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drk posted:My CA tax prep software said I owed a huge amount of money until I got to the section where I certified that I had health insurance all year. There's a big penalty in CA if you dont. BRINGO! That was it. Thanks so much!! 
BonoMan fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Apr 8, 2023 |
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Apr 8, 2023 21:06
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H110Hawk posted:Look at your w-2, box 1/3/5, take the biggest number. Subtract the standard deduction (basically $13k single or $26k MFJ). Look up the new number in the tax tables, it's an IRS publication. Compare it to the box 2 number. Subtract the number you looked up from box 2, if the results are positive you're owed a refund unless you have other income from elsewhere. If it's positive you owe. Such as? I was using TaxAct but they've really piled on the fees.
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Apr 9, 2023 05:23
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Freetaxusa. I hear it's not a scam. I forget what we were talking about. My father in law and I had a good grumbling over what our accountants were charging us for tax prep at the passover seder, we go to the same firm but he uses a different guy. Then an aunt-in-law caught me being reductive on marginal bracket computation and oh god my inlaws are nerds. 
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Apr 9, 2023 05:29
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I hopefully have a quick question. I've already requested an extension on my taxes due to our situation, but I want to confirm a couple of items: My husband immigrated into the US in December 2022 on an K-1 visa. We got married at the end of December, and so I'm filing MFJ. We've submitted the adjustment of status forms and are pending on that, which includes waiting on him to be given an SSN. So he doesn't have an SSN currently, so I can't include this on our tax form yet. Based on some Googling, I have to wait to receive the SSN to file. The problem is that per the USCIS site, it may take up to 13 months to process the adjustment of status form. Do I need to keep filing for an extension until the SSN is in hand? I wasn't sure if there's something else we should or can do. Thanks for any help you can offer!
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Apr 9, 2023 13:54
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Wiggy Marie posted:I hopefully have a quick question. I've already requested an extension on my taxes due to our situation, but I want to confirm a couple of items: Can you not just get a SSN before the AOS is done? My wife has a pending AOS but she's had a SSN for 10+ years from previous F1 and then H1B visas. The SSN card just comes stamped with a "NOT FOR EMPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION" or similar if you aren't a US citizen (meaning an employer has to check other work authorization documents when completing an I-9). It works fine for filing taxes though.
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Apr 9, 2023 20:38
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Wiggy Marie posted:I hopefully have a quick question. I've already requested an extension on my taxes due to our situation, but I want to confirm a couple of items: What you need is to apply for something known as an ITIN, this is an IRS assigned number for folks who can’t get an SSN yet. Usually you submit the application with the tax return; you want to bring it to either an IRS office or to a certified acceptance agent or CAA (search that term on IRS.gov, they have listings of those). Bring his passport with, they use that to certify him. For the return itself, you put “APPLIED” for his SSN entry. Let me know if you any more questions, I’m a CAA myself so I’m familiar.
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Apr 10, 2023 14:52
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Armadillo Tank posted:Such as? I was using TaxAct but they've really piled on the fees. I use Cash App Taxes. Seriously. It's really easy, took me like 15 minutes to pull up my old stuff and enter the new, and it was free.
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Apr 10, 2023 15:02
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truavatar posted:Self-Employed Health Insurance Deduction question I'm just gonna bump this one more time to see if anyone has any brilliant insights before I go the more conservative route and just don't claim the deduction. If I learn something new in the future I can always re-file.
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Apr 10, 2023 15:18
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truavatar posted:I'm just gonna bump this one more time to see if anyone has any brilliant insights before I go the more conservative route and just don't claim the deduction. If I learn something new in the future I can always re-file. Aren't Marketplace plans actually issued in the name of both spouses and children? Between that and and the way that Medicare premiums paid for insurance in the spouse's name qualifies for the other spouse's self-employed health insurance, I'd be inclined to deduct it on a return that I prepared. I'm not 100% sure but I'd argue for it. I'd be interested in hearing from the other pros who are also avoiding the awful returns we deal with this time of year...
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Apr 10, 2023 17:28
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I'd deduct it without giving it much more thought. Edit: not to say it couldn't be challenged, but I think you'd be able to defend it if it was.
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Apr 10, 2023 17:46
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Missing Donut posted:Aren't Marketplace plans actually issued in the name of both spouses and children? Between that and and the way that Medicare premiums paid for insurance in the spouse's name qualifies for the other spouse's self-employed health insurance, I'd be inclined to deduct it on a return that I prepared. I guess they are? It's hard to tell. All the correspondence I've actually received from the insurance company has been addressed to me and I'm the primary insured on the card. But the initial enrollment notification I got from the NY marketplace looked like this: 
truavatar fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Apr 10, 2023 |
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Apr 10, 2023 19:19
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mrmcd posted:Can you not just get a SSN before the AOS is done? My wife has a pending AOS but she's had a SSN for 10+ years from previous F1 and then H1B visas. The SSN card just comes stamped with a "NOT FOR EMPLOYMENT AUTHORIZATION" or similar if you aren't a US citizen (meaning an employer has to check other work authorization documents when completing an I-9). It works fine for filing taxes though. Applying for the SSN is part of the AoS form. That part of the application is supposed to be processed first, but, well... Thanks for the ITIN recommendation, I'll take a look!
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Apr 10, 2023 21:39
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Normally I can do my taxes myself with Turbotax, but due to an event last year it seems like my situation might be too complex. Is there an online one I can do myself that can handle k1 and 199a forms better?
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Apr 10, 2023 23:16
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Wiggy Marie posted:Applying for the SSN is part of the AoS form. That part of the application is supposed to be processed first, but, well... BTW, one update since I re-read your statement; since your spouse wasn’t here over half of last year, to file jointly you need to make an election to treat him as resident in the US. You just include a page saying “I elect to treat my spouse as resident under the rules set forth in IRS 6013(g)” with the return. Did he earn anything that year before coming to the US?
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Apr 11, 2023 00:05
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Hey, thread. I asked this question a couple of weeks ago, but now that I've done some looking around and talking to a few people, I recognize that I asked it poorly, so I'm gonna ask again and see if the answers change. So, my wife and I live in New York state. I'm employed in a normal job that hands me a W-2, while she's self-employed, renting a chair at a salon. Her business is not an LLC. My original question was, what is the proper way to file our taxes? After talking with a few people, correct me on the parts that I'm wrong about, but I think she has to(and already did) submit her various 1099 forms to the IRS, which counts as filing her taxes for her business. Meanwhile, the two of us file MFJ, and for her taxes, she has to fill out form Schedule C. Does that all sound relatively correct so far? The wife began filling out the Schedule C bit, but had to pause that till tomorrow, as she's gotta find some receipts. My current concern is that I filled in all my info, and OLT said that my refund was going to be ~$1700, which was great, until the wife input most, but not all, of her Schedule C form, which dropped the projected refund down to ~$780. Is that going to change again when she completes the form? Or is that roughly what we can expect to get back, total? Are we loving this up in some obvious way? Mostly, I just want to make sure that we're not going to get audited or something in the coming years.
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Apr 11, 2023 01:08
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Dr Christmas posted:Yep, box 12a, code D - Elective Referrals to 401K. tumblr hype man posted:You can probably check and see what freetaxusa.com (not a scam) will cost to get you the savers credit. Yep, checked that out and I just had to pay less that $20 for the state filing. Thanks! Also I would have had to pay $56 twice for both state and federal, so gently caress that!
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Apr 11, 2023 05:06
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neogeo0823 posted:Is that going to change again when she completes the form? Or is that roughly what we can expect to get back, total? Are we loving this up in some obvious way? Mostly, I just want to make sure that we're not going to get audited or something in the coming years. It's impossible to know if your numbers are correct without actually looking at your forms, but in general yes a schedule C is going to significantly reduce your refund. Your wife filing 1099s isn't her filing her income tax return, it's her filing information returns. You're actually paying the tax on the income tax return. You pay income tax on net earnings (gross income minus your expenses). You also pay self employment tax on net earnings, and you gotta pay the full 15.3% on top of your income tax because you're both employer and employee. Unless she made quarterly estimated payments on her own, you've got no withholdings to count against that tax liability. If she did make estimated payments, make sure to include that info on your return. Audits happen sometimes, there's no magic trick to not getting audited. Know where the numbers you're putting in the return came from, and be prepared to back those numbers up if necessary. Don't estimate or go with what you think might be close. If you know you have an expense but can't prove it, take it as motivation to keep better records next year.
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Apr 11, 2023 05:17
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Also, because of progressive tax brackets, any results before you put in all the numbers are going to be extremely iffy. Like if you are MFJ, you will have a giant refund after entering one W2 that will go poof after you add the second.
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Apr 11, 2023 12:49
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Wiggy Marie posted:Applying for the SSN is part of the AoS form. That part of the application is supposed to be processed first, but, well... Yeah dealing with USCIS is like dealing with the worst run and most incompetent DMV in the world, except they can completely gently caress up people's lives. Did you file a EAD / I-765 case as well? Aiui you should be able to get a SSN from the SSA directly once you have an EAD card, and they've been issuing those much more quickly now for spouse of us citizen applications. My wife got hers in like 45 days. Of course it's USCIS so they might randomly decide to take 8 months for no reason because  .
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Apr 11, 2023 13:13
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I was able to get my SSN in like, 8 days after applying for it in 2021
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Apr 11, 2023 17:37
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This is my own fault so I'll be happy to eat poo poo for it, but after declaring my taxes last year I didn't note down what forms I had to fill out and it's never very clear. Still it's not a huge problem, just need to do the research again. I live and work abroad. I have since 2011 and I'm working on getting French citizenship. The US is fun though because you still have to declare taxes, but they only double-tax if you're mega-rich or something like that, which is fine by me. I know I don't owe anything because I'm a teacher here in France and don't get paid much. I'd just like to know what forms I got to fill out. I declare in Connecticut otherwise as it's my last place of residence. It is VERY funny how simple it is to do your taxes in France though. Like it takes 30 minutes just to check you're not owed anything or owe anything, kinda silly that never got done in the US but that's how it goes. I'd appreciate any advice and sorry if I missed something. I read the first page of the thread but there wasn't anything there for expatriates.
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Apr 11, 2023 18:15
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Winged Orpheus posted:It's impossible to know if your numbers are correct without actually looking at your forms, but in general yes a schedule C is going to significantly reduce your refund. Your wife filing 1099s isn't her filing her income tax return, it's her filing information returns. You're actually paying the tax on the income tax return. You pay income tax on net earnings (gross income minus your expenses). You also pay self employment tax on net earnings, and you gotta pay the full 15.3% on top of your income tax because you're both employer and employee. Unless she made quarterly estimated payments on her own, you've got no withholdings to count against that tax liability. If she did make estimated payments, make sure to include that info on your return. That jives with what I've learned over the last few days, so that's good. I have another question, which I just now learned might be extremely relevant: I finally asked the wife how much she made last year, total. Turns out she made just over $10k in gross income, while paying more than $7k in just rent alone, before any other expenses. Am I right, then, that she does still have to file a federal return, having made more than $400, but that she [/i]does not[/i] have to file a NY State return, having made less than $12,950?
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Apr 11, 2023 23:59
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neogeo0823 posted:That jives with what I've learned over the last few days, so that's good. I have another question, which I just now learned might be extremely relevant: I finally asked the wife how much she made last year, total. Turns out she made just over $10k in gross income, while paying more than $7k in just rent alone, before any other expenses. Am I right, then, that she does still have to file a federal return, having made more than $400, but that she [/i]does not[/i] have to file a NY State return, having made less than $12,950? Are you filing jointly or are you not filing jointly? This, her vs you stuff is unnecessarily complicating your thought process. If you're joint, think "we". E: No offense, but your questions are giving me hives, please just talk to a real tax prep guy, your return seems so complicated to you but I guarantee someone (not me, I'm on the other side of NY and would rather choke than take on a new client right now) can bang your return out in 15-20 minutes and you won't have to keep going in circles. Epi Lepi fucked around with this message at 00:33 on Apr 12, 2023 |
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Apr 12, 2023 00:28
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100YrsofAttitude posted:This is my own fault so I'll be happy to eat poo poo for it, but after declaring my taxes last year I didn't note down what forms I had to fill out and it's never very clear. 1040 plus 2555. You may also need to file an FBAR if you had 10,000 USD or more in a non US account during the year. 8938 might apply, check the thresholds.
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Apr 12, 2023 01:05
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Maybe this belongs in a vent thread instead, but if a financial planner /tax preparer has their client do a combination of recharacterization and backdoor Roth contributions over the last two to three years and then as they are preparing said client's current and backdated original returns tells their client to call the IRS for guidance on the 8606 because the preparer doesn't know how that form works and apparently doesn't have time to call the practitioner line, then that tax preparer loving sucks, right? Just want to make sure I'm not missing something that could possibly justify them being that much of a gently caress-up. I also wish I couldn't get dinged on a review for straight-up telling someone to ditch their current preparer and go somewhere, anywhere else, even that clown at the end of their street that has TAX PREP painted on the side of their van with a brush. Hope all the cool practitioners and people working on their filings here are doing alright as filing season lurches to an end!
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Apr 12, 2023 02:34
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Peyote Panda posted:Maybe this belongs in a vent thread instead, but if a financial planner /tax preparer has their client do a combination of recharacterization and backdoor Roth contributions over the last two to three years and then as they are preparing said client's current and backdated original returns tells their client to call the IRS for guidance on the 8606 because the preparer doesn't know how that form works and apparently doesn't have time to call the practitioner line, then that tax preparer loving sucks, right? Practitioner line doesn't do tax law
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Apr 12, 2023 05:06
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8606 can be a little janky sometimes but it's not that bad. If they're advising you make those moves and also offering tax prep they should know how to report it. Backdoors ideally just report a distribution equal to post tax contributions from the traditional as the rollover amount. Assuming there's no balance left in the traditional or there wasn't earnings in the intervening period, there shouldn't be any additional tax on it.
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Apr 12, 2023 05:08
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Peyote Panda posted:Maybe this belongs in a vent thread instead, but if a financial planner /tax preparer has their client do a combination of recharacterization and backdoor Roth contributions over the last two to three years and then as they are preparing said client's current and backdated original returns tells their client to call the IRS for guidance on the 8606 because the preparer doesn't know how that form works and apparently doesn't have time to call the practitioner line, then that tax preparer loving sucks, right? I never thought the backdoor Roth was THAT tricky to manage (reading the 8606 made it pretty clear which lines need entries to me), but I've come to the conclusion what I think is straightforward about taxes and what other people think is straightforward are very different things, so dunno. And as far as filing season goes, I'm trying desperately not to lurch to an end before it does; I've hit the "working enough I'm tired even with enough sleep" level, hard to concentrate so hard with little break for 11-12 hours a day I guess. And then I come on here and answer questions, go figure  .
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Apr 12, 2023 06:13
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sullat posted:Practitioner line doesn't do tax law Winged Orpheus posted:8606 can be a little janky sometimes but it's not that bad. If they're advising you make those moves and also offering tax prep they should know how to report it. MadDogMike posted:And as far as filing season goes, I'm trying desperately not to lurch to an end before it does; I've hit the "working enough I'm tired even with enough sleep" level, hard to concentrate so hard with little break for 11-12 hours a day I guess. And then I come on here and answer questions, go figure
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Apr 12, 2023 06:47
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neogeo0823 posted:Am I right, then, that she does still have to file a federal return, having made more than $400, but that she [/i]does not[/i] have to file a NY State return, having made less than $12,950? You asked this thread for advice a couple weeks ago, and you were advised that your tax return was beyond your ability to self-prepare and that you should have a professional do your taxes for you. Since it sounds like you ignored the previous advice, why are you asking for additional advice from us? Peyote Panda posted:Maybe this belongs in a vent thread instead, but if a financial planner /tax preparer has their client do a combination of recharacterization and backdoor Roth contributions over the last two to three years and then as they are preparing said client's current and backdated original returns tells their client to call the IRS for guidance on the 8606 because the preparer doesn't know how that form works and apparently doesn't have time to call the practitioner line, then that tax preparer loving sucks, right? It’s really too bad that preparer education and testing got killed in the courts because a preparer who can’t do an 8606 and advises the client to call the IRS about it really shouldn’t be doing taxes.
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Apr 12, 2023 12:59
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I had to recharacterize Roth IRA contributions to Trad this year and Vanguard accidentally processed it twice resulting in my 1099-R showing exactly double the amount it should. Vanguard has confirmed on phone there was an error on their side and said they’d reissue a corrected 1099-R. However this has been going on for weeks now and everytime I call they say they see it’s still being worked on and can’t say exactly when it will be done and reissued. Would I likely run into any issues if I just filed this week with what the form “should be” (since they just doubled up the amount it’s easy to determine what it should be) even if they haven’t reissued a corrected form yet? I really don’t want to have to deal with an extension for a change that I know exactly what it should be if possible. The corrected amount should lower my amount owed by a few hundred so ideally don’t want to pay more now and have to file extension to get those few hundred back later.
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Apr 12, 2023 13:48
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My wife left her privately held company last year, after RSU's vested. They went public in March (via SPAC, and it dropped like a rock). Per the FAQ published after the IPO, no shares were held back to cover employee taxes so we are on the hook for all the income tax liability. For the FICA tax, which the company has to pay immediately, the company is stating: "You will be responsible for reimbursing [company] for paying employee withholding tax on your behalf. We will let you know the amount and answer any questions you may have with respect to how it was determined and how to reimburse the amount." I think the company is on the hook, and should have no chance of clawing back FICA tax money from employees who left the company. Am I wrong? Do they have a method to force former employees to reimburse the company for FICA taxes paid?
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Apr 12, 2023 15:25
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PatMarshall posted:1040 plus 2555. You may also need to file an FBAR if you had 10,000 USD or more in a non US account during the year. 8938 might apply, check the thresholds. Much appreciated. I know I have an extension but I still like doing it in April.
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Apr 12, 2023 15:37
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InvisiBill posted:My wife left her privately held company last year, after RSU's vested. They went public in March (via SPAC, and it dropped like a rock). Per the FAQ published after the IPO, no shares were held back to cover employee taxes so we are on the hook for all the income tax liability. I mean even if they can't, the IRS is gonna want their money and the income and withheld FICA is reported on a W2. Congrats on joining the special hell that is getting paid in illiquid and/or rapidly depreciating securities. Assuming the "dropped like rock" part means you're underwater on most of the shares compared to the vesting price, you can enjoy claiming the $3,000 income offset for a decade or more.
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Apr 12, 2023 17:12
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Didn't the income happen when the RSU's vested, not when they went public? What was the "valuation" then? Also what kind of monster doesn't give out ISO options for a private company?
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Apr 12, 2023 19:54
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Missing Donut posted:You asked this thread for advice a couple weeks ago, and you were advised that your tax return was beyond your ability to self-prepare and that you should have a professional do your taxes for you. Since it sounds like you ignored the previous advice, why are you asking for additional advice from us? Actually, I didn't ignore the threads advice. I talked to some friends and family, spoke with two different local CPAs, and they answered some questions, but you don't know what you don't know, ya know? I figured it'd be better to ask what I thought were relatively quick and simple questions here instead of continually bugging an extremely busy person in the middle of what I'm assuming is crunch Epi Lepi posted:Are you filing jointly or are you not filing jointly? This, her vs you stuff is unnecessarily complicating your thought process. If you're joint, think "we". ... I guess I was wrong on that thought, though.
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Apr 12, 2023 23:44
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I said it in an overly aggressive way (hey it's that time of the year) but it's more than you need to just relax and let someone who knows better take care of this for you. You're spinning your wheels, if you can't get hooked up with a preparer before Tuesday then file an extension for yourself and try making calls in a week or two.
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Apr 13, 2023 01:02
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neogeo0823 posted:Actually, I didn't ignore the threads advice. Actually, two weeks ago we were telling you that you should take your taxes to a professional. I know because I was one of the people telling you that. Since you have talked to two local CPAs already, maybe contact one and ask if they’d be willing to help you, assuming that you need to go on extension and then to complete everything in a couple weeks.
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Apr 13, 2023 03:19
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MadDogMike posted:BTW, one update since I re-read your statement; since your spouse wasn’t here over half of last year, to file jointly you need to make an election to treat him as resident in the US. You just include a page saying “I elect to treat my spouse as resident under the rules set forth in IRS 6013(g)” with the return. Did he earn anything that year before coming to the US? Thank you for this, I will be sure to add this. He didn't earn anything prior to coming here and has a small savings account but no other assets. mrmcd posted:Yeah dealing with USCIS is like dealing with the worst run and most incompetent DMV in the world, except they can completely gently caress up people's lives. Did you file a EAD / I-765 case as well? Aiui you should be able to get a SSN from the SSA directly once you have an EAD card, and they've been issuing those much more quickly now for spouse of us citizen applications. My wife got hers in like 45 days. I wish this was a joke but dealing with USCIS has been awful. I will say that once we are in contact with an actual human being, they've all been incredibly kind and patient, so there's that. We didn't file the EAD because per everyone we saw, this is part of the AoS processing. We did have the biometrics appointment recently, and per everything I see the next step is him getting his EAD, then the final interview for AoS. IMMIGRATION!!!
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Apr 13, 2023 15:17
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Wiggy Marie posted:I wish this was a joke but dealing with USCIS has been awful. I will say that once we are in contact with an actual human being, they've all been incredibly kind and patient, so there's that. I'm not sure what you meant by this but they won't give you an EAD unless you also file form I-765. But, most people file it concurrently with the I-465. A typical package is to file I-130 (spousal sponsor), I-465 (AOS for people already in the US), I-765 (EAD) and I-131 ('advanced parole' for travel abroad without cancelling the green card application). Hopefully this is what your attorney did. The reason you want to file I-765 and I-131 is otherwise the applicant (your husband) won't be able to be employed or travel outside the US until the AOS is approved and the GC delivered, which can take between 1-3 years. EAD/AP processing is usually finished in less than a year and EAD specifically has been much quicker (1-3 months) for a lot of people in the last year. edit: and to make this tax related once you have an EAD you can get a SSN issued very quickly aiui.
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Apr 13, 2023 16:35
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