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Obscurity posted:Anyone have any input? Getting worried. Still no updates on WMR Honestly if it's been received by the IRS there's not a whole lot you can really do besides call the IRS if it runs late, though my usual dividing line for "OK this has taken way too long" is about four weeks. If the IRS winds up taking extra time to process your return they are supposed to send a letter to that effect, but there's no real way to rush a refund unless you can specifically prove a hardship requirement for the money. If they leave you in silence and you can't get through on their lines, you might be able to check with the tax advocate service in your area for more information. I know they were having issues with the e-file system recently, might just be a result of that (the IRS SAID they didn't expect it to interfere with getting refunds to people within 21 days, but I'm a littttlle bit skeptical...). Anyway, sorry I can't give you a better answer, but even for me the internal processes of the Internal Revenue Service are kind of a black box without any sort of communication from them. Ashcans posted:You won't get a 1099-INT if the interest amount if under $10. I am not a tax professional but I don't think that means you can not report that interest, though, you just have to work it out and enter it yourself? I assume that they 1099 is only required above that threshold because generating one for every account that earned any interest at all would increase the number of forms by an order of magnitude and create more burden than it's worth. You are supposed to report any interest you get regardless of getting a 1099-INT, but considering the tax tables break down income in $50 increments I wouldn't panic if you forgot to, it's not likely to affect your actual tax due for anything that fails to break $10 unless you have a lot of such tiny sources of interest. I assume that's why the IRS set down that $10 break point, any loss of tax from less than that would practically be rounding errors in the context of a whole return (not to mention the IRS rounds everything to begin with).
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Feb 12, 2016 04:55
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AbbiTheDog posted:I can't speak for Furu since I don't work with him, but in my practice we had to terminate around 20% of our clients and raise prices since I can't find staff to work. The government and our professional standards (read: insurance company) require us to spend more and more time on returns to get them out the door, and we found we were having issues as well. Working 100 hour weeks is not good for you. Well, I'm not young anymore but I am considering seeing about getting schooling starting this fall to prep for going for CPA if I can (I'm hoping that won't involve me having to do a full degree program considering I already have a BA and MS in Biology), so there's that at least  .Hot Dog Day #91 posted:I under withheld this year, and ended up owing about 2000. In what was probably stupid, I asked the IRS for a payment plan. I can actually pay the amount in full. I didn't see the harm in a payment plan versus dropping 2000 at once. If you withhold enough to cover the tax, there's no "requirement" to make estimated tax payments as I recall; as long as the IRS gets the money so you aren't owing yet more money you can't immediately pay next year they aren't terribly picky about how you do it. If anything I'd get nervous with estimated payments while on a payment plan for a previous year because I'm concerned the IRS will screw up and take the estimated payment as payment on the outstanding balance by mistake. Possible paranoia on my part, but then again I spent this summer helping people deal with IRS letters so I know the kind of interesting actions they can occasionally take. But withholding on your W-2 and such is pretty clear-cut as being to pay future taxes instead of past ones. But as mentioned if you can pay the whole thing off by 4/15 it's better to do so and save money in the long run on penalties/interest. theHUNGERian posted:While I do want a bigger refund, my main concern is why the values from 1099-R ended up on different lines on the 1040. I'll call them up tomorrow and schedule a quick appointment just to be sure this is not a mistake. Never hurts to ask for an explanation, god knows if it is a mistake it's better to correct it before 4/15 and the aforementioned penalty/interest circus kicks in.
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Feb 14, 2016 07:51
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alnilam posted:I'm neither of those things. My health insurance premium is part of my gross, taxable income, but I'm not self-employed. So what do I do? If your health insurance is paid from taxable income, it can be claimed as part of medical expenses as part of taking an itemized deduction via Schedule A. This is subject to a 10% of AGI floor, and you need to have enough itemized deductions to make it worth filing with an itemized deduction over the standard deduction overall, but they could be deducted there. You can NOT put them on line 29 of the 1040 if that's what you are asking, that is very specifically for self-employed people. Teeter posted:I got a new job in 2015 and wasn't sure how things would pan out with taxes but ended up with a return close to $2000 (plus another $500 for CA SIT). I'd like to decrease my withholding to keep a bit more for myself throughout 2016 but I'm not sure how I can do that precisely. I currently claim 1 allowance. If I upped that to 2 would it do the trick? Or should I set my allowances to 0 and manually set a $ withholding amount with estimation of what my taxes will be? The way extra allowances work is that each allowance calculates your withholding as if you had one exemption per allowance on your tax return. Hence why most single people use 1 allowance which reflects their own personal exemption. So if you add another exemption, your income will effectively be reduced by $4000 for calculating withholding. How much this reduces your refund depends on your bracket situation pretty much; for a bracket of 15% a reduction of $4000 taxable income would lead to a refund that was about $600 lower, 25% bracket about $1000, etc. Final change in tax refund of course will likely be different but this gives you a rough idea. So calculate accordingly and add additional $ withholding to the W-4 if you want to bring your refund to a certain amount. Honestly though it gets odd enough to work things out I'd recommend if you make any changes to withholding you keep money available to potentially pay by April 15th if you owe, just in case something went wrong. Also each W-4 is designed along the principle of you only having the one W-2 when it calculates withholding; if you have more than one W-2 for income it can get to be very difficult math, to put it mildly. AbbiTheDog posted:Not to be a downer, but just an FYI: Thanks for the advice, I appreciate the insight. I'm still debating the actual CPA thing (especially since I heard something to the effect of maybe needing a masters degree AND 24 credits of business classes to sit the exam locally, in which case I might reconsider). On the bright side in addition to H&R Block rolling out a new setup for certain businesses which apparently might be a full time thing for CPA trained people, I have family who own a CPA firm who are already just delighted I'm interested in going towards that line of work, especially if I might consider more familial employment opportunities . Between that and living in Delaware, where you can't hurl a brick without hitting a bank or conveniently incorporated business, I'm hopeful I have some possibilities to consider.
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Feb 18, 2016 03:04
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Teeter posted:I put the wrong bank account number for direct deposit on my return Good news, I'm fairly sure if they have a direct deposit that's wrong they just default to mailing you a check to the address on the return. Annoying obviously, but you won't be out your refund because of it.
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Feb 24, 2016 17:42
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Arthil posted:So I've asked around a few places but I figure it's always good to get information from multiple sources. For paying quarterly, all you have to do is just get copies of Form 1040-ES here and the similar state equivalents and mail them in with a check, or you can even just pay the IRS/state(s) via their website, God knows they are quite delighted to help people pay them. You are NOT required to make even payments throughout the year if your income is not evenly earned throughout the year, the whole point of the quarterly setup is actually to reduce any penalty for under-withholding in cases like that, since they look at when you earned the money vs. when you made payments on it. If you hit at least 90% of what you need (or 100% of what you needed the year before) even that doesn't matter; technically if you pay close enough to what you actually owe you could dump it all on the IRS in a lump sum in December and they don't really care. You are responsible for reporting your income even without a 1099-MISC, as long as you have the right income reported and some sort of records to prove it there's no requirement for having a 1099-MISC though (for you anyway; if someone pays you more than $600 without one the IRS might drop on THEIR heads). Dragyn posted:My wife and I are hiring someone to do our taxes this year because they're more complex than they used to be, but I want to make sure this quote we got isn't complete highway robbery. Uhhhhh, dunno if there's some sort of experience value surcharge (I can see somebody who specializes charging more) or it's a independent contractor vs. big company like me thing, but I have never seen a return cost that much for me at H&R Block. Most I've usually seen charged is closer to maybe $800 - $900, and that's things like spouses owning multiple businesses and/or having pretty much the entire drat alphabet of schedules to go along with their 1040. I'm hesitant to say it's highway robbery because I may be very well speaking from a nice privileged position as a member with limited personal price control in a large firm that can get the benefits of economies of scale, and of course I'm not local to you so for all I know H&R Block fees are that high there too, but it does seem higher than what I would expect based on the items you listed. Not so high it's an obvious rip-off though, just... enough to make my eyebrows go up. God knows I've had plenty of "you paid WHAT for this last year?" experiences thanks to that discount program where we charge based on last year's cost somewhere else; I have no idea what logic if any goes into the fees some CPAs decide to charge, high AND low. quote:They're in Fullerton, CA, which I imagine is pretty city. I haven't mentioned my intention, but in the future I'd likely just use the return they generate as a reference and do it myself unless circumstances change substantially. OK, might just be a CA price thing for the $1200 (California income taxes are very annoying to prepare and qualify for preparing, so you're likely paying more to cover their overhead on that and cost of living, not to mention they're doing taxes for states from across the country for you so having to get the expertise for that might be costing more). $2500 for the rest of the year is silly unless you have some really weird rental deductions or something though. I'd think just preparing it for the actual return would cover everything if they're doing a good job. Might also include non-income tax things like housing regulations or property taxes or similar maybe? I can't think you'd need a whole drat year of "getting everything in order" unless you were at the level of just shoving semi-random receipts into shoeboxes for your recordkeeping. El Jebus posted:Trying to do our taxes and I've come upon something new to me. My wife taught a class for the UC system in Southern California. Her W2 doesn't have any information for boxes 3 & 4. 1 is 4,233.80, 2 is 3.40, 5 is 4,577.08, and 6 is 66.36. 12a G is 343.28, which is the difference of 1 and 5. State employees might not have FICA for social security; which is why I'm guessing the box 3/4 info for social security wages/withholding are empty. Have you tried entering 0 for those boxes in the software? Any info in the box 14 section? Also, that box 12 G code is for her 457(b) retirement contributions which is why it's the difference between box 1 and box 5 (it's taxed for Medicare purposes, which is why it's in box 5, but not regular income tax which is box 1). theHUNGERian posted:I just heard back from them, and indeed they screwed up, and I now get an extra $2k back. Ouch, sorry for your trouble. Spent last summer/fall on H&R Block's off-season fixing problems like that; all I can say is EVERYBODY even the most insanely competent veterans can screw up sometimes (and then you get the IRS and state agencies screwing up in the mix...). Just glad they found it and fixed it for you.
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Mar 2, 2016 08:08
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mrmcd posted:What are the restrictions on using HSA money to pay for COBRA premiums? As far as I can see you can use HSA funds for the employee portion of COBRA without issue, Pub 969 made no distinction between voluntary and involuntary job termination. Note this is only for COBRA or Medicare Part B/D/Advantage premiums after age 65, otherwise no dice on paying premiums (and it needs to be an HSA specifically, not FSA).
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Mar 3, 2016 03:12
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Cacafuego posted:I am tax stupid and this is the first year I've had to deal with this, but if I work for a company as a full time employee, but my home is my office (ie I have no 'business income') can I use the home office deduction? Any sort of home office must be used regularly and exclusively for business only, nothing else. If you do anything else in that space, no dice. Also, home business expenses are part of itemized deductions (so if you don't have more than your standard deduction in those, generally due to mortgage interest, don't bother), and only the amount above 2% of your AGI counts for said itemized deductions. If these things aren't an issue, then you can do it; look up Schedule A and/or Form 2106 for more details if you want to try yourself, or just bring the total square footage of the office, the square footage of your home proper, and all your home associated expenses that could also apply to the office area (utilities and such) to a preparer and they should be able to handle it. As for the rollover, that is not a taxable distribution, you should probably get a 1099-R with a G distribution code reporting it assuming it was a direct rollover.
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Mar 6, 2016 07:08
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credibleDecibel posted:I submitted my taxes several weeks ago and subsequently received several documents which needed to be included (a schedule K-1 I asked about earlier, and a 1099 which shows some small capital gains and losses**). When filing amended federal (1040X) and State (MI-1040X-12) returns, does one submit the same schedules/forms as would have been included in the original return? With the Federal 1040X you only need to submit the schedules and forms which are changed by the amendment, so if a particular form has the exact same numbers/information as the previous return you don't have to include it. States obviously vary based on the state, but most of the ones I've seen tend to more or less re-do the whole return except the info is either on an "X" version of the base form or an "amendment" form is included in a copy of the corrected base tax form. Hell, New Jersey non-resident as I recall is just a corrected copy of the original form with "Amended" written on the top for ultimate laziness in creating new forms. Busy Bee posted:After I filed my tax return - I received a corrected consolidated 1099 form from my investment account and just recently received a K-1 document from this company I have stock in. This means that I have to amend my tax returns and mail in the documents, correct? However, I also read that if its below a certain $ amount, the IRS will disregard it. The corrected 1099 form only shows a $100 or so difference in my dividends and the K-1 form that I received says that it may even not be required to file it with the IRS. I am dubious of any statement that the IRS will just "disregard" an amount unless you're talking about something that literally doesn't change your tax owed at all (and doesn't require a form proving that fact), in which case yeah you can generally ignore unless the IRS sends a letter. I would double check to make sure what the actual impact is before blowing it off. There might be minimum risk for certain small amounts because the IRS may not process the return enough to recognize the issue, but given that approach boils down to "ignore the problem and hope it goes away" I can't ethically suggest that. God knows I've seen plenty of times when the IRS finds out a form was missed and grossly over-calculates the amount due as a result. Personal favorite was the time a client missed a 1099-DIV and the IRS calculated the tax due as if was 50%, which doesn't even EXIST as a tax bracket much less one for qualified dividends for a middle class taxpayer. I sent back a note which was basically "We agree the income should have been included but here's a copy of your own worksheet showing what the actual tax due is, we're just going to pay that amount, OK?"  .There is definitely no minimum in amending to get money back (unless you're at a preparer, I won't generally tell somebody to amend if it costs more for us to do it than they'll get back of course), you could amend to get $1 back as I understand it. Busy Bee posted:I've decided that I have to amend my taxes this year because I received an updated 1099 form and a K-1 form just a few days ago. I just want to make sure that I'm not going to receive any more documents from now on so I'm wondering if I should be expecting anything else or has the deadline passed? Honestly that's more a factor of "can you think of anything else out there?" than being past the deadline, if a company screwed up your form who says they won't screw up the deadline? I will say about the only other late unfortunate item I've seen surprise people besides your K-1/1099 scenario is 1099-C cancellation of debt forms, so unless you owed a ton of money to somebody you haven't been paying I think you're good.
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Mar 13, 2016 20:08
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sithwitch13 posted:Currently filing for this year and it's my first time filing as a self-employed person. I received a 1099 misc form. They're asking about material participation. I'm confused by this part of the qualifier: "The taxpayer does substantially all the work in the activity." I've been freelancing through a writing website (Textbroker) and I don't know if this means that yes, I am doing all of my own work or no, other people are also freelancing on this website. Help? Easiest way I can think of to sum up material participation is "would you earn the money if you did absolutely nothing?". It's a question of whether the income is earned or passive, the latter being things like bank interest or stock dividends, you just earn money by being invested. In your case I assume Textbroker doesn't pay you if you don't write, so you definitely materially participate in your business.
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Mar 19, 2016 18:32
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El Mero Mero posted:I have a question about independent contract work. I've found myself doing a fairly large chunk of 1099 work this year for a few different companies. Would it be tax-advantageous to incorporate or become a sole-proprietor rather than file as a 1099? Are there any drawbacks/advantages between the options that makes one highly preferable to another? Sole proprietor and 1099 contractor work are basically the same thing for tax purposes. You can form a sole proprietorship LLC which has advantages for legal liability but it doesn't affect filing, it's still Schedule C and related forms. Anything over sole proprietorship does get different treatment, but you also need to file an actual tax form for the company in addition to your personal return for those. Leperflesh posted:Another question. That should work, just be sure how it's reported on TurboTax. Unless your wife routinely has paid speaking work, it shouldn't be considered actual self employment income, it has to be "regular, frequent, and/or continuous". If TurboTax shoves it onto a Schedule C and charges SE tax, that's not right based on my understanding here of a single speaking engagement, it should just be reported as Line 21 Other Income (without SE tax). On the other hand that does limit the expenses you can claim on it. Anyway, my guess based on a few line explanation over the Internet .urnisme posted:No, if you itemize and she didn't, they'll send her a letter telling her she has to amend to itemize as well. They won't force you to use the standard deduction. Note the operative term is "letters", do not get suckered by those drat phone calls like so many panicked clients I've had to reassure. Also, just to double-check, with regard to MFS there are two potential alternatives. First, you said you were separated, is this an official legal separation or just living apart? If it's a legal separation you can file single, doesn't have to be a divorce per se so long as there is a legal decree of separation (though whether your state does that may vary, out where I am there isn't any decree that qualifies really for "legally separated"). Second, if you have a dependent you claim (be careful in split custody situations here) and you pay at least half the costs of maintaining the household you and the dependent live in, and the spouse did not live with you at all the last six months of the year, you can file head of household counting as unmarried for tax purposes. Minus those of course you're stuck with MFS unless the marriage gets legally dissolved. Obviously if you think one of these might apply, double-check to be sure, there are plenty of caveats that can affect things.
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Apr 4, 2016 18:23
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AzureSkys posted:I had a settlement with the County to acquire part of my land (eminent domain, but we settled before it got to court). Using approximate numbers, I got 50k. Eight thousand of that was for the land. The rest was for "damages" which includes having to have a new well drilled and connected, decommissioning the old one on the property they took, fencing, driveway changes, trenching, labor, and overhead costs. OK, this one really needs someone more experienced than me to be sure, but to my limited understanding on the subject eminent domain claims are supposed to be handled in one of two ways. Either it counts as a capital sale of part of your property (in which case you should subtract the value of the property taken from the amount awarded, which I assume would be the "damages" amount) or it's a reduction to the basis of your home, which means it would be considered worth less when you sell it (although all your replacement stuff should be adding right back to the value of your home as additions). I shouldn't think from what I'm aware of that the whole $42,000 should be taxable, if any. But take this for what it's worth from a guy who's just finishing up his second year of doing taxes, so call a more experienced professional and have a serious conversation about it. silvergoose posted:Yeah as a layperson that sounded like "I should really hire a really good accountant and/or lawyer to make sure this is done right". Yes, make sure you get somebody experienced in the area of partnerships specifically. alnilam posted:So the quarterly estimated tax payments. Why are they not, um... quarterly? Am I going crazy, or are April-June-September-January not all 3 months apart. I'm guessing the April due date is so the IRS can process those estimated tax payments while handling all the payments on returns due at the same time, and the January date is to avoid issues with mailing things around Christmas (AKA post office hell season). The IRS is just comparing when income was earned vs. when payments were made anyway, so they don't have to be "evenly" spread since the income should theoretically be exactly as uneven as the payments.
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Apr 9, 2016 04:25
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Xandu posted:I'm trying to enter my w2. Box 18 (local wages, tips, etc) is blank, but box 19 (local income tax) is filled in. Presumably this is NYC's tax, but the site won't let me go forward with local income tax being greater than local wage. Should I be putting in my state wages (from box 16) in there? Yeah, pro-rate by time in each state (i.e state you lived in 45% of the year gets 45% of the dividend/capital gains). That sort of thing is generally sourced by residency. Get the percentage by comparing days though, not months, in order to get a more accurate ratio. AbbiTheDog posted:There's no snark like overworked tax preparation in April snark! Oh god, don't get ME started  . I seem to have gravitated to being the local tech guru by being the nerdiest (hell of a trick to pull in a tax office), so between that and helping the newer folks I'm literally getting interrupted in the middle of interruptions. Gotta sneak in early tomorrow to get some of my headaches cleared, my manager suggested I hide in the back to actually get time to work.AbbiTheDog posted:Great. Wait three weeks for all the CPAs to recover and then start calling. People can recover in three weeks? I used to be better at handling these kinds of hours in grad school...
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Apr 13, 2016 07:02
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I feel your pain.
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:I paid $980 in Federal Taxes last year, and for various reasons I expect that I will owe slightly less by the end of this year. If you owe less than $1000, then yes, there's no underwithholding penalty to worry about. Obviously you have to be able to pay everything by April 15 and if you have any sudden windfalls I'd make sure to make a tax payment, but otherwise should be OK.
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Apr 16, 2016 19:09
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mcpringles posted:I'm closing on a house next month and using a portion of my Roth ira to cover part of my downpayment. Any distribution should be reported on a 1099-R, it has a "taxable amount" on line 2 that should be 0 in your case if you're right. Also look into the instructions for Form 5329 for more details on avoiding the penalty if need be, though the home buying penalty exclusion is only for a first time homebuyer and only goes to $10,000 FYI. Sounds about right with the "taking less than your contributions" to avoid any taxable distribution though.
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Apr 21, 2016 13:19
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skeetied posted:My in laws are gifting my husband and I ~$45k (below the $14k x 4 for the gift tax exclusion). To be "official", do they need to write four separate checks or can they just transfer it electronically in four separate transactions from their joint account to our joint account? Thanks! Uh, just to double-check, but you do realize the gift tax exclusion is per year, not per gift, right? It's also a per person thing, so if your in-laws are married they can give you $28,000 total per year between the two of them. If they're making the separate payments over two years (to get up to $28,000 the first year and the remainder of the money the second year) there's no tax issue. Otherwise, they can just give you the $45,000; they have to file a gift tax form, but that will just subtract from the amount that can be inherited from them without tax later, and considering that it's several million before estate tax ever becomes an issue they won't owe anything. Still have to file the gift tax form (Form 709) though. Epi Lepi posted:If you're absolutely sure you didn't file him claiming himself then it may just be a coincidence that this is happening when you filed a return for him. You may be dealing with an identity theft situation. In which case you're gonna want to look into Form 14039. It's either that or whatever software you used didn't file it as a dependent return (i.e. without the personal exemption) correctly. Assuming the software gives you a paper copy, double-check it to make sure he's not claiming the personal exemption on it. If the paper copy of the return is correct then yeah, I'd suspect identity theft.
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May 7, 2016 00:47
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Ancillary Character posted:They're a married couple, so it's $28,000 to husband and $28,000 to wife, so they're in the clear with just $45k. Oh right, forgot about the couple thing on the other end  . Yeah, then two separate checks to each of them should keep them safe in the unlikely event the IRS got interested.
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May 7, 2016 23:10
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Ancillary Character posted:You probably do have to talk to a tax professional for a clear answer. I would expect that you'd have to pay the self-employment rate for SS and Medicare taxes. The SS and Medicare tax rate is 15.3%, employees only get a "break" and pay 7.65% because their employer is required to pay half of the tax. If your employer isn't required to pay their half and isn't expected to by the IRS, that leaves only you to pay the other 7.65%. Have to ask a more experienced tax pro who's not away from his reference info like me, but I'm fairly sure you do NOT treat it as self employment income, there's a special form for social security/Medicare taxes not withheld by employer that would apply. Wish I could give you form number but I'm on vacation at moment, will see if I can find it next week if I get choice.
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Jun 17, 2016 22:26
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22 Eargesplitten posted:I have a question about this part of the W-4 Double-checked, here's Publication 505's bit on tax liability (still written for 2014, but rules haven't changed to my knowledge): quote:No Tax Liability Last Year So looks like if you don't owe taxes due to a credit expected you're fine.
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Jun 27, 2016 08:33
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keevo posted:I'm a little confused about write-offs for mileage. I DJ and do production for events so I do have to drive to these events around my city and occasionally to other cities. A lot of my office-work is done from my house. From what I understand, I can't write-off mileage for commuting from my house to an office but I can write-off mileage for traveling from one office to another. So if I'm working an event around my city, I can write off that mileage, correct? That wouldn't be considered commuting, right? The question here is, do you have a specific set aside office area in your home that you claim expenses for? The area in question has to be set aside solely for the use of business and used regularly for that purpose. I stress solely because the IRS can in fact audit that by way of sending an agent to your door and demanding to see the space in question, and even things like having kid's toys in the area can get you in trouble. Now "if you do have such a home office and claim expenses on it, then traveling from home to a event is business miles because you are traveling from one place of business (the home office) to another. If you do not, then what counts as business miles is travel between work sites, so if you go from one event to another work site directly that would be business miles and deductible. Travel between home and the first event and from the last event to home would be commuting miles and not count. (OK, spell check, autocorrecting that last "home" to "help me" was a little disturbing...)
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Jun 29, 2016 23:41
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Double check that the lawsuit money is taxable income (I believe it's generally punitive damages that are taxable), but as far as reporting it you're fine even without a 1099, the burden on reporting forms is on the people reporting not you. As long as you report the income the IRS doesn't really care if YOU have the form in question (let's face it, there aren't many people who will lie to the IRS by claiming they made MORE taxable income). Include a note or a brief description on the "other income" line if you're concerned and you will be OK.
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Jul 8, 2016 19:12
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$18,000 is the total amount you can contribute to both 401(k) and 403(b) plans, plus 6k if you're over 50. So if you're putting 18k in your 403(b), you can't put anything into your 401(k). IRA plans have an unconnected limit, so if you want to contribute more than $18,000 you can use your 403(b) and one of those up to their limits ($5,500 total for IRAs). Read here for more details.
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Jul 30, 2016 16:11
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FogHelmut posted:My wife is self employed. She is getting a new car which she will use for personal and as well as for work. If I cosign on the loan, will this have any tax implications vs the loan being fully in her name? We normally file together. I'm pretty sure it shouldn't matter about cosigning the loan since you're filing jointly and are effectively one entity for tax purposes. But do keep very tight records of business vs. personal miles. Also, as mentioned earlier commuting (driving from home to a worksite and vice versa) does NOT count as business miles, only driving between sites of business. So, to use a personal example from when I tried door to door sales, driving from home to the main office would not count, but when I was driving from the office to the places I was actually working at then back to the office at the end of the day would have counted as business miles. So if she's just driving to where she works and back, can't use the miles. See here and here for some more details. BEHOLD: MY CAPE posted:I have substantial side income as a sole proprietor and have a question about the deductibility of credit card annual fees. I don't really need a business credit card for the amount of business related spending I do, but if I was able to open a platinum tier type credit card for my business activity, deduct the annual fee as a business expense, and use the card benefits at a ~45% discount given my marginal tax rate I would probably do it. Of course I would do all my business spending and only my business spending on the card, and since I am as sole proprietor the card would be in my personal name rather than a business entity. Is this an allowable practice or is this too obviously a loophole? Ehhhhhh... the benefits thing makes me twitch. If you were just using card benefits for business use (like a card at an office supply place you used to get free supplies for your workplace) you're probably fine, though depending on the nature of said benefits you have some tax consequences. Points back for use, frequent flier miles, and the like are "rebates" and not taxable per se, but they can reduce the amount you can claim for expenses on purchases since you are by definition getting "cash back". And sign-up bonuses that don't specifically involve purchases/charges on the card are taxable income in and of themselves. But if you're taking personal benefits from business card uses... you're swimming into grey waters. As a universal rule of thumb for any business, I'd say the harder a line you can draw between your personal finances and those of the business, the better off you are. If there's any sort of personal/business overlap, even as sole proprietor, you start getting into the kind of mess that can generate audits. I can't say a definite no since I don't know your whole situation here (and would probably want to research it/consult people), but my gut feeling from what you're saying makes me a trifle nervous. It's worth talking to an experienced tax preparer and/or someone at the bank for specifics if you're interested. I will say that if a card is strictly used for business then any annual fees and interest do count as business expenses though, it's basically the same as any other business loan after all. As always, take my free advice for what's it's worth and feel free to double-check me  .
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Sep 4, 2016 08:57
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momtartin posted:So I got a job as an independent contracter for a few months, and I have few questions OK, in order: 1. The "higher tax rate" thing is because you owe social security/medicare tax on self employment income, which is collected when you file taxes as "SE tax". There's also the fact no one's doing withholding for the regular tax either, which you have to do yourself since the IRS tax system is theoretically "withhold as you receive income". As for making the withholding payments, you can either use a 1040-ES here or just go to the IRS website at https://www.irs.gov/ and click the payment option to do a payment online (word of warning, there's a service charge if you use a credit card instead of direct debit). Look for "estimate tax calculators/SE tax calculators", there are a bunch online to help you figure out the amount you need to send in. 2. This kinda stuff gets awkward to explain over the Internet. The purchase time alone doesn't screw you over (IRS just cares when it was "put into service" for business purposes), but if you're using it for non-business purposes... that's a whole other can of worms you're opening. Then there's depreciation and such, which you probably need a preparer to handle for you correctly. 3. Home office is yet another can of worms. The crucial one for you is that the office must be a space set aside solely for business purposes, something the IRS can theoretically audit by sending someone to a home and asking to see the office in question and dinging you if they see anything non-business related in the space. As for other expenses, basically if you are spending money out of pocket and not being reimbursed for business-related costs, that's a potential expense, but you want things as clear cut as possible that you're not mixing business and personal expenses. 4. NO, this WILL be on your taxes come filing in 2017. Contractor income is treated as personal income and reported on the 1040. The company will send you something called a 1099-MISC if you earn over $600 this way showing how much they paid you, otherwise it's on you to track your income. Let me say this to everybody dealing with self employment income, there are two major priorities for you if you want to avoid trouble from the IRS. First, try to keep your business and personal as much apart as you can manage. The places where they cross (like home office and equipment used for both personal and private purposes) are already very tricky to get right. Don't add any more crosses you can avoid, or be prepared to have expenses disallowed as a result. Second, document, document, document!!! Keep receipts, record any financial transactions related to business, have things as organized as possible. Not only does it save your rear in case of audit, it helps the aforementioned business/personal separation thing because it shows the IRS you are taking this seriously, it's not just a casual hobby sideline. And while I try not to play pushy salesman and encourage you to come to a tax preparer like me, this is one area where I really do suggest it is worth seeing a professional. To be blunt, you WILL usually pay several hundred dollars for the service if you have self-employment income. However, you pay so much because business/self employment tax rules are as complicated as most people will ever get with their taxes, and you do NOT want to screw them up because the IRS knows this area is where mistakes (and outright fraud) are often made, and they will be looking. *Maybe* you can get away with the prompting on TurboTax or H&R Block Online or similar (if you are certain you have no expenses to write off and all the income is neatly on a 1099-MISC you're probably OK with just software) but the rules get complicated so fast and there's so many things you might not know to even consider that the idea makes me leery, it's hard enough "programming" preparers with all of this much less software. At the least if you're going to be doing this for a long time it's worth seeing a professional the first year to make sure things are set up right at first. Getting too cheap and making mistakes is the definition of penny wise pound foolish here, because you'll be amazed how much even small errors in self employment can make you owe in taxes and time dealing with the IRS. Apologies if I sound ranty here, but this is the time of year where my work usually involves fixing things like this, so the thought of sending someone off to do this sort of thing with a few basic tips on their own downright triggers me .
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Sep 30, 2016 19:57
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Bobx66 posted:Is it possible to transfer my various old employer 401Ks into my self directed 401K? Will I need to do a "self directed rolloever" in which I liquidate my 401K accounts and then deposit the funds into my self directed 401K within 60 days? Etrade's website is implying that the prior 401Ks are eligible to be transferred directly into the self directed 401k. Thanks to a 2014 tax court decision you only get ONE indirect rollover (where you get the money handed to you and you turn around and deposit it in another retirement account within 60 days) per year. If you want to liquidate multiple accounts, make sure you do them as a trustee to trustee direct rollovers (i.e. have it between the investment banks or whatever. instead of coming into your hands during the process), there's no limit on those. That's what the E-Trade website is probably talking about with the direct transfer thing. As for going with E-Trade or whatever see AbbiTheDog's bit above about not giving investment advice (I don't know about CPAs, but I'm positive I certainly don't know enough about investments other than counseling about the tax consequences of various choices ).Splaa posted:Hi, quick question that I'm not totally clear on. I'm currently contracting, and because it involves travel I have a $75 per diem and can expense cabs/hotels/etc where necessary. I submit an expense report with my monthly invoice, and I am paid with one check that combines the two. When it comes to tax time, how should this work? Do I simply consider my income to be only the hourly amount of that check, or is my entire check considered income and I have to write off the expenses I was reimbursed for? I would say report the income including the reimbursement (especially since it's combined in the same check as the regular compensation) and write off the appropriate expenses. If nothing else it prevents the IRS from getting suspicious that travel expenses consistent with the type of work you do aren't being reported on your return, and I imagine the business will be reporting the whole thing together on a 1099-MISC anyway.
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Oct 5, 2016 02:50
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AbbiTheDog posted:And for the love of all that is holy, stay away from day trading. Oh dear God please listen for tax purposes if nothing else; I'm still twitching about the day trader who brought in a thirty-six hundred page 1099-B I had to review, particularly the almost $2 million in transactions with basis not reported to the IRS I had to work out  . Granted (as is unsurprising for day trading) I think the whole thing worked out to a slight loss, but grinding through to determine that was a nightmare.
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Oct 6, 2016 00:45
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SiGmA_X posted:Shouldn't their trading software tell them? Though maybe they don't believe it. Day traders... The software that generated the 1099-B was what was acting up I think; on the reporting form it was declaring several transactions had no cost basis. Had that been typed into typical tax software it would have concluded the stock had been acquired for free and sold for $2 million which would have juuust been a bit utterly insane. Fortunately by digging through the records (including some additional ones I asked for) I located the original purchase transactions and used that to establish basis. Not entirely sure why the basis hadn't been reported to the IRS to begin with for a stock purchase made in 2015, but there you go. So yeah, the lesson is don't rely TOO much on Fidelity or E-trade or whoever to always give you the correct records, keep your own!
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Oct 6, 2016 22:59
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Nifty posted:I bought a duplex. Property is ~2,200 sq ft, about 950 from one unit and 1250 for the other. I would like to confirm how I should best account for this on my taxes. Prorating expenses that apply to both units by the relative square footage is the traditional way to account for them, yes; most tax software should be able to account for them that way I would think (our professional one certainly does), or just do the math yourself. So for example in this case, you'd multiply the total of an expense by 1250/2200 (56.8%) to get the business expense amount. Obviously if an expense is specific to one unit (i.e. fix a window in one of them or similar) it goes on that particular unit. Given you are splitting on which unit you are renting, I would probably treat them as two separate units with the expenses prorated (the Schedule E has A, B, and C entries to allow multiple properties on one sheet) just to accommodate the difference in when they are in service and the resulting depreciation situation. Activities are technically "netted" when they go on the 1040/bottom of Schedule E, but the IRS will want expenses accounted for in a column for each property, hence I wouldn't combine or "shift" where the expenses are lest the IRS decide to question why you're spending 2X the normal expense on one unit but not the other. The whole point of having your expenses reported clearly is so the IRS can look at them and decide if they're realistic relative to similar properties, placing expenses from one property on another property obviously doesn't work for that. Also, don't forget when you have a personal/private situation to split the mortgage interest and real estate tax onto the Schedule E AND Schedule A for the rental and personal use, respectively. Oh, and don't bother with the LLC thing, won't help you out.
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Oct 11, 2016 04:24
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Ciprian Maricon posted:Thanks for the sound advice I will pass that along. The IRS has a very strict set of "tiebreaker rules" it applies. First if one of the people claiming is a parent and the other isn't, parent gets the dependent claim. If both or neither are parents, then it's by custody time. If custody time is split evenly, it's by highest AGI. In practice what this often means is you have to paper file the return in case of dispute, and the IRS should send back to both parties asking for things like school and doctor records and the like for proof of custody. I am somewhat confused by whether the young man did or did not claim himself; marking "you" should in fact claim himself unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying. Easiest way is to double-check the deduction on the 1040-EZ; if it's around $10,000 he claimed himself by accident. However since if memory serves the IRS does make a distinction when they note "claimed on another return" vs. "claimed themselves", I'm worried somebody may have stolen the kid's SSN for a return (like that loving grifting preparer  ). Might want to double-check if they had previous letters from the IRS asking for proof like I mentioned above; by default they should win by tiebreaker just by virtue of being the parents though unless he's a stepson of one of them and a divorced parent claimed him. It could also just be an outgrowth of the audit situation making the IRS snitty about demanding proof, because usually I would think they'd get at least one previous letter mentioning the issue before they jumped to denying. Usually there should be a "if you wish to dispute this, call X" phone number in the back pages of the notice if nothing else. If the IRS is being uncommunicative you can also look up the taxpayer advocate (Form 911), and maybe get some assistance that way. Given the pre-existing audit troubles though they probably do want a professional representing them for everything. Might also be worth filing Form 14039 for the kid if it is identity theft; hell, all of them should probably get a IP-PIN considering they got grifted by somebody who could very well have written down their SSNs and sold it to somebody if not using it themselves.AbbiTheDog posted:Note that 10/17/16 is a big deadline for tax professionals, you'll get a far better response next week if you're trying to call someone. Oh dear Lord yes, I'm as busy as I usually am during peak tax season, with the added bonus nobody files an extension on a SIMPLE return; some of these things feel like they should be drat final exam questions for a tax course. I'm reading here right now because after a nine hour shift my brain is still stuck in tax mode while my body twitches uncontrollably .
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Oct 14, 2016 01:14
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Ciprian Maricon posted:Line 5 on the 1040EZ reads. OK, understand you, sounds like he's fine there then. quote:They received a letter before and responded by mailing documents to prove the son's identity, their familial relationship and University expenses. The current correspondence from the IRS has a page detailing what was included in their initial reply which includes birth certificates, driver licenses, bank statements, 1098-T, W2's, copies of letter for ITIN issued for each person on the return, and bank statements relating to the son's expenses (mostly tuition). I'm pretty confused as to why that was insufficient for the IRS. So am I; unless they missed some item the IRS did ask for, there's no logical reason why the IRS should be denying him as dependent, especially since I imagine he's been previously claimed on their taxes. Definitely point them at taxpayer advocate, this is somebody being dumb thanks to the audit I think. The name confusion may explain it (and should be brought up) but it certainly doesn't justify it in the face of that much info I think. Marvel posted:There is no situation where I should actually owe them money, but that is what they are claiming. Ooooh trust me, the IRS coming up with mathematically stupid explanations for why you owe money is not unprecedented. I ALWAYS check the math on those letters even if they're right about the issues. I suspect Jobert's right that their system has a record of the income but somehow lost the withholding. I would try the local IRS office (bring the W-2 in question, make a photocopy first just in case they try to hold onto it); if nothing else, it puts the burden of faxing the thing in on them instead of you.
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Oct 15, 2016 16:39
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OK, lot of things here, see what I can tell you...DaveSauce posted:I have a couple question on whether or not we need someone to help with our taxes. OK, personal bias considering I AM a tax preparer, but if you really aren't sure I think it's worth going to a preparer at least the first year to make sure you know what's going on. Tax software is fairly decent and getting better all the time, but too much of tax work still depends on knowing what questions you have to ask. It is just too drat easy to miss something important simply because you don't know to think about it/research it. Again, obviously I'm biased to think us preparers are good things, but there is virtue in going to an expert at least once so you understand what is going on. quote:And then the follow up naturally is: how and when do we find someone to do our taxes? I've done some minimal research, and it seems about what I expected...find a CPA who does individual taxes, and don't use chain tax prep places. And on that, I presume we want to start looking now so if there is anything we need to do in 2016 to maximize our return we still have time to do it? Either way I'm not really sure how to locate a CPA...we don't really know anyone in our town that uses one. Maybe some people at work, but most of the people are young and don't need a tax person. Again, personal bias talking since I work at H&R Block, but don't diss on us chain places entirely . I admit the real headache with chain places is it's hard to know who you're getting; I would cheerfully recommend most of the tax pros in my district here (or at least would know who to direct you to for handling certain harder questions, although your particular stuff is items I handled my first year without issues) but obviously I can't speak for every office everywhere, and things get complicated with franchise offices which can all have their own way of doing things. Then again random CPAs is about as risky in guessing preparer quality; if people proclaim independent CPAs are always better and cheaper I can safely say from my experience reviewing their work and pricing AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA gently caress no they ain't. Really recommendations from others more local to you is the way to go; most people do not do their own taxes so you might be surprised who knows somebody. Check with people in similar tax situations (homeowners and such) by preference for best results probably. Do be upfront with what your tax issues are when initially contacting somebody so the preparer knows what to be thinking about (or occasionally frantically research...). Also, tax prep in person is expensive compared to software; my completely off-the-cuff guess for your state and federal taxes would probably be around $200, but that's a very shaky estimate (and based on my area, to boot) and fees go ALL over the board. Most places charge based on complexity of forms, some do it by hour. Some places (including H&R Block) do have a service called a refund anticipation check to par for the tax prep out of the refund instead of out of pocket when you file, but there's an extra surcharge for that. You will need to bring all your actual tax reporting forms in, not just the numbers; any ethical tax place will require the officially reported numbers when available to you.Main considerations I would consider are reliability ones. Avoiding sleazy fly by night is a good suggestion in any area but it goes double for tax preparation; DO NOT USE A SKETCHY TAX PRO. A bad car repair place will wreck your car, a bad preparer will wreck your LIFE considering it requires access to all the info needed for identity theft to do taxes. You also want to see what guarantees they have in case of error/audit. Say what you like about H&R Block, if WE mess up we can afford to guarantee paying back any penalties and interest you get charged as a result, not everybody does that. At a minimum they should drat well not charge you for their mistakes, I get rather irked at the stories I hear from some clients who got charged for an amendment needed because the CPA providing it screwed up the first time. If it's something the client messes up telling the preparer that's one thing, but if the mistake is on our end we drat well aren't going to make you pay MORE money to fix things. Also, make sure they are available past actual tax season in case you have problems; since most tax preparation money is earned January - April, keeping offices open outside that time frame is an expense not everyone will take. Even H&R Block generally closes most of its locations in the off-season and directs people to a couple offices they keep open. On the financial advisor thing, that's kinda touch and go. They are definitely different skills. I can inform you of the tax consequences of various investments and such, but in-depth information is quite beyond me in most cases; return on investment obviously involves a lot more than "how is it taxed?". Some CPAs probably do offer that service, even more probably can recommend somebody, but expecting every preparer to be a good financial advisor is probably not a good idea, they are different things. Assuming every tax CPA is good at financial advising is like expecting a patent lawyer to be a great criminal defense attorney; related skills and they probably know SOMETHING about it, buuuut not your best choice for it unless they've specifically worked at both. quote:Oh and failing all that, here's a fairly specific tax question: My wife has EE bonds that her parents got her ages ago. They're in her name, and they have matured (but are still earning interest). Is there any tax advantage to cashing those out this year since we bought a house? Her mom swears that there used to be something in the tax code where you can pay less tax on the EE bonds if you cash them out the same year you buy a house, BUT all we can find is something about using them tax-free for educational expenses. Was that ever a thing that maybe got changed? Or is it something that's buried and hard to find that we can still take advantage of? Or is this all made up? They're probably confusing being able to pull out of IRAs for first time home buying without paying the 10% penalty. EE bonds CAN have the interest income written off for qualified educational expenses, but anything you write off that way can't be used for American Opportunity/Lifelong Learning Credit. HSAs are generally handled through Form 8889, I'd check the instructions here for detail. Any money above your contributions through paychecks would be subtracted out from your taxable income as an adjustment on the front of the 1040 (line 25, if memory serves). As for itemizing deductions, obviously the best things to consult are the instructions for Schedule A. As a homebuyer Publication 530 also has some good info. In general, these are the things to double-check for itemized deductions: 1. Medical expenses - anything paid out of pocket that is not reimbursed by insurance or other source. This includes insurance premiums themselves, co-pays/deductibles/et al., even miles driven for medical procedures have a deductible value. Only amounts above 10% of your adjusted gross income actually apply, mind you, so most people won't get a deduction for this unless they're elderly or had a VERY bad year health-wise, but it's worth keeping track of just in case. 2. Taxes paid to a state. This includes either income tax (generally withheld on the W-2) or sales tax, depending on your location. Real estate taxes are also deductible, and if you are paying them out of your home mortgage with an escrow they will be reported along with the mortgage interest; otherwise, save copies of the real estate tax bills (some places have them available online as well). Property taxes, as others have noted, only applies to those based on the value of the property in question, not flat fees. So to use car taxes for example (a common one), if you pay a set $20 fee for license tags or similar that's nondeductible, but if the tax is based on how much the car is worth THAT tax is deductible. NC if my memory serves DOES have such a tax, but I get so few of those returns I can't be sure, recommend double-checking. Those are probably the only ones you'll have to deal with. Note that state rebates effectively become taxable income next year if you itemize state tax; most software pretty much automates the calculation though if you used it the previous year. 3. Mortgage interest. Normally this info should be reported specifically to you on a Form 1098 (example here) from your bank, and includes points paid for the mortgage along with any mortgage insurance premiums and real estate taxes being paid out of the mortgage escrow. The HUD-1 is a little confusing for interpreting; TaxSlayer has a pretty good chart here for reference. Every year after the first one you should be able to do with just the Form 1098 though. Note "mortgage" includes any loan secured by your primary or secondary residence, home equity loans and whatnot also count and should in theory send you a 1098 as well; if they don't, keep track of them also (though if no 1098 confirm they are secured by your home). 4. Charitable contributions to qualified charitable organizations. Any cash contributions above $250 you need a letter from the charitable organization for proof, otherwise your financial documentation should suffice (or things like receipts if you donate a $1 extra on purchases and the like). Non-cash contributions like Goodwill are generally based on fair market value or the value they credit you; if they aren't an organization that gives you a receipt for the value you can usually use some of the various guideline lists they provide like this one here. If it's over $500 total for the year you'll need to fill out a Form 8283 which includes information on where and when you did the donation, so save those little receipt things if you get them or write the info down if you don't. 5. Casualty/theft losses. Something major got broken or stolen and not reimbursed, hopefully you won't need this (but keep track if something happens). 6. Miscellaneous deductions. Bunch of various catch-all things that only count if over 2% of your adjusted gross income. Primary source of these is usually unreimbursed employee business expenses; if you pay something out of pocket for your job and are NOT paid back for it by the company, it goes here. This includes things like union dues, uniforms, and any tools required (as well as any home office set up for the convenience of the employer and business millage, but those are both kinda complicated so I'd probably recommend professional help if you have them). Others that may apply to you are tax preparation fees (you pay somebody to help prepare it, you deduct it next year), investment fees, and safe deposit box rental fees. 7. Other miscellaneous deductions. Various items not subject to that 2% AGI thing mentioned above. Main one most people run into is if you have gambling winnings you can write off gambling losses up to the amount of the winnings on Schedule A. Keep a careful journal of where and when you played and how much you lost each time if going this route, but of course usually only applies if you happen to win big while gambling. Note some states (including North Carolina) will let you apply itemized deductions to their income tax as well. The amount is different from the federal (they won't obviously let you take credit for taxes paid to THEM), but can obviously still help there as well.
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Oct 23, 2016 22:04
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Kinson posted:I don't like payroll, but I only touch it once for the initial review. After that it's the bookkeepers problem. Keeps them busy, but it's not really a money maker for the firm. It's more that we prefer to do it in house for our clients so we have some quality control. Ah, quality control. Must be lovely when you get unclear info you're expected to work from to know exactly who to strangle for the problem!
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Oct 27, 2016 20:31
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It has taken YEARS for the Affordable Care Act's tax provisions to phase in, and some of them are still in the process of coming in as we speak. So for any sanely written law the answer can be "a while" even if it is passed. They sure as hell can't make massive changes right after a president is inaugurated since tax season is already started by then.
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Oct 29, 2016 13:45
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Admiral101 posted:The poster above me kind of alluded to it - but state refunds would be taxable in 2016 in that situation (line 10 on 1040). Of course the real problem is you are sticking a ton of money with the state government for 0% interest this way, which is a rather poor investment compared to any "help" it gives on your taxes.
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Nov 22, 2016 16:17
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Ur Getting Fatter posted:I opened up an Ally Savings account a few weeks ago and I'd like to transfer most of my savings to that account to start getting some of that sweet sweet 1% interest. Refunds (with the exception of the aforementioned refundable credits) are basically just the return of excessive withholding in the first place, so you'll get it back. Actual money paid to the IRS is NOT a non-refundable credit. The savings account gains will be taxable income though since like the name Foreign EARNED Income Exclusion implies that's just for foreign earned income, but I doubt it'll go above the standard deduction/exemption amount anyway.
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Nov 24, 2016 07:05
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signalnoise posted:I'll be working out of my home office with my new job. Is there anything I can deduct for this? What rules or forms should I investigate? If you are a contractor/self employed check out Form 8829, if you're a standard W-2 employee the information still applies in how you calculate the amount but it's taken on Form 2106/Schedule A with itemized deductions. Main things you need to be aware of is the square footage of the office and the square footage of the home as a whole; also of course keep track of expenses for the home as a whole. Also be aware the space must be used SOLELY for business purposes to count, don't try this with your personal office space just because you do work there. EDIT: Whoops, forgot to mention Publication 587! That has the full summation of business use of home rules for reference. MadDogMike fucked around with this message at 17:01 on Nov 26, 2016 |
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Nov 26, 2016 16:54
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Ancillary Character posted:It's not even in the fine print, they openly say in the press release that they will use the information gathered to make recommendations for stuff like credit cards and other products, and the referral fees they generate from that pays for it all. Double-check what kind of information they can share too; it's illegal to share tax related info without express consent, but of course if you sign paperwork you are giving said consent.
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Dec 13, 2016 22:15
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Charles Mansion posted:We recently sold our home at a significant profit, and because we occupied it for more than two years we qualified for the home sales exclusion to income tax. I have read that since 1997 there is no requirement to spend the proceeds from a home sale on a new home, but I have had a number of people tell me otherwise. I think they're mistaken, but due to the large amount of money involved I'm worried that I've missed something. Nope, no rules on the exempted money having to be used to buy another home, you're fine there. clopping and cumming posted:I went through a divorce which was final in January of 2016. In the decree we are to alternate years in which we can claim our one daughter as a dependent. I am ok with that, however I have a couple of questions. She lives with me over 50% of the time and will continue to do so. First, am I allowed to claim Head of Household even on the years that her mother can claim her as a dependent? Second, we split daycare evenly and it is approximately $4k or so each. Am I able to claim that as a deduction when doing my taxes on the years that she is not my dependent or would that only be for the years I file with her as a dependent? OK, it depends on how you're doing the split here. If it's just a full swap and she shows up on one return one year and not the other, then no, you can't file as head of household or claim dependent care credit on years she's not on your return (though your ex can't do head of household even with daughter since she's not paying 50% of the costs of the home said daughter is living in unless that's somehow part of the divorce decree). BUT, if you are just releasing the exemption and child tax credit to her on the alternate years with Form 8332, you can still use head of household status and claim dependent care credit even on years when your ex is claiming the exemption and child tax credit. So it matters how you do the split, because the Form 8332 is the only way you can split up the tax benefits for a dependent in this scenario.
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Dec 14, 2016 19:08
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sex swing from IKEA posted:Deduction question: You are treated as married the whole year no matter when you get married, so being married in October makes no difference here. 90+% of the time you want to file jointly because MFS filing status blocks a lot of credits and/or you get the worst calculated rates for certain things. You can always double check that of course but it usually holds true unless both spouses are paid very high salaries that are about even. Withholding-wise I think you're fine at first guess, not sure I'd swap since you both have jobs that pay about the same and so should stay in the same bracket. Can always adjust after the first year if you withhold too much of course.
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Dec 19, 2016 22:47
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chupacabraTERROR posted:If my employer contributed to my 401k, would it show up anywhere on my W-2? I did not make any contributions, only my employer did. If it's a standard 401K it should show up in box 12 with a "D" code. If it's a different plan or some kind of employer specific plan, it may have a different code or only show up as a difference between your box 1 federally taxable wages or box 3 social security wages.
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Jan 17, 2017 16:05
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SurgicalOntologist posted:Well, I won again! Took down a $100,000 prize that will come in on a 1099-MISC box 3 (typically reported as hobby income). Actually it's net $95K currently, and I'll play again next NFL season (Q4) so the amount could change. Hopefully up, but I don't want to count on this success. Tax will be whatever state you were in when you constructively receive the funds, so if you have it now it would be CT, if it pays to you after you move it's the other state. If they paid you part now and part later split appropriately. Not sure why they're putting it on a 1099-MISC though, gambling winnings should be a W-2G with withholding taken care of from the winnings for you. "Hobby income" seems like a screwball way to report it since that goes into the whole expense write-off process which technically I'd think gambling losses shouldn't count as. Then again, I swear the number of stupid things I see reported on a 1099-MISC that shouldn't be... 
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Jan 24, 2017 03:51
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