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Social Animal posted:I think I'm going to go to an H&R Block for my first non-1040EZ form because I'm just so overwhelmed. Based on my income I believe I can still file 1040EZ however my brother and I have inherited a house the past year and I don't know what to do now. This is probably beyond the scope of this thread. There are new rules in effect that probably mean there will be no taxes owed, but you should think about professional help on this one. My understanding is you are subject to Modified Carryover Basis Rules, which allow you to increase the basis of the house by up to 1.3 million, but there are forms that need to be filled out to make this happen. There are tax preparers at H&R Block who can do this return, but as someone who used to work there, I would venture the majority could not. That means you need to call up some offices and make an appointment with the appropriate person. Ask what documents they want you to bring in. Drop them off. Don't just walk in and take the next available person unless you want a quagmire.
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Mar 28, 2011 23:42
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nnnotime posted:I had a question about estimated tax payments. I trade stocks infrequently (not a daytrader) and can have both gains and losses per month. I've been paying estimated taxes on gains every estimated payment period. But if I have a loss and a gain, do I sum the two together before determining if estimated tax is due? Your losses offset your gains.
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Mar 28, 2011 23:44
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Hillridge posted:This year I received a $6000 rebate from NH for installing roughly 5kW of solar panels on my home. I got a 1099-G from the state listing the $6000 as a "Taxable Energy Grant". I don't know why you are crying about this. You got a check of free money of which only some percentage will be paid as taxes. You get to keep the rest of it. Would you rather not have gotten it? Won't you get a federal energy credit too that will probably be more valuable than whatever tax you pay on $6000 of income?
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Mar 28, 2011 23:47
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It's not free money, it's money I got back after paying for everything up front and meticulously keeping records and filing paper work. You're right that I get a nice federal credit too, but I think if the state is going to treat this as grant money, they should call it a grant and not a rebate. Out of curiosity, If I went to Best Buy and got a new TV that costs $2000 but has a $500 mail in rebate, would I have to pay taxes on that $500 I got back?
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Mar 29, 2011 01:51
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Hillridge posted:It's not free money, it's money I got back after paying for everything up front and meticulously keeping records and filing paper work. You're right that I get a nice federal credit too, but I think if the state is going to treat this as grant money, they should call it a grant and not a rebate. No
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Mar 29, 2011 01:59
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Your losses offset your gains. Watch out for wash-loss sales.
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Mar 29, 2011 03:04
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Zeta Taskforce posted:This is probably beyond the scope of this thread. There are new rules in effect that probably mean there will be no taxes owed, but you should think about professional help on this one. My understanding is you are subject to Modified Carryover Basis Rules, which allow you to increase the basis of the house by up to 1.3 million, but there are forms that need to be filled out to make this happen. As a follow-on to this, as someone who is currently working at H & R, if you are coming in to get your taxes done, and you have anything, anything, big or small, that you think may be of interest, let us know when you drop stuff off. I offer a minor example to illustrate the point: Couple drops off information to have us start taxes. Seem fairly basic, couple W-2s, mortgage interest, couple kids. A co-worker gets all the info entered in, and the couple has an appointment on Saturday to get everything finished. I'm on Saturday, the appointment has been made for me, and I open the return up, just so I am kind of familiar with it for when they come in. Hmm, the social security numbers for the kids aren't on the drop off sheet. Co-worker threw in dummy SSNs, just to get a picture on the return. Now, this is fairly common, and so, when the guy comes in to start the appointment, our office assistant, in the spirit of being helpful, asks, "by the way, do you have social security numbers for your children?" At which point, we get the following gem: "No, we're all here from Canada on visas." The fact that you aren't actually citizens is information we need. Now, this all worked out, everyone met substantial presence, so I didn't have to gently caress around with a 1040-NR, they had a prior return that had the kids' ITINs on it, so I didn't have to gently caress around with that either, which relieved me to no end, but still, at least a casual mention of, "oh, by the way, we're here on visas, does that make a difference?" would have saved me a lot of worry, and would have saved them at least 3 trips home to find various information.
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Mar 29, 2011 06:21
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Zeta Taskforce posted:This is probably beyond the scope of this thread. There are new rules in effect that probably mean there will be no taxes owed, but you should think about professional help on this one. My understanding is you are subject to Modified Carryover Basis Rules, which allow you to increase the basis of the house by up to 1.3 million, but there are forms that need to be filled out to make this happen. Awesome I appreciate the advice. I'm going to ask around and see if I can find someone else besides H&R Block too.
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Mar 29, 2011 08:24
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Random question, I feel like it's best to ask here: I recently got hired by a new company, as part of their background check, they're looking at previous employers. One of my prior employers is no longer in business, meaning my (soon to be) current employer can't call and ask for verification if I worked there. As an alternative, they've asked me to provide my W-2 from when I worked there, which was 2009. Problem is, I can't find my W-2 form. Is there a way to go about getting a duplicate W-2 for a company that has gone under?
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Mar 30, 2011 02:34
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I'm eligible for a homestead credit in Wisconsin, and since I had roommates the form wants me to put down what percentage I paid in food, rent, and utilities. The rent is no problem because I can add, but what about food and utilities? We all bought our own food, and for utilities we'd just pay our share to the roommate in whose name they were. Can I just put down the rent and leave the others blank?
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Mar 30, 2011 03:34
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Monocular posted:I'm eligible for a homestead credit in Wisconsin, and since I had roommates the form wants me to put down what percentage I paid in food, rent, and utilities. The rent is no problem because I can add, but what about food and utilities? We all bought our own food, and for utilities we'd just pay our share to the roommate in whose name they were. Can I just put down the rent and leave the others blank? It sounds like this is actually pretty easy. If there were four of you, and you each bought your own food, then you paid for 25% of the food. If your utilities were divided evenly, then you paid 25% of the utilities, too.
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Mar 30, 2011 06:10
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seiferguy posted:Random question, I feel like it's best to ask here: The IRS can provide a transcript of what was reported to them by your employer. Other than this, I don't know what you can get. The transcript will list the name, address, and FEIN for the employer as well as how much they paid you, so it may be good enough for your new job.
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Mar 30, 2011 06:15
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kaishek posted:It sounds like this is actually pretty easy. If there were four of you, and you each bought your own food, then you paid for 25% of the food. If your utilities were divided evenly, then you paid 25% of the utilities, too. I understand that, but the problem is that it wants the complete sum of utilities and food for the year, and I don't think any of us knows how much we spent in food or utilities in total. We never kept track. I know that I personally never tracked how much I spent on food, and I don't think my roommates did, and we certainly don't know how much we paid in total. Same with utilities; I'm pretty sure we junked our bill receipts once we paid them, so I'm not sure what we paid in total. Edit: They want a specific dollar amount, not a percentage. Edit 2: Found the Wisconsin Department of Revenue number. I can estimate! Monocular fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Mar 30, 2011 |
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Mar 30, 2011 14:51
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gently caress! Just got a letter from Maryland saying that in 2009 I took the Tuition and Fees deduction on my federal tax but did not "submit a corresponding addition modification on my Maryland return". They are assessing $232 + interest in back taxes. After some googling, it looks like Maryland doesn't recognize the tuition and fees deductions so you're supposed to add back in the $4000 you deducted from federal income when calculating MD tax. Frustrating, as this is not at all clear from their online filing system (it would just go under "other additions"). Did I get this right? I can't seem to find any deductions in Maryland relating to being in school, so it just seems that I have to suck it up and pay this. Is there any way to avoid paying the interest on it? I understand that with "honest mistakes" they will just charge you the back taxes?
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Mar 30, 2011 15:57
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Basic self-employment question here: I am thinking about taking on a piece of freelance work where I would work on a contract and hire another person to help me complete the work. This will be one-time, and if I take the contract I will receive a 1099 in my name. What would I need when it comes time to file my tax return to account for the portion of the 1099 income that was paid out to the other person I need to hire? edit: the other person would be hired as a contractor, not on a payroll. Mark Kidd fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Mar 30, 2011 |
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Mar 30, 2011 18:54
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Another self employment/1040 contractor question... I've been having a pretty hard time researching all of this, as I'm rather new to it all (just finished my first full year as sole proprietor/independent contractor). Hoping someone can lend me some advice. I'm currently contracting for a Canadian based company (they are physically located in Canada and have no US space) and am a US citizen. I am paid in US$s once a month. I have a sole proprietorship set up for myself and I have a set limit of hours/dollars I can bill for during a year. What I'm curious about is the deductions. I'm not married, I don't own a house, I don't have any dependents, and I really have very little business expense (Software company and nearly everything is online). I've calculated square footage of my office space and a percentage of my bills/rent (including the insurance I pay for myself). Aside from IRA contributions, what else can I rely on for deductions? I just feel like I'm being bent over and raped in the position I'm in, but maybe I'm just being naive and need to do more research... which really blows because there is so much to sift through. Even being pointed in the right direction would help a great deal! Thanks goons. manderson fucked around with this message at 19:13 on Mar 30, 2011 |
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Mar 30, 2011 19:11
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Mark Kidd posted:Basic self-employment question here: If you pay them more than $600 then you are supposed to issue a 1099 to the contractor.
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Mar 30, 2011 20:32
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manderson posted:Another self employment/1040 contractor question... At least it sounds like you really are a independent contractor instead of people who just get issued a 1099misc because their company wants to cheap out on their employee taxes. Your situation isn't too different than someone geting a w2 that can't itemize. IRA, student loan interest, few other things are about all your are gonna get, plus you get a little bit of business expense. You said this was your first year getting paid as an independent contractor, I hope you have been making your estimated payments to the IRS every 3 months or you are going to owe penalties for not sending in money durring the year. Tax is a pay as you go system and when doing contractor you gotta take care of it yourself.
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Mar 30, 2011 21:46
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Captain Beans posted:At least it sounds like you really are a independent contractor instead of people who just get issued a 1099misc because their company wants to cheap out on their employee taxes. Yes, I've paid all of the estimated payments throughout the year... and from what I'm gathering, I'm hosed unless I have a school loan or some other sort of loan floating around. That or I go get some chick pregnant and marry her real quick. Is there anything I can do about the fact that I am being paid from a Canadian company? I definitely don't want to move there, thats for sure.
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Mar 31, 2011 15:15
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Is a taxable student fellowship/stipend "earned income" for the purpose of the Earned Income Tax credit? It seems more like the examples of earned income than the examples of not-earned income listed here, but I'm not sure. The fellowship/stipend income is definitely taxable (confirmed by my school) because receipt of the stipend was conditioned on my completing services (the University paid me a few thousand $ to do an otherwise unpaid public interest internship for a non-university business over the summer)... but they don't generate any tax documentation like a W-2 for it. This was my only major taxable income in 2010 and I'm below the threshold to require filing. But my understanding is that if I get the earned income tax credit, I'd get a refund. Also, if I do file, should I be concerned about reporting this income without any documentation (since, again, they don't give W-2's for this... and it's not self-employment, right?) and then claiming a tax credit based on it? Should I include a printout of the direct deposit record, or copy of an email from the school notifying me of when the stipend was paid, or something?
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Mar 31, 2011 16:10
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I will probably be corrected on this, but I believe that a scholarship or fellowship grant that was not reported to you on a Form W-2 is not considered earned income for the earned income credit.
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Apr 1, 2011 02:26
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intensive purposes posted:Is a taxable student fellowship/stipend "earned income" for the purpose of the Earned Income Tax credit? It seems more like the examples of earned income than the examples of not-earned income listed here, but I'm not sure. The fellowship/stipend income is definitely taxable (confirmed by my school) because receipt of the stipend was conditioned on my completing services (the University paid me a few thousand $ to do an otherwise unpaid public interest internship for a non-university business over the summer)... but they don't generate any tax documentation like a W-2 for it. I'm confused why they don't generate any kind of tax document for you, they probabl should especially if they confirmed that it is taxable. Make sure you meet the other requirements for EITC which is you can't be a dependent and if you are under 25 must have a dependent of your own.
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Apr 1, 2011 21:55
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kaishek posted:gently caress! Any love at all on this, even just to tell me I'm screwed, pay up?
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Apr 2, 2011 04:26
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kaishek posted:Any love at all on this, even just to tell me I'm screwed, pay up? Appears that way. Per the form instructions, you're supposed to add back what amounts to whatever you put in box 34 on your 1040. That's a really strange policy. Next year you might try taking whichever education credit is applicable instead of the adjustment to your income. Assuming, of course, there's no add back for the credit as well. Mattism fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Apr 2, 2011 |
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Apr 2, 2011 05:12
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intensive purposes posted:Is a taxable student fellowship/stipend "earned income" for the purpose of the Earned Income Tax credit? It seems more like the examples of earned income than the examples of not-earned income listed here, but I'm not sure. The fellowship/stipend income is definitely taxable (confirmed by my school) because receipt of the stipend was conditioned on my completing services (the University paid me a few thousand $ to do an otherwise unpaid public interest internship for a non-university business over the summer)... but they don't generate any tax documentation like a W-2 for it. I'd like to hear other people's interpretation, but to me this almost sounds like self employment. You performed services in exchange for money. Except it just seems weird. Did you have to do this work as a requirement for your degree, or was this an extra side project you picked up to make some extra money? Either way, they should have issued a tax document that would have clarified the nature of the money.
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Apr 2, 2011 16:12
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Zeta Taskforce posted:I'd like to hear other people's interpretation, but to me this almost sounds like self employment. You performed services in exchange for money. Except it just seems weird. Did you have to do this work as a requirement for your degree, or was this an extra side project you picked up to make some extra money? Either way, they should have issued a tax document that would have clarified the nature of the money. Yeah, if it wasn't directly degree-related, it sounds like self-employment to me, and if it was a "few thousand", you might get stung on the self-employment tax. Did they withhold anything at all? (if a w-2 wasn't issued, my guess would be that the answer to that question would be "no")
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Apr 3, 2011 06:42
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Zeta Taskforce posted:I'd like to hear other people's interpretation, but to me this almost sounds like self employment. You performed services in exchange for money. Except it just seems weird. Did you have to do this work as a requirement for your degree, or was this an extra side project you picked up to make some extra money? Either way, they should have issued a tax document that would have clarified the nature of the money. Before I posted here, I asked the Financial Aid office whether I was supposed to have received a W-2, and they said no, they don't issue any sort of tax documentation for it, but it nevertheless needs to be reported as taxable income. I then addressed my question to payroll, who I'm waiting to hear back from. I did a similar program in the summer of 2009, and they issued a W-2 for that, so I don't know what the hell. I think the weirdness may be due to them not wanting to classify it as financial aid/work study for some administrative reason. If payroll doesn't get back to me with actual info I'll just not file... worst case scenario, I unnecessarily missed out on a measly refund. edit: This page is where I got the idea that it was a taxable scholarship or fellowship, rather than self-employment income. The taxable scholarship/fellowship section mentions specifically that it should be reported as income even if you don't receive a W-2. intensive purposes fucked around with this message at 08:54 on Apr 3, 2011 |
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Apr 3, 2011 08:38
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Strange situation here: Me and my SO bought a house last year (we bought in time for the $8,000 tax credit). We were unmarried last year (legally speaking). Anyway, we're both filing as single. I'm thinking of having all the interest deduction and the $8,000 tax credit go under her filing while i just take the standard deduction. Is that ok? Edit: Either that, or i guess we split the $4,000 and take the standard deductions, we're at the cusp of having the interest income itemized deduction barely being worth it over the standard deduction for an individual, i think. Mister Fister fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Apr 3, 2011 |
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Apr 3, 2011 20:44
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I need to mail in form 8606 separate from the tax return I already filed. I can't seem to find an address to mail it to though. Where do I find this? I'm in PA if that helps.
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Apr 4, 2011 15:08
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Mister Fister posted:Strange situation here: Me and my SO bought a house last year (we bought in time for the $8,000 tax credit). quote:When and Where To File from: http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8606/ch01.html
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Apr 4, 2011 15:44
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intensive purposes posted:It was not necessarily a requirement of the degree (JD), but it was certainly related (students are expected to get summer legal jobs even though it's not a requirement). I received the stipend in one lump sum at the beginning of the summer, before my internship began. Here's a link to the program info page: http://www.law.umich.edu/currentstudents/publicservice/funding/Pages/PublicServiceGuarantee.aspx (login required for the FAQ--no, it doesn't address taxes). I read that too, except what you got doesn’t smell like a scholarship or fellowship. I’m not an expert with them, and correct me if I’m wrong, but a scholarship and grant implies that they give you money to assist you with degree requirements. They are taxable to the extent you use the money for living expenses. This feels like more of a regular employer/employee relationship, and they just sent you out to this non-profit to do the work they wanted done. When you were doing the work, did they dictate your schedule, furnish you with all your supplies, line up the cases for you? Did you have a supervisor that you answered to? Also, who paid you? Did I read you correctly when you said the school paid you direct? If this is self employment, it does count towards EIC, but it also counts toward self employment tax. A lot of employers just decide to label everyone as an independent contractor because they don’t feel like paying the taxes and don’t want to do the paperwork/worry about payroll. It seems like this program either doesn’t know what they did or have a clue how to classify the money and just want to pass the buck along to the students and make them figure it out.
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Apr 4, 2011 16:32
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The school paid me directly. I was an intern attorney at a public defender's office, had a supervisor and assigned caseload and office and everything just like the regular attorneys. No money or anything from the PD office, they just verified to my school that they agreed to have me work at least 10 weeks. I didn't have to report hours to my school, and neither did the office. I'm not worried about being "hit" with a self-employment tax, because like I said, this was my only income for the year. The standard deduction is greater than my income, so I wouldn't owe anything anyway. edit: to be clear, in the eyes of the office, I was doing an unpaid internship. That's how I would describe the experience to anyone who sees it on my resume. The stipend from my school is just a little carrot they give so that people who do public interest law won't be homeless for the summer since most public interest internships are unpaid. This helps keep the school's summer employment numbers up, helps them be able to say they support public interest, etc. intensive purposes fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Apr 4, 2011 |
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Apr 4, 2011 16:52
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intensive purposes posted:The school paid me directly. I was an intern attorney at a public defender's office, had a supervisor and assigned caseload and office and everything just like the regular attorneys. No money or anything from the PD office, they just verified to my school that they agreed to have me work at least 10 weeks. I didn't have to report hours to my school, and neither did the office. You will still have to pay self-employment tax, even if your income tax is zero. Your standard deduction and personal exemption are not used to reduce your income for calculating self-employment. I wish I was more help in figuring out what the income is. If it is a stipend for doing an unpaid internship, your original assumption that it is a scholarship is probably accurate. You are asking if this is income for calculating EITC. How old are you? If you are 24 or younger, you don't qualify for it anyway.
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Apr 4, 2011 17:12
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entris posted:from: http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8606/ch01.html I'm mailing it separately, as I have already filed my return months ago.
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Apr 4, 2011 18:10
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Zeta Taskforce posted:You will still have to pay self-employment tax, even if your income tax is zero. Your standard deduction and personal exemption are not used to reduce your income for calculating self-employment. I didn't ask about the other EITC requirements because I know that I meet them, but thanks for the concern. The the only requirement that I was unsure of was whether it was earned income.
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Apr 4, 2011 19:33
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intensive purposes posted:Thanks for the explanation of the self-employment tax. For others that might be dealing with this, the reason that self-employment tax is different from income tax is that it rolls in FICA and Social Security taxes (which are normally withheld separately from income tax and are not refundable).
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Apr 4, 2011 19:37
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intensive purposes posted:Thanks for the explanation of the self-employment tax. I was goggleing a bit more, and found this. If it is considered a scholarship, it does not count as earned income toward the EITC. http://www.wwwebtax.com/credits/earned_income_credit.htm
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Apr 4, 2011 19:46
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Zeta Taskforce posted:I was goggleing a bit more, and found this. If it is considered a scholarship, it does not count as earned income toward the EITC. I bugged my school again and they flat out said they CANNOT tell me if it is self-employment income or something else. It's pretty ridiculous that they don't even know what they gave me. I'll keep bugging payroll instead of the idiots at the law school.
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Apr 4, 2011 20:09
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It seems odd, but according to the IRS instructions for the 1040, the taxable part of a scholarship not reported on a W-2 is reported on line 7,and on the dotted line to the left of the amount box, "SCH" is entered. SO, basically, any part of the scholarship used to pay for living expenses is included on your 1040. Does that mean it's exempt from the withholding taxes? source: http://www.irs.gov/individuals/students/article/0,,id=96674,00.html under How to Report
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Apr 4, 2011 20:26
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I'm probably a moron but to me it seems strange that the OP doesn't address filing online, as there are so many choices, and surely one is better than the other. Also, what is the deal with the shady-rear end freefilefillableforms websites? The IRS website says for an AGI over $58,000 to "use free file fillable forms" and gives me a link. I then get this reassuring page: irs.gov posted:
First it sent me to freefilefillableforms.org . Ok, whatever, I created an account, then I got the paranoid internet jitters, so I googled freefilefillableforms.org and found out that there's also a freefilefillableforms.com and that they're unrelated, but appear nearly identical (very much like a phishing scam). So I went back to the IRS website and went through the process again to file online, and after seeing the message above again, got sent to freefilefillableforms.com. I clicked on the 'forgot user ID' link and confirmed that my email address is not in their database, so the .org and .com are definitely not related. I went back to the IRS website again and noticed it randomly sends you to one or the other when you go through the process. I'm sure they're both legitimate if the IRS sends you there, but seriously, what the gently caress? In the day and age of trying to get people not to blindly enter personal info into sketchy sites, the IRS seems to be working against any progress. I assume it's better to just fill out the forms with a god damned pen and mail the poo poo in like a heathen? Because I guess that's what I'm doing  P.S. I don't remember how I did it last year because taxes don't excite me, but I could have sworn I did it online.
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Apr 7, 2011 02:12
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