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Leviathan Song posted:My wife has a traditional IRA left over from her old employer with about $800 in it. We are over the income limits to contribute to a traditional IRA and her work 401k is terrible so she mostly uses her Roth IRA. Can't roll it into your account from hers unless she dies and leaves it to you. If you roll it into her Roth IRA you just pay tax on the $800, no 10% penalty on top of that.
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# ? Jan 31, 2017 18:57 |
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# ? Jun 10, 2024 11:17 |
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Has anyone been in contact with OP? I tried to get a hold of him, but have received no response. I need some kind of tax preparer to run a few scenarios for moving to the US from Europe. Likely states would be NY or NJ - if anyone has a lead, I'd appreciate it.
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# ? Jan 31, 2017 19:34 |
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So, I called the IRS back, and this time they were able to give me my AGI to efile, since I forgot I now qualify for the EITC, so I get an actually kind of nice return. However, I'm in the middle of consolidating my student loans, and apparently with the consolidation Fed loan told me that once it goes through I no longer lose my refund to my loans, since they're no longer in default? They did say 3 months of on-time payments, which they calculated at $0. Is that a reason I can file an extension? Since 3 months would be may...
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# ? Jan 31, 2017 19:51 |
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MadDogMike posted:Can't roll it into your account from hers unless she dies and leaves it to you. If you roll it into her Roth IRA you just pay tax on the $800, no 10% penalty on top of that. Thanks, that'll work.
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# ? Jan 31, 2017 20:10 |
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morothar posted:Has anyone been in contact with OP? I tried to get a hold of him, but have received no response. There was evidently something that went south between OP and another member of the forums and Furu hasn't been seen around here since. For international taxation, it might be best to call larger firms (who would have the resources on staff) and ask if they have experience with whatever country you're heading to. Note: The fees on this will be spendy. I try and avoid any international taxes, since they're a pain in the rear unless you're dealing with the same country year in, year out. But inevitably it's "Hey, I'm moving to BumFuckIstan, how will my taxes change? And I have a $50 budget for you to research and answer this question, otherwise I'm going on Yelp and bitching about how expensive your firm is."
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# ? Jan 31, 2017 20:47 |
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Dumb question. I refinanced my home this year. The loan docs have ~450 of prepaid interest shown. Is that amount (normally) included in the 1098 form I got from my lender? It is fairly difficult for me to verify, as my loan was later sold and original holder closed access so I cant look up statements to compare to the 1098 I got.
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# ? Jan 31, 2017 21:52 |
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AbbiTheDog posted:There was evidently something that went south between OP and another member of the forums and Furu hasn't been seen around here since. Ah, I missed that bit. In our case, it's not about international taxation in any sense: It's pretty likely we will be moving to the US in a few months to work there for a few years. So we'd be paying taxes in the US exclusively come next year. What we would need is somebody to do a few gross to net calculation based on a few assumptions to understand the impact of such things as different salaries, benefit in kind such as a company car, health insurance, with and without mortgage, providing for retirement funds. I can find tools to do a gross to net, but I'm not exactly willing to research all the other stuff just to get an idea how much net we'd have left over compared to now under different scenarios - that should be easy to do for a tax preparer with the right tools, nothing complicated, and strictly domestic.
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# ? Jan 31, 2017 23:21 |
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morothar posted:Ah, I missed that bit. Ah, in that case you might ask anyone else you might know in the US and use them to run some numbers for you. The US taxes are typically due April 15th every year, so this time of year all of the tax professionals will be busy and stressed, so keep that in mind as you call around.
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# ? Feb 1, 2017 00:46 |
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So last year I inherited some land from a family member, I made no income from it but paid around $200 in taxes on it. Other than that everything is pretty straight forward for me(single, no dependents, 2 jobs, etc.) I'm going to be using turbotax most likely so am I just plugging this in or is this a situation where I would be better off hiring someone? Thanks in advance!
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# ? Feb 1, 2017 03:41 |
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AA is for Quitters posted:So, I called the IRS back, and this time they were able to give me my AGI to efile, since I forgot I now qualify for the EITC, so I get an actually kind of nice return. You can file an automatic 6 monnth extension for no reason at all. Form 4868. Call the IRS before you file, just to make double sure they will send the refund to you rather than the student loan peeps. Field Mousepad posted:So last year I inherited some land from a family member, I made no income from it but paid around $200 in taxes on it. Other than that everything is pretty straight forward for me(single, no dependents, 2 jobs, etc.) I'm going to be using turbotax most likely so am I just plugging this in or is this a situation where I would be better off hiring someone? If you itemize, it would be deductible on either the schedule E (if you have rental income) or schedule A (if you don't). But if you use the standard deduction, it has no impact on your federal return. You might want to figure out the "fair market value" of the land on the day you inherited because that is now the land's basis. So if you ever sell the land, that is the price you pretend you paid for the land when calculating your gain.
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# ? Feb 1, 2017 04:28 |
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sullat posted:You can file an automatic 6 monnth extension for no reason at all. Form 4868. Call the IRS before you file, just to make double sure they will send the refund to you rather than the student loan peeps. Rad thank you!
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# ? Feb 1, 2017 05:57 |
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Hello all, I live in Oregon i.e. the only state that requires you to pass a state board administered exam to prepare taxes. I just passed the test with a 89%. I'm so happy, I've been trying for two years, it's a really hard test. Can't wait to prepare some taxes this season. Just thought I'd say hi!
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# ? Feb 1, 2017 22:26 |
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I purchased my first home this year and am trying to figure out what amount to deduct for my property taxes; the tooltip on TaxACT says to use the data from form 1098, box 5 but that's listed as "Mortgage Insurance Premiums" on the form I was sent from my loan company and doesn't have a dollar amount. There's an amount listed in Box 1 on the form (Mortgage interest received from payer/borrower) but I can see on the loan activity sheet that they disbursed a different amount for the property taxes, which was paid out of the escrow. Which value should I be using for the property tax deduction?
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# ? Feb 2, 2017 02:35 |
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I still haven't been able to get in contact on the phone to pay my state taxes from last year. A couple of days ago, I was on the phone for a hour and 15 minutes and nobody answered my call. But then today, I got a Release of Lien letter in the mail for my balance. ...what does this mean? "Enclosed is a Release of Lien. The Certification of Indebtedness referred to herein has now been satisfied." ..huh? 89 fucked around with this message at 10:38 on Feb 2, 2017 |
# ? Feb 2, 2017 10:25 |
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plainswalker75 posted:I purchased my first home this year and am trying to figure out what amount to deduct for my property taxes; the tooltip on TaxACT says to use the data from form 1098, box 5 but that's listed as "Mortgage Insurance Premiums" on the form I was sent from my loan company and doesn't have a dollar amount. There's an amount listed in Box 1 on the form (Mortgage interest received from payer/borrower) but I can see on the loan activity sheet that they disbursed a different amount for the property taxes, which was paid out of the escrow. I'm guessing all of your property taxes are paid out of escrow? If the 1098 doesn't report the amount (which it seems like it doesn't), use the amount reported on the loan activity sheet.
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# ? Feb 2, 2017 13:27 |
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89 posted:I still haven't been able to get in contact on the phone to pay my state taxes from last year. A couple of days ago, I was on the phone for a hour and 15 minutes and nobody answered my call. But then today, I got a Release of Lien letter in the mail for my balance. Need way more background.
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# ? Feb 2, 2017 13:28 |
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I apologize if someone in my situation has already received the exact advice I need, but I didn't see it covered in the OP. I got divorced last November and didn't change my withholdings until after I received the decree, which I'm now realizing was a bonehead move. Turbotax tells me I will owe $4k, based on filing a simple return (I don't own property, and don't have any other deductions to claim). Do I have any recourse in the way of hiring a professional to "pro-rate" (for lack of a better term, I suppose) my filing status, or do I just need to suck it up? Secondary question: Am I going to need to pay the full amount I owe no later than April 15th?
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# ? Feb 2, 2017 17:08 |
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Mistaken For Bacon posted:I apologize if someone in my situation has already received the exact advice I need, but I didn't see it covered in the OP. I got divorced last November and didn't change my withholdings until after I received the decree, which I'm now realizing was a bonehead move. Turbotax tells me I will owe $4k, based on filing a simple return (I don't own property, and don't have any other deductions to claim). Your marital status for tax purposes is based on whether you were married on the last day of the year. So there is no way to prorate your status. Any tax owed is due April 17 this year. If you can't afford it all by then, you can set up a payment plan but the IRS will charge interest.
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# ? Feb 2, 2017 21:27 |
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So it doesn't raise the payment of my wife's student loans (FedLoans), we file married & separate. We've taken the standard deduction for the first 2 years we've been married, but now that we own a home, it's better off if we itemize and deduct the interest and taxes. I understand that filing married (whether joint or separate) we have to use the same deduction method, so I'm counting the mortgage 1098 on my return, and she's only deducting student loan interest on her return. She's still a little concerned that doing this will raise some kind of flag with her student loan repayment though, as every year she has to recertify income. I don't see how it would, seeing as our deduction method has to be the same for both of us whether we filed joint or separate, and we're still filing separate, but does anyone know for sure?
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# ? Feb 2, 2017 22:05 |
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Admiral101 posted:I'm guessing all of your property taxes are paid out of escrow? Yeah, all the taxes are paid out of the escrow (which actually took it negative when they disbursed it, which I didn't realize could happen). Thanks for the advice!
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# ? Feb 2, 2017 22:57 |
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Mistaken For Bacon posted:I apologize if someone in my situation has already received the exact advice I need, but I didn't see it covered in the OP. I got divorced last November and didn't change my withholdings until after I received the decree, which I'm now realizing was a bonehead move. Turbotax tells me I will owe $4k, based on filing a simple return (I don't own property, and don't have any other deductions to claim). Since you got divorced in November, you must file single. There's no "pro-rated" filing status, unfortunately. There is technically a chance that you could file head of household, but I honestly can't remember all the details. I paid for a tax consultation with an enrolled agent and he spent an hour going over all the relevant details with me to make sure I wasn't missing a filing status or deduction that would save me money. Unfortunately, in my case, the only thing I could deduct was alimony. Couldn't deduct the five-figure sum I'd paid for her tuition and related expenses... (Although I did deduct that from the settlement. Still sucked being taxed on that money. Oh, and I called her and "made" her pay me back for her share of the taxes owed by getting her to agree to accept reduced alimony payments for the sum of her share) Uranium 235 fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Feb 3, 2017 |
# ? Feb 3, 2017 01:18 |
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gregday posted:So it doesn't raise the payment of my wife's student loans (FedLoans), we file married & separate. We've taken the standard deduction for the first 2 years we've been married, but now that we own a home, it's better off if we itemize and deduct the interest and taxes. I understand that filing married (whether joint or separate) we have to use the same deduction method, so I'm counting the mortgage 1098 on my return, and she's only deducting student loan interest on her return. Student loan interest is an above-the-line deduction (reduces your AGI) and not an itemized deduction (reduces taxable income). However, people who file Married, But Filing Separately cannot take the student loan interest deduction. Another thing you can look at for itemized deductions is state & local income tax or sales tax paid (it's one or the other). And I don't see how it would affect her re-certification at all. Itemizing or taking the standard deduction does not change her AGI, which is what the minimum payment is based off.
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# ? Feb 3, 2017 03:13 |
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Thanks! And that makes sense with what we were seeing on HR B's site as we were starting tax prep.
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# ? Feb 3, 2017 16:40 |
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plainswalker75 posted:Yeah, all the taxes are paid out of the escrow (which actually took it negative when they disbursed it, which I didn't realize could happen). Thanks for the advice! Hold on! This might not be correct. Here in Oregon, the property taxes are accrued from 7/1/XX - 6/30/XX any given year, but are paid in November. So, if you buy a home BEFORE 6/30, you take the settlement statement, ADD the property taxes charged to seller to the escrow paid property taxes in November from your bank. If you buy the home AFTER 7/1, you SUBTRACT the property taxes on the settlement statement from the same November payment. Each state is a bit different, and it ceases to matter after the year of purchase (and it's reversed in the year of sale). As for your mortgage insurance, if it's not listed on the 1098, you need to dig into the settlement statement and see if there's an amount there. Note if you bought the home late in 2016, you might be using a standard deduction anyways, so there is an election you can make to drag out and amortize the premiums over 84 months IIRC.
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# ? Feb 3, 2017 19:55 |
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I bought a travel trailer in cash last may and I am wondering if I can claim it as an itemized deduction. There's no loan on it. It has sleeping, kitchen, and restroom facilities. Is it just interest from the loan that can be claimed or is it taxes too?
Tenchrono fucked around with this message at 01:36 on Feb 4, 2017 |
# ? Feb 4, 2017 01:23 |
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FAT CURES MUSCLES posted:I bought a travel trailer in cash last may and I am wondering if I can claim it as an itemized deduction. There's no loan/mortgage on it. It has sleeping, kitchen, and restroom facilities. Is it just interest from the loan that can be claimed or is it taxes too? No.
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# ? Feb 4, 2017 01:26 |
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Can your company force you to sign a W4 under threat of losing your job if you don't? I was handed a W-4 form today at my job and told to fill it out and return it Monday. I've been 1099 since I started here 8 months ago, and this just came out of the blue. I don't want to use W-4 withholdings if I don't have to. I would rather remain 1099. But I also don't want to lose my job if I HAVE to use it....
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# ? Feb 4, 2017 02:07 |
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Big Fat Iguana posted:Hello all, I live in Oregon i.e. the only state that requires you to pass a state board administered exam to prepare taxes. I just passed the test with a 89%. I'm so happy, I've been trying for two years, it's a really hard test. Can't wait to prepare some taxes this season. Just thought I'd say hi! Welcome to you and all the other Uranium 235 posted:Hello, fellow divorcee. I had the exact same problem in 2015--my divorce decree came at the end of October. My wife was a full-time student so I planned to take a lot of deductions, and had set up my W-4 to avoid getting a huge refund. Whoops. I owed thousands of dollars just like you, and had no way to pay it back by April 15th because I was paying alimony. Instead, I applied for an installment plan. Look it up on the IRS website--it's got some fine print, but it sounds like you'll be eligible for a guaranteed approval. Once you're approved, the payments will be automatically deducted from your paycheck each month (just like usual federal tax withholdings). Head of Household only applies if you have a dependent; you're basically stuck with filing single otherwise. The payment plan option is automatically available for anybody who owes under $10,000 and is pretty easy to set up online; I would pay everything you can manage before April 17th and choose the highest monthly payment you can stand to pay the remaining balance off as quickly as possible to minimize penalty and interest, but as long as you file your return before April 17th those aren't really horrific. Just make absolutely sure you never miss a payment and you keep current on your tax filings, lest they cancel the payment plan. As was noted in the quote above, if you do pay alimony, that is an above the line deduction (conversely, if your ex-spouse is paying YOU alimony you need to include it in income). This is alimony only FYI, child support doesn't get reported as taxable income or a deduction. Make sure you change your withholdings to avoid trouble next year if you haven't already, though with a divorce that late in the year you were kind of screwed withholding-wise anyway unless you made a frantic estimated tax payment since all your previous paychecks would have been at the earlier withholding rate. gregday posted:So it doesn't raise the payment of my wife's student loans (FedLoans), we file married & separate. We've taken the standard deduction for the first 2 years we've been married, but now that we own a home, it's better off if we itemize and deduct the interest and taxes. I understand that filing married (whether joint or separate) we have to use the same deduction method, so I'm counting the mortgage 1098 on my return, and she's only deducting student loan interest on her return. As mentioned it shouldn't affect the student loan repayment other than her not being able to take the deduction on her return. Itemized deductions are supposed to be split certain ways, basically either one person claims the payment because the money came from their account or you split evenly when paid from joint accounts. Dunno how strict the IRS is about enforcing that so long as you don't double-dip, but in theory you might get asked for evidence about who paid what. Also remember if you both have W-2s each of you has to claim only your own state income tax, if any. Also double-check the state rules if your state allows itemized deductions. Subways Jared posted:Can your company force you to sign a W4 under threat of losing your job if you don't? That's pretty much your employer's call, they set the terms under which they'll hire you. They may also be doing it under duress considering there are a lot of employers out there who do 1099-MISC instead of W-2 to try to sneak out of paying employer taxes on things; if they got slapped down for having people listed as "contractors" when the IRS says they should be employees, this might be a legally mandated act on their part. So, I'd fill out the W-4 or go looking for another job, I doubt the company will be terribly sympathetic. Though to be perfectly honest here I'm not sure WHY you prefer independent contractor to W-2, there's no screwing around with estimated payments and your fees for any kind of tax prep go WAY down without Schedule C, and it's not like they don't take the Social Security and Medicare taxes out of you either way.
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# ? Feb 4, 2017 02:33 |
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Are companies normally allowed to under withhold bonuses? My friend got 2 bonus in 2016: $2681 bonus, $129 federal withheld, or 4.8%. $14 withheld for OK state, or 0.4%. $7062 bonus, $707 federal withheld, or 10%. $215 withheld for OK state, or 3% Shes firmly in the 25% bracket and normally has around 14% withheld from her regular paychecks with 1 allowance. OK state has a pretty much flat 5% tax. I've got no idea where they might have gotten their withholding numbers from, but its a surprise $1,600 increase in taxes owed.
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# ? Feb 4, 2017 02:51 |
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MadDogMike posted:That's pretty much your employer's call, they set the terms under which they'll hire you. They may also be doing it under duress considering there are a lot of employers out there who do 1099-MISC instead of W-2 to try to sneak out of paying employer taxes on things; if they got slapped down for having people listed as "contractors" when the IRS says they should be employees, this might be a legally mandated act on their part. So, I'd fill out the W-4 or go looking for another job, I doubt the company will be terribly sympathetic. Though to be perfectly honest here I'm not sure WHY you prefer independent contractor to W-2, there's no screwing around with estimated payments and your fees for any kind of tax prep go WAY down without Schedule C, and it's not like they don't take the Social Security and Medicare taxes out of you either way. Going to venture to guess that he has a lot of very interesting "deductions" he writes off on the schedule C he uses with his 1099 that won't be available when he's a W-2.
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# ? Feb 4, 2017 12:10 |
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Question about W-2 Box 13: "Retirement Plan" Both my husband and I work at a small business. We both have SEP IRAs through it. We personally don't contribute to these, but the employer contributes a percentage of our salaries to them. IRS says "The 'Retirement plan' indicator in Box 13 shows whether an employee is an active participant in your company’s plan" "You should check the retirement plan box if an employee was an 'active participant' for any part of the year in:" "a simplified employee pension (SEP) under IRC Section 408(k)." "Generally, an employee is an active participant if covered by a: ... defined benefit plan for any tax year that the employee is eligible to participate." My freetaxusa.com account has the box pre-checked for me, making me think I checked it last year, but the employer-provided W2 does not have the box checked. Maybe I'm being dense, maybe it's too early on a Saturday for me to process this. Do I need to check this box or not? I feel like yes, but shouldn't it match what my employer provided? Damn Bananas fucked around with this message at 16:37 on Feb 4, 2017 |
# ? Feb 4, 2017 16:35 |
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An IRA is defined contribution, not defined benefit.
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# ? Feb 4, 2017 17:41 |
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I earned over the Roth IRA limit for the year but had a Roth IRA in 2016. What do I do? I already funded a backdoor Roth for 2017 so I don't make this mistake again.
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# ? Feb 4, 2017 19:45 |
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I had two health insurance providers in 2016. One through my employer, then after I got married I switched to my wife's cheaper and better plan. According to the tax paperwork I got it says I didn't have coverage in the month of may - my HC from Jan - April and hers from June-Dec. As far as I know I was actually covered during may, but the paperwork doesn't show that. Will I be penalized under the ACA for not having coverage in a month? I read that you are allowed up to two uncovered months. Is that accurate?
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# ? Feb 5, 2017 05:17 |
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Residency Evil posted:I earned over the Roth IRA limit for the year but had a Roth IRA in 2016. What do I do? I think you need to look into how to contact the institution that holds your IRA to recharacterize your 2016 contributions from Roth to Traditional. Once that's done, you should be able to convert your new Traditional IRA holdings into a Roth IRA and pay tax on the earnings you've gotten since you've contributed, if you so please. I'm not sure if you'd have to file Form 8606 with your 2016 taxes though.
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# ? Feb 5, 2017 05:29 |
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The Slack Lagoon posted:I had two health insurance providers in 2016. One through my employer, then after I got married I switched to my wife's cheaper and better plan. According to the tax paperwork I got it says I didn't have coverage in the month of may - my HC from Jan - April and hers from June-Dec. As far as I know I was actually covered during may, but the paperwork doesn't show that. Well, the mandate is for you to have health insurance. You can claim an exemption from the shared responsibility payment by filing form 8965. One of the exemptions is for short term gaps in coverage of two months per year.
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# ? Feb 5, 2017 07:25 |
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I negotiated an old debt I had on in early Jan 2017. I understand I owe taxes on the difference, is it ok they billed it for Dec 31, 2016? I also paid off the entirety of my student loans in January if that makes any difference.
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# ? Feb 5, 2017 09:29 |
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The Slack Lagoon posted:I had two health insurance providers in 2016. One through my employer, then after I got married I switched to my wife's cheaper and better plan. According to the tax paperwork I got it says I didn't have coverage in the month of may - my HC from Jan - April and hers from June-Dec. As far as I know I was actually covered during may, but the paperwork doesn't show that. I believe it's 3 months, but I'm not positive. When I did my taxes, I put in that I didn't have health insurance in April and May and I didn't get any kind of penalty.
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# ? Feb 5, 2017 14:38 |
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Hello Tax thread - I have a tiny, tiny question. Seriously, it's tiny. I got a very tiny W2 for a class-action settlement, and in Box 14 there are two codes that my tax software doesn't recognize. One is for $5, the other is for $0.06 (six cents) for a state unemployment insurance listing (this is a different state than the one I currently live in). The problem is that the software rounds that fraction to $0, and you can't have an item listed for $0! My question is this: is the Box 14 information even submitted or used by the IRS? Is it a big deal if I just round that up to $1? Or should I eliminate that line altogether? Right now I have: OTHER: $1 OTHER: $5 Thanks in advance. I guess the overarching questions is if ANY sort of discrepancy on a W-2 form will cause an automatic rejection by the IRS when e-filing. Worst cases, I figure:
Three-Phase fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Feb 5, 2017 |
# ? Feb 5, 2017 14:57 |
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# ? Jun 10, 2024 11:17 |
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Ancillary Character posted:I think you need to look into how to contact the institution that holds your IRA to recharacterize your 2016 contributions from Roth to Traditional. Once that's done, you should be able to convert your new Traditional IRA holdings into a Roth IRA and pay tax on the earnings you've gotten since you've contributed, if you so please. If MAGI is over the limit for deducting traditional IRA contributions, then he'd have to file form 8606 for 2106 even if he didn't do the backdoor Roth. I learned this the hard way when my accountant made that mistake in 2011 when he thought I was under the limit, and I wasn't even aware of what a backdoor Roth was (my mistake). The IRS adjusted my return ~2 years after the fact and took out taxes because it wasn't deductible.
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# ? Feb 5, 2017 15:52 |