back on all purchases (you need direct deposit in their checking so I just deposit my disability benefits). There's no other fine print and it works as advertised, so I get to actually pay online poo poo with service fees and break even or make a slight profit.
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Apr 22, 2018 07:32
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I did the BWM thing and filed my taxes on my CC this year because it was a new card and I needed to clear that spend threshold. Otherwise I've never filed with a CC.
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Apr 22, 2018 12:56
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Zero VGS posted:Well gently caress, I totally forgot to file my tax extension. What do I do, just mail it today and hope they don't notice? It the penalty even that bad if I missed by a few days? I am probably owed money as opposed to owing. The failure to file penalty is 5% of the balance owed, per month or part thereof, up to a cap of 25% of the balance owed. If the return is more than two months late, there is a minimum penalty of $205 -or- the tax owed, whichever is less. So if you owe $0, your penalty will be 5% of 0. That being said, where people get caught is when they get a CP 2000 notice a year later, and the IRS helpfully calculates a failure to file penalty on the balance due as if the amount owed on the notice was the amount owed when filing.
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Apr 22, 2018 14:26
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I'm having a bit of a weird situation. My sister and I are both US citizens but we both live outside the US. 100% of my income comes from outside of the US and is held in non-US accounts, while 100% of her income comes from US sources and is held in US accounts. Occasionally what we'll do is that I'll give her money on her non-US bank account, and she will pay me back on my US bank account. Up until recently this was for very low amounts, not more than $200-300 a year, but my sister is about to renovate her house and is asking me for a significant number (around 10K usd by the end of the year) that I'm worried it's gonna look fishy to the IRS or the bank or whatever. 1) Are we on the wrong side of FOREX laws here? Should we be doing this via international wire transfers/money orders? 2) Should I get an affidavit from her that his is a gift of some sort and that neither of us is charging interest? Let me know if this is "get professional advice territory". Thanks!
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Apr 22, 2018 23:17
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Can you claim a whole purchase as a business expense even off you used a gift card for part of it? I had an Amazon gift card from my credit card points and used it to pay for most of a piece of business equipment. I would think so, but I would also think having gift cards isn’t all that common for a normal business.
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Apr 23, 2018 20:10
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Anyone hear of something like this before? I work as a consultant, so over the course of the year I’m working and earning income in multiple states. My employer gives me several W-2s, one for each state with the income I earned there respectively. Except for my home state, Illinois, where they say I earned 100% of my wages. They want me to file a schedule CR in Illinois claiming a credit for out of state income despite the instructions for the form saying that I can’t do that if my W-2 shows that income belonging to Illinois. Once the state rejects the credit, I’m supposed to send Illinois a letter from my company stating “that’s how payroll worked”, wait for -that- to be rejected, and then finally submit an expense that my company will reimburse, inclusive of late fees and interest. I can’t figure out why my company wants me to jump through all this nonsense. Can’t they just send me a W-2 that shows the correct income? Or are they trying to pull a fast one and not give Illinois what they’re due?
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Apr 26, 2018 01:19
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Initio posted:Anyone hear of something like this before? I work as a consultant, so over the course of the year I’m working and earning income in multiple states. My employer gives me several W-2s, one for each state with the income I earned there respectively. The W-2 sounds correct. Illinois forms instructions are confusing and often wrong. Do a Schedule CR for each non-IL state and it should work just fine.
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Apr 27, 2018 13:33
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Missing Donut posted:The W-2 sounds correct. Illinois forms instructions are confusing and often wrong. Do a Schedule CR for each non-IL state and it should work just fine. Any state you’re resident in 100% of your wages are taxable to there (with appropriate reductions if you’re only a part year resident). Do the Schedule CR, I’m honestly surprised IL would even need a resubmission like your company is suggesting.
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Apr 29, 2018 06:13
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:I'm having a bit of a weird situation. You can give your sister a gift, that's fine. If you want to document it with an affidavit, also fine, but probably unnecessary. I don't know anything about anti money laundering controls, but I would just explain if you are asked about the transfer since you are not up to anything dodgy. As far as how to send, don't try to game the reporting thresholds, anything more specific you should ask your bank. What you need to watch are gift tax filings if you are over the threshold, make sure you are both filing your FBARs, and continue to file US tax returns for all of your income (doesn't matter the source or bank account if you are both US citizens, but likely qualify for the FEIE or foreign tax credits).
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May 4, 2018 16:40
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PatMarshall posted:You can give your sister a gift, that's fine. If you want to document it with an affidavit, also fine, but probably unnecessary. I don't know anything about anti money laundering controls, but I would just explain if you are asked about the transfer since you are not up to anything dodgy. Thank you for this! It seems weird to me that I'm gifting her and she's gifting me the exact same amount so does it still technically count as a gift? loving taxes, how do they work. Regardless, I'll have her include the gifts in next year's return if we go over $14,000 and I'll do the same on my side, just to be certain.
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May 8, 2018 20:29
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I read up on the IRS page on gift taxes but I've still got a few questions about a potential gift. My wife just finished her PhD which was unfortunately funded by student loans. There's about $45,000 of uncapitalized interest, and my mom would like to pay that off for us. Does this count as an educational expense, which as far as I can tell means it's excluded from the gift tax? Would it make more sense for her to pay it directly, or to have her give us the money and we pay it (and be able to claim the student loan interest deduction I assume) for our 2018 taxes?
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May 9, 2018 16:03
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Educational expenses must be paid directly to the institution to be excluded from gift tax limitations.
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May 9, 2018 16:55
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FISHMANPET posted:I read up on the IRS page on gift taxes but I've still got a few questions about a potential gift. My wife just finished her PhD which was unfortunately funded by student loans. There's about $45,000 of uncapitalized interest, and my mom would like to pay that off for us. Does this count as an educational expense, which as far as I can tell means it's excluded from the gift tax? Would it make more sense for her to pay it directly, or to have her give us the money and we pay it (and be able to claim the student loan interest deduction I assume) for our 2018 taxes? sale on Banksy art posted:Educational expenses must be paid directly to the institution to be excluded from gift tax limitations. quote:https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i709#idm140031964138384 quote:The first $14,000 of gifts of present interest to each donee during the calendar year is subtracted from total gifts in figuring the amount of taxable gifts. For a gift in trust, each beneficiary of the trust is treated as a separate donee for purposes of the annual exclusion. Experts, weigh in! E: I realize what I cited from the IRS says $14k and I am saying $15k, the IRS has not updated I-709 but they updated the FAQ.
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May 10, 2018 01:16
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Dumb question about Capital gains tax. I have some extra money right now in savings ($5000) that I might want to hold on to and spend next year. But I don’t want to let it sit in my savings. I have an existing investment account with far more money in it than that and has made a bunch of unrealized capital gains. If I put the money in that account and then withdraw it, does it withdraw from my principal so I would owe no tax? Or would it only draw from my gains, so it’s all taxed? Or does this thing called “cost basis” factor in so a certain percentage is principal and the rest is gains? So if my cost basis for my account is $50 and I sell some shares at $60, I would owe tax on $10 for each share? I haven’t withdrawn any of my investments since I’ve started them  Also might it be better to open a different account for it if I’m planning on withdrawing it? But if it stays in for less than 12 months wouldn’t I owe short term gains tax? Baxate fucked around with this message at 16:43 on May 10, 2018 |
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May 10, 2018 16:30
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Baxate posted:I have some extra money right now in savings ($5000) that I might want to hold on to and spend next year. But I don’t want to let it sit in my savings. I have an existing investment account with far more money in it than that and has made a bunch of unrealized capital gains. If I put the money in that account and then withdraw it, does it withdraw from my principal so I would owe no tax? Or would it only draw from my gains, so it’s all taxed? It depends on what you have elected as your cost basis method with your broker. Check this out: https://investor.vanguard.com/taxes/cost-basis/methods
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May 10, 2018 17:54
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My wife and I flipped a house that we just sold. Didn't make a lot of money but at least we didn't lose any. We're calculating all our costs in preparation for next year's taxes. How do we handle the documentation of payments to indiviudal contractors? 1. We want to fill out a 1099-MISC to reflect our payments to them, right? (Unless they're an LLC, at which point we just treat the payments as part of our overall costs?) 2. Say that the contractors are being dodgy because they want to try to keep the payments under the table from their perspective. I don't care what they do as long as we're above board. As long as we file a 1099-MISC with the feds and lookup their TIN somehow, then we're in the clear even if they decide to pretend that they didn't make any money, right?
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May 11, 2018 16:30
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I'm a dumbass and when I filed my 2015 taxes in April 2016 (so almost exactly 2 years ago), I screwed up my address so my refund check got returned to the IRS. It wasn't enormous, but it's a couple thousand that I'd like to get back. I was reminded of it today after years of thinking I was toast and saw something online saying I can follow up for three years on the check, but when I called the IRS today they said that you can only do a check trace for a year after, which is what I'd need to do. Is that accurate? It seems crazy to me that if a check was returned to the IRS in my name there's nothing I can do to get that money sent back to me. And yes, I'm fully aware of the fact I'm an idiot for waiting this long.
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May 14, 2018 21:59
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Withholding question: My wife and I both currently work and expect to remain employed for the rest of 2018. I currently file as Single with 2 allowances and my wife files single with 1 allowance. My Gross income is around 79000 and her's is 67000. We are planning on having our first child in October, so I'm wondering if either of us should adjust our withholding to reflect this?
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May 15, 2018 19:10
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nwin posted:Withholding question: So let me ask you this: if your deductions are changing, do you think your tax burden is going to change? Followup: do you have a specific reason you need to adjust your withholdings so you don't get a refund/owe an appreciable amount?
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May 15, 2018 19:19
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Hoodwinker posted:Two things: first, if you know your household gross income and your deductions you can calculate your AGI and therefore your tax burden. Second, if you play with some of the withholding calculators online, you should be able to figure out the exact allowances/additional withholdings you would need to cover exactly your tax burden. So I would imagine (perhaps this is a false assumption) that since we will be having a kid, we will be eligible for a child tax credit of some sort and since I'll be claiming one more dependent that I would be paying too much in taxes, which would lead to a large refund. I'd rather have the money up front and have a zero refund when I file.
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May 15, 2018 19:27
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nwin posted:So I would imagine (perhaps this is a false assumption) that since we will be having a kid, we will be eligible for a child tax credit of some sort and since I'll be claiming one more dependent that I would be paying too much in taxes, which would lead to a large refund. I'd rather have the money up front and have a zero refund when I file.
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May 15, 2018 19:29
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Hoodwinker posted:Would it surprise you to hear that the answer to your question about whether or not you'll be eligible for a child tax credit is, "It depends?" I could probably take the information you provided and give a best guess answer, but you can do that too, and I encourage you to do so. It's definitely possible to calculate out everything you would need to know. So from what I've read I would have to owe taxes in order to use the credit, correct? And since my income is above 110k, it would not be the full credit.
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May 15, 2018 19:33
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nwin posted:So from what I've read I would have to owe taxes in order to use the credit, correct? And since my income is above 110k, it would not be the full credit.
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May 15, 2018 19:54
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Hoodwinker posted:That seems likely. I'm seeing that if your MAGI is above 130k, you get no child tax credit. The phaseouts increased for 2018, always make sure you're using the current years numbers. The beginning credit phaseout for the CTC increases to $200,000 ($400,000 for joint filers).
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May 15, 2018 20:55
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Epi Lepi posted:The phaseouts increased for 2018, always make sure you're using the current years numbers. The beginning credit phaseout for the CTC increases to $200,000 ($400,000 for joint filers).
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May 15, 2018 21:05
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The Macaroni posted:My wife and I flipped a house that we just sold. Didn't make a lot of money but at least we didn't lose any. We're calculating all our costs in preparation for next year's taxes. How do we handle the documentation of payments to indiviudal contractors? If I’m right on this, good. If I’m wrong someone will call me dumb. Issue a 1099-MISC for LLC partnerships and single member LLCs too. That’s what my company (projects in the tens to a hundred million dollars) does. Setting up vendors including noting whether they needed 1099s was a depressingly large part of my job for a while.
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May 15, 2018 21:08
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Thanks!
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May 16, 2018 16:53
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Quandary posted:I'm a dumbass and when I filed my 2015 taxes in April 2016 (so almost exactly 2 years ago), I screwed up my address so my refund check got returned to the IRS. It wasn't enormous, but it's a couple thousand that I'd like to get back. I was reminded of it today after years of thinking I was toast and saw something online saying I can follow up for three years on the check, but when I called the IRS today they said that you can only do a check trace for a year after, which is what I'd need to do. Any thoughts here?
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May 16, 2018 19:32
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Quandary posted:Any thoughts here? If memory serves you can call them and have them re-issue the check, especially if it hasn't cleared. You'd need to verify some info (address on that return, your current address, AGI, refund, filing status, etc). https://www.irs.gov/faqs/irs-procedures/refund-inquiries/refund-inquiries-0 Often when you call the IRS, the staffer on the phone doesn't know all of the procedures and tells erroneous info. Line up and try again. Mondays are awful times to call, but the IRS is open from 7am - 7PM local time. If the IRS is giving you the run-around, try the taxpayer advocacy office. They're free, semi-affiliated with the IRS but they're great at "jarring" refunds loose from the IRS. https://www.irs.gov/taxpayer-advocate Fill out and fax to your local office the 911 form and someone will call you in 2-3 business days, interview you over the phone, and start working on your case. AbbiTheDog fucked around with this message at 16:58 on May 17, 2018 |
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May 17, 2018 16:55
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Quandary posted:Any thoughts here? If the check has been cashed, and it has been more than one year, the request to trace the check has to be submitted in writing. Form 3911 will handle that. If your check was routed through a middleman, try contacting them. If the check isn't cashed after 13 months, it is cancelled and a new one can be issued. Since they didn't reissue the check I would guess it's the first issue. Once they trace the check they will send you a copy of the cancelled check and another form to file to make the claim. The IRS doesn't handle that part, though.
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May 18, 2018 01:55
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This may sound like a TurboTax question, but it's kind of not: Turbo Tax wouldn't let me file my taxes online, but it seemed (at first) to accept my online payment of taxes I owe. So I sent the paperwork, but no check, since the online payment seemed to work. It would seem that that payment never went through. My question: assuming that the government receives my filled-in tax forms and does not find a payment, will they reach out to me for what I owe, and if so, how? I assume they're going to mail me something at some point but maybe I should be doing something instead?
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May 23, 2018 04:10
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You'll receive a notice in the mail at the end of May, early June. It will helpfully calculate the amount you owe + penalties and interest. You should pay what you owe through the direct pay system on the IRS website before then to minimize the penalties & interest.
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May 23, 2018 14:53
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