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Ungratek
Aug 2, 2005


Did you specifically tell him that you contributed to your Trad IRA and then did a backdoor conversion? If not, he probably just reported the 1099-R straight up without thinking too much about it.

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KaLogain
Dec 29, 2004

I got her number. How do you like them apples?
Cybernetic Crumb

Jobert posted:

Do you have the 1099-R from the traditional IRA? It will have the total amount listed on 2a as taxable amount, but then will also have 2b "taxable amount not determined checked".

So what did the preparer put on 1040 line 4a? That should have the total distribution and then 4b should be 0.

Unless you had an existing balance in Traditional IRAs before the backdoor. That would create taxable income also but would be on form 8606.

They left 1040 a blank, and put the $ 6500 on line 4b. The 1099-R does have the $6500 on line 2a of the 1099-R as 6500 an 2B was marked taxable amount not determined checked.

Did not have a balance in the Tradition IRA before the original deposit.

KaLogain
Dec 29, 2004

I got her number. How do you like them apples?
Cybernetic Crumb

Ungratek posted:

Did you specifically tell him that you contributed to your Trad IRA and then did a backdoor conversion? If not, he probably just reported the 1099-R straight up without thinking too much about it.

I did, but now I'm thinking he may not be very familiar with Backdoor Roth IRAs.

MadDogMike
Apr 9, 2008

Cute but fanged

KaLogain posted:

I did, but now I'm thinking he may not be very familiar with Backdoor Roth IRAs.

Might have screwed up then, yeah. Upshot is back door Roth uses Form 8606 to report everything; Part I shows the traditional IRS was made with nondeductible contributions, Part II shows the actual Roth conversion.

Subvisual Haze
Nov 22, 2003

The building was on fire and it wasn't my fault.

KaLogain posted:

They left 1040 a blank, and put the $ 6500 on line 4b. The 1099-R does have the $6500 on line 2a of the 1099-R as 6500 an 2B was marked taxable amount not determined checked.

Did not have a balance in the Tradition IRA before the original deposit.
Sounds like they made a mistake and it needs to be fixed.

RCarr
Dec 24, 2007

How long should I expect to wait to hear about an amendment I made to a past tax return? Will they contact me if it’s accepted or denied? Or do I just receive a check in the mail? (I’m owed a few thousand dollars)

Subvisual Haze
Nov 22, 2003

The building was on fire and it wasn't my fault.

RCarr posted:

How long should I expect to wait to hear about an amendment I made to a past tax return? Will they contact me if it’s accepted or denied? Or do I just receive a check in the mail? (I’m owed a few thousand dollars)
https://sa.www4.irs.gov/wmar/ you can look up the status here

The amendment I sent in 5+ months ago is still in received but not processed status.

Peyote Panda
Mar 10, 2019

Subvisual Haze posted:

https://sa.www4.irs.gov/wmar/ you can look up the status here

The amendment I sent in 5+ months ago is still in received but not processed status.
Unfortunately the processing centers are still buried in enough cases that even the 20-week timeframe given on IRS.GOV right now for an amended return is optimistic at best. The WMAR system linked above is usually good at letting you know what the general status is (in processing, you'll be getting a letter soon, give the IRS a call, etc,).

smackfu
Jun 7, 2004

How did it get to the point where any paper returns are now “maybe in six months we will look at it”?

I thought they used to OCR paper filings and convert them into raw data and then run them through the mainframes. How did it regress?

Emily Spinach
Oct 21, 2010

:)
It’s 🌿Garland🌿!😯😯😯 No…🙅 I am become😤 😈CHAOS👿! MMMMH😋 GHAAA😫

smackfu posted:

How did it get to the point where any paper returns are now “maybe in six months we will look at it”?

I thought they used to OCR paper filings and convert them into raw data and then run them through the mainframes. How did it regress?

Covid, I assume. A client's accountant described where they put paper filings as the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Peyote Panda
Mar 10, 2019

smackfu posted:

How did it get to the point where any paper returns are now “maybe in six months we will look at it”?

I thought they used to OCR paper filings and convert them into raw data and then run them through the mainframes. How did it regress?
I haven't worked in a processing center myself but to the best of my knowledge that was never the case.

Original return print filings get the info typed in manually and then the return goes into storage for seven years. That's why if you want to order a photocopy of an actual physical return rather than just getting a transcript of the data you have to cough up $50 so some center drone can go dig it up out of the archives. Other taxpayer correspondence including amended returns usually get scanned in, but only as an image and not an OCR.

As to why things are taking longer than usual, COVID was a contributing factor but like so many things it mostly only accelerated pre-existing deteriorating conditions rather than being the sole or primary cause. The current mainframe is over 50 years old and is an increasing struggle to maintain because the number of programmers who can work with it is steadily decreasing as they die of old age, we have to have parts like the magnetic tapes used for data storage specially manufactured because no one else uses that type anymore, etc. There has been a project underway to replace it with a more modernized mainframe but that's consistently remained something we'll implement in the next 7-10 years for the decade plus I've been working at the IRS.

The biggest reason for the delay has been a combination of budget cuts and other more immediate priorities, which is what's undercutting everything else as well. Employee attrition is significant and likely to get a lot worse. Close to half our current work force is at or near retirement age and likely only holding on because the economy sucks to hard to retire. New recruit hiring is abysmal because while the benefits and security of being a government employee can outweigh the lesser pay of doing the same work in the private sector that's dependent on being financially secure to make that trade off in the first place which many people are not these days. Retention is also getting increasingly worse because it can also be a technically demanding job, but the IRS has truncated training times and new hire support and no longer cultivates new employees by starting them off in simpler positions and helping them build up their skills but instead throws them right into the meatgrinder because that's where the immediate need is and the administrative staff is increasingly detached from those positions so they don't even understand what the problem is much less how to address it.

The IRS was even under a Reduction in Force order for years because Republican congressmen think the government in general and the IRS in particular has too many employees, so we didn't have the authorization to hire enough people to replace all of the ones retiring or leaving for other jobs, much less additional staffing. The fact that this benefited their donors by increasingly limiting the resources and trained personnel necessary to pursue tax malfeasance by high-dollar earners while only harming average taxpayers who suffered from the increasingly limited help and delayed return processing is surely a coincidence.

On-going increases in identity theft are also hitting really hard. It's a barely-funded mandate that requires a lot of expertise in numerous areas including criminal investigation as well as knowledge of IRS systems to make the tortuous account corrections once you've got things sorted out. Because of the aforementioned employee issues above, we have less and less people to handle an increasingly difficult and frequent problem. In the last few years those combined factors have driven the average handle time of identity theft cases from 120 days to 650 days. And it has a lot of collateral effects as well. The filters used to try to stop identity theft returns from processing also catch a lot of false positives, so even cases that are not actual identity theft suffer delays from various verification procedures.

There's more and more dumbfuckery too like people filing returns with blatantly fraudulent items like large Fuel Tax or Claim of Right Credits because Facebook told them they could get a huge payday. These all pretty much get flagged immediately but still bog things because first we have to verify if it was the actual taxpayer who filed it in the first place, then it has to go through an audit so exam can verify the claim is bullshit, and so the schmuck thinking he got a get-rich quick scheme instead has to wait for several months to over a year only to get a letter telling them they need to file a corrected return in 30 days or eat a $5,000 fine and no we won't help them they need to sort it out themselves. Which would be a fine consequence except all of this fraud is further gumming up an already-jammed system.

TL,DR: The IRS is undergoing all of the same deterioration of government institutions that you usually see in late-stage imperial collapse. gently caress me for still being here, good night and good luck to all of you unfortunate people caught up in this bullshit through no fault of your own, and I'll have a Baconator meal with BBQ sauce for the fries, please.

Discendo Vox
Mar 21, 2013

We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.
On the brighter side the current admin pushed through a major IRS funding increase and they’ve fought to protect it tooth and nail; IRS also got to begin the long fabled process of setting up free filings, which can eventually undercut and kill off the preparer interests that make everything about the tax system suck.

sullat
Jan 9, 2012

Discendo Vox posted:

On the brighter side the current admin pushed through a major IRS funding increase and they’ve fought to protect it tooth and nail; IRS also got to begin the long fabled process of setting up free filings, which can eventually undercut and kill off the preparer interests that make everything about the tax system suck.

The free filing project is neat but the funding increase doesn't seem to have resulted in a hiring increase.

Discendo Vox
Mar 21, 2013

We don't need to have that dialogue because it's obvious, trivial, and has already been had a thousand times.

sullat posted:

The free filing project is neat but the funding increase doesn't seem to have resulted in a hiring increase.

That's possibly correct, but the suck at IRS was so deep and so long that I could see it being used entirely productively on basically any part of the organization.

Peyote Panda
Mar 10, 2019

sullat posted:

The free filing project is neat but the funding increase doesn't seem to have resulted in a hiring increase.
There's been a lot more open positions but actual recruitment has been well below goal. I'm guessing a lot of that is due to the wage issues I alluded to above. Speaking as a computer toucher there, working for the federal government compared to the private sector has a lot of pluses in terms of job security, decent health and related benefits, and an excellent retirement package, but the base pay sucks rear end comparatively even if you get decent raises on a regular basis. Recent increases in federal pay are still nowhere near matching inflation.

I think a lot of people pass because they need better pay to cover rent and other essentials right now. It's working out okay for me because I've got reliable transportation that's paid off, a relatively small remaining amount of mortgage that 's at an excellent percentage rate, etc., but if I did not have that pre-existing financial security and was coming in to the IRS at a starting position today I'd be struggling to cover rent and other basics with the pay being offered. Possibly getting a great retirement in a few of decades is not a powerful draw if the tradeoff is living in a refrigerator crate right now.

Konstantin
Jun 20, 2005
And the Lord said, "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
Plus, the background check process to become a federal employee can take months, even for positions not dealing with classified information. For jobs where they have to compete with the private sector for talent, that can be a big issue, as there needs to be a pretty big carrot at the end to get qualified applicants to jump through all their hoops.

Udelar
Feb 17, 2007

as the free-fall advances
I'm the moron who dances

Grimey Drawer
So, our situation became somewhat more complicated last year, and I imagine we'll need to consult with someone, but just in case, I'm asking here.

Last year, my father-in-law had a serious fall that required an extended stay in rehab before he was sent home. We had already been providing a lot of care for him, but that's ramped up since his discharge and he is no longer able to manage his affairs financially or otherwise. My wife has gone down to part-time work outside of the house to care for him. I have a WFH job that allows me to help when necessary as well. When she went down to part-time we drew up a new caretaker agreement that involved her father paying her for services in the home, which we have kept track of meticulously (she used to do Medicaid documentation). He is able to pay her for several years of these services because he retired with full pension from the Army Corps of Engineers and has several different types of savings. His children, my wife included, hold a POA jointly for him (2 half-brothers). We have lived with him since my mother-in-law passed in 2012 and he has had mostly gradual declines in his ability to take care of himself until last year.

Now that we are in charge of his finances, we are trying to make sense of everyone's tax liability.

Before 2023, he did his taxes separately and my wife and I filed jointly. We have one daughter living with us that we claim as a dependent, so there are 4 of us in the house.

My original understanding was that he would need to apply for an Employer Identification Number (done), he would need to split FICA with Melanie, we would be taxed on money he paid Melanie, and so forth.

But--is there a better way to do this? IRS documentation about taxation and caregivers seems to be predicated on the fact that caretakers live outside the home and are non-family members. Is there a more advantageous way to handle this when the pay is between family members all living together? We are trying to delay (as long as we can) the day that he will need to start pulling cash from his whole life insurance instead of other savings, as that money will mostly be going to his other children (the house will go to us), so we feel a responsibility not to overpay if we can avoid it.

Flora Finching
Sep 10, 2009

I was on SDI for two months in 2023. I owe a bunch in taxes, is that because they weren't deducted from the disability payments?

Also around the time I was off/returning to work my employer forgot to pay me a bunch of money and I just received it. Would this count as 2023 income and if so, should I ask for a revised W2?

MadDogMike
Apr 9, 2008

Cute but fanged

Flora Finching posted:

I was on SDI for two months in 2023. I owe a bunch in taxes, is that because they weren't deducted from the disability payments?

Possibly; how were the disability payments reported to you? Or failing that, where did they go on the return?

quote:

Also around the time I was off/returning to work my employer forgot to pay me a bunch of money and I just received it. Would this count as 2023 income and if so, should I ask for a revised W2?

Assuming you're cash basis like most people, what counts is when the money is actually paid, so that would probably be on a W-2 for 2024.

Flora Finching
Sep 10, 2009

I didn't get any forms from disability and there wasn't anything on the tax return that included it. Unemployment is on there which I remember doing from COVID lockdown but not SDI.

It just seems pretty hosed up that I made 30K last year and owe $500. Maybe it's just this country that's hosed up and not my paperwork.

Missing Donut
Apr 24, 2003

Trying to lead a middle-aged life. Well, it's either that or drop dead.

Flora Finching posted:

I didn't get any forms from disability and there wasn't anything on the tax return that included it. Unemployment is on there which I remember doing from COVID lockdown but not SDI.

It just seems pretty hosed up that I made 30K last year and owe $500. Maybe it's just this country that's hosed up and not my paperwork.

Stab in the dark here: how much in taxes did you have taken out from your unemployment pay? It should say on the 1099-G.

Epi Lepi
Oct 29, 2009

You can hear the voice
Telling you to Love
It's the voice of MK Ultra
And you're doing what it wants

Flora Finching posted:

I didn't get any forms from disability and there wasn't anything on the tax return that included it. Unemployment is on there which I remember doing from COVID lockdown but not SDI.

It just seems pretty hosed up that I made 30K last year and owe $500. Maybe it's just this country that's hosed up and not my paperwork.

Your SDI may have been reported on a 1099-G which is the same form used for unemployment.

Flora Finching
Sep 10, 2009

Okay I didn't get a 1099G. I'll have to go to EDD and request one, it's not available on my account so I wasn't sure if it would be the same. Thank you!

Small White Dragon
Nov 23, 2007

No relation.

Flora Finching posted:

Okay I didn't get a 1099G. I'll have to go to EDD and request one, it's not available on my account so I wasn't sure if it would be the same. Thank you!

Were you unemployed?

IIRC unless something has changed recently, CA SDI is only taxable if you were unemployed. If you were employed before and after, it's not taxable.

https://edd.ca.gov/en/disability/SDI_FAQ_for_1099G/

quote:

In most cases, Disability Insurance (DI) benefits are not taxable. But, if you are receiving unemployment, but then become ill or injured and begin receiving DI benefits, the DI benefits are considered to be a substitute for unemployment benefits, which are taxable.

If your DI benefits are taxable, you will receive a notice with your first benefit payment. You will receive a Form 1099G for your federal return only. The DI benefits are reported to the IRS up to your unemployment maximum benefit amount.

If you do not work because of a disability and receive DI benefits, those benefits are not taxable.

Flora Finching
Sep 10, 2009

Small White Dragon posted:

Were you unemployed?

IIRC unless something has changed recently, CA SDI is only taxable if you were unemployed. If you were employed before and after, it's not taxable.

https://edd.ca.gov/en/disability/SDI_FAQ_for_1099G/

Hm, I wasn't unemployed. However, some specifics are different for state employees on SDI and some info on the benefit site is different from what I got when I entered the claim. CA is so, so bureaucratic.

drk
Jan 16, 2005
Does anyone know how the IRS determines 30C eligibility for credits on installing EV chargers?

There is an unofficial map that shows me as eligible, but a mile in any direction is ineligible. I live in an area that is low income compared to the county but extremely high income compared to the country.

urnisme
Dec 24, 2011

drk posted:

Does anyone know how the IRS determines 30C eligibility for credits on installing EV chargers?

There is an unofficial map that shows me as eligible, but a mile in any direction is ineligible. I live in an area that is low income compared to the county but extremely high income compared to the country.

Notice 2024-20 identifies which census tracts are qualified. The form instructions have a worksheet that walks through determining if your location is eligible.

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drk
Jan 16, 2005
Thanks. Looks like I'm in the appendix B list.

No idea why they structured this such that you need to look up an obscure census tract ID and and search 1500 pages of PDF for it

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