Taxes are done!

[Octavious]

Ya I think they screw people that wait to the last minute... Jerks

[Exodor]

Ya I think they screw people that wait to the last minute... Jerks

Yep. I got a notice in mid March that the "last day to buy before the price goes up" was coming soon.

[RunningMn9]

Because I didn't take taxes out of my 5 or so months of unemployment, sold some stock and worked november and december on contract, I wound up about $9K short. I had set it all aside, so it wasn't an issue, but then I got a message from the state yesterday that I owe them another $20 in penalty for not withholding at least 80% of my taxes.

I got caught in a similar situation, and I expect the letter from the IRS claiming that I owe them more. At which point I will attempt to fight it. It was the result of a specific event that occurred in December, where I likely couldn't have gotten the money to them in time anyway. The last time this happened to me was 1999, and they ended up waiving the fee.

As a result of this, next year should be a good refund, as all the extra state tax I owed this year is clipped off my much lower income.

[hentzau]

Just finished. I absolutely hate doing my taxes, and always wait until the last minute, even though I always get a decent refund. This year is about $3300 back from the feds, and $300 back from the state.

[Sectoid]

Sent in my extension on Friday. Still had to pay $500 for the state taxes (corporation), plus $250 in "estimated partial taxes" gotta love fat-ass Chris Christie. I'll see what I actually get back in October.

[Carpet_pissr]

We got waaayyy too much back this time, almost $10,000.

Normally get about $7-$8,000 (state and fed combined) but we had another kid this year, so that bumped it up. (and that is still too much...I would love to get it down to a couple thousand at most if I can)

What is the recommended way to reduce your withholding? Obviously mine is completely out of whack, and I would prefer to have that $10K available to me during the year as opposed to loaning it to the govt. Is there a way to specify exactly how much you will owe? One problem variable in my case is I make more in commissions than I do for my base salary, but it's not THAT different, year to year (maybe $4-$6K difference at the most, year to year).

Obviously I am tax illiterate, but even I know that getting that much back is not very tax savvy.

[Isgrimnur]

If you don't want to do the heavy lifiting of figuring out how much upping the deductions on the W-4 (PDF) would be, you can just put a dollar amount in line 6.

[Carpet_pissr]

Awesome, thanks! I definitely want to avoid heavy lifting as I don't trust my tax skills (sometimes even Turbotax stumps me!).

[stessier]

You can also play with this W4 assistant. I've found it very helpful in the past when I tried to do the same thing. I got it to where I was only getting back between $500-1000 (but then I don't have commission to worry about).

http://www.paycheckcity.com/W4/w4instru ... extPage=PA

[Isgrimnur]

W-2s are out, and my new student loan holder has already e-mailed me about their tax statement for interest paid. All I really need to do is follow up with Wells Fargo for their end of it, and I'll be good to go.

[Arcanis]

W-2 came in yesterday so I'll be doing my taxes tomorrow.

[Carpet_pissr]

&%#&@%^ Got a message from TD Ameritrade saying due to tax law changes, the forms won't be mailed out until end of February! Sonofa...

[Isgrimnur]

You rich people and your investments.

[LordMortis]

That's what I'm thinking. But I haven't gotten a single document. I need my mortgage summary, my W-2s, and my banks interest form (I think. Last year I didn't get one because I had under the minimum reported interest. They sent me no form, so I declared no interest income. Rates have only gotten worse, so I suspect I won't get one again this year.) Also, I usual owe money, even though I claim 0, so I'm never in a hurry to pay more money to the government.

[stessier]

You rich people and your investments.

You poor people and your having to pay taxes. (And any other smilie to show I am just kidding! Anything more would have to be moved to R&P.)

[Carpet_pissr]

You rich people and your investments.

15% babay! (in my best Romney voice)

[LawBeefaroni]

&%#&@%^ Got a message from TD Ameritrade saying due to tax law changes, the forms won't be mailed out until end of February! Sonofa...

I've never gotten anything from them before February before anyway.

[Isgrimnur]

W-2s are out, and my new student loan holder has already e-mailed me about their tax statement for interest paid. All I really need to do is follow up with Wells Fargo for their end of it, and I'll be good to go.

W00t!

The 1098-E form includes the total interest you paid to Wells Fargo and ACS for loans transferred to ACS in 2011. You will not receive a separate 1098-E from Wells Fargo for the interest you paid on federal loans transferred to ACS in 2011.

I'm good to go! I should have my refund before my next payment cycle so I can use it to pay off my new computer and last year's medical bills.

[Kraken]

Aw crap, tax time again. Guess I'd better issue my w-2.

On the bright side, my wife had almost no 1099 income last year, so maybe her business will show a loss. On the dark side, I made only token 1040-ES payments.

[Odin]

I've considered buying a copy of TurboTax. That's about all I've done so far.

[killbot737]

I gotta wait until Feb to get my rich man statement that says I cashed out negative $13 in gains last year. Take that, loser investments! The winners are dancing on your grave!

[Isgrimnur]

And done. Refund is slightly bigger this year, but it's all headed to the CC company as soon as it gets here.

[Kraken]

I've considered buying a copy of TurboTax. That's about all I've done so far.

I am thinking about going that route this year instead of paying our CPA his customary $330 fee. Ordinarily he earns it because my wife's business income/expenses are so convoluted, but last year she had virtually no freelance income and a lot fewer expenses than usual. Her teaching checks are regular w-2 income.

[Octavious]

Have to fix my withholdings. Owe 250 bucks.

[LawBeefaroni]

Have to fix my withholdings. Owe 250 bucks.

Fix? That's good.

[Octavious]

Nah I'd rather just have them give me a tad back then owe a couple hundred. Looks like change it down 1 will give me 200 bucks back next tax season.

FYI found a cool calculator to figure this out.
http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/tax ... lator.aspx

[stessier]

You can also play with this W4 assistant. I've found it very helpful in the past when I tried to do the same thing. I got it to where I was only getting back between $500-1000 (but then I don't have commission to worry about).

http://www.paycheckcity.com/W4/w4instru ... extPage=PA

Here's another one (quoted from last years discussion) that I really like.

[LordMortis]

Nah I'd rather just have them give me a tad back then owe a couple hundred. Looks like change it down 1 will give me 200 bucks back next tax season.

FYI found a cool calculator to figure this out.
http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/tax ... lator.aspx

I don't know whats up with the deductions thing. You have kids, so you'd think 3 or 4 is where you'd want to be. I claim 0, do the standard deduction plus mortgage write off and I still owe the Fed $1000 or more every year. Nowadays, I just count on it and make sure I have a $1000 put away for tax time. Every year Turbo Tax prints out a forms about warning that that should prepay me taxes quarterly or change my with holding but screw 'em. Audit me. My taxes are too simple to cheat on and I have records going back to when I was 16. I claim fricken zero. If you can't set rates correctly and want to encourage me to overspend then you can deal with being owed $1000 every year.

[coopasonic]

Our tax situation is completely unpredictable (at least by us) from year to year. Several times my wife's financial advisor has screwed us by selling off investments and not telling us to make sure we are covered from a tax standpoint. As a result we over-withhold significantly just in case. Most years we get 5-10k back and it seems to evaporate without buying anything significant. Now that our daycare expenses have been cut significantly I'm hoping we actually see some of that money and can turn it in to something exciting, like new major appliances.

[LordMortis]

Our tax situation is completely unpredictable (at least by us) from year to year. Several times my wife's financial advisor has screwed us by selling off investments and not telling us to make sure we are covered from a tax standpoint. As a result we over-withhold significantly just in case. Most years we get 5-10k back and it seems to evaporate without buying anything significant. Now that our daycare expenses have been cut significantly I'm hoping we actually see some of that money and can turn it in to something exciting, like new major appliances.

5-10k back. You should run for president. You can't empathize with the poor folk.

[coopasonic]

Our tax situation is completely unpredictable (at least by us) from year to year. Several times my wife's financial advisor has screwed us by selling off investments and not telling us to make sure we are covered from a tax standpoint. As a result we over-withhold significantly just in case. Most years we get 5-10k back and it seems to evaporate without buying anything significant. Now that our daycare expenses have been cut significantly I'm hoping we actually see some of that money and can turn it in to something exciting, like new major appliances.

5-10k back. You should run for president. You can't empathize with the poor folk.

I'm about $249 million closer to empathizing with poor folk than Mitt Romney.

[Octavious]

Nah I'd rather just have them give me a tad back then owe a couple hundred. Looks like change it down 1 will give me 200 bucks back next tax season.

FYI found a cool calculator to figure this out.
http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/tax ... lator.aspx

I don't know whats up with the deductions thing. You have kids, so you'd think 3 or 4 is where you'd want to be. I claim 0, do the standard deduction plus mortgage write off and I still owe the Fed $1000 or more every year. Nowadays, I just count on it and make sure I have a $1000 put away for tax time. Every year Turbo Tax prints out a forms about warning that that should prepay me taxes quarterly or change my with holding but screw 'em. Audit me. My taxes are too simple to cheat on and I have records going back to when I was 16. I claim fricken zero. If you can't set rates correctly and want to encourage me to overspend then you can deal with being owed $1000 every year.

Well I have a decent amount of deductions I'm claiming 6 from when my wife wasn't working. Dropping it down to 5...

[LawBeefaroni]

My thinking is that when I want to loan the government money, I buy treasury notes. I don't let them take it out of my paycheck. Granted interest on a few hundred (or few thousand) dollars is negligible but it's the principle of the thing.

[Octavious]

It's cutting it too close for me. If it wasn't for my daughters daycare and the mortgage deductions I'd be totally screwed.

[Isgrimnur]

At my current savings account rate and refund level, it's the equivalent of $11. I'll pay that to ensure that I don't have to cut them a check every year instead.

And I grew up in a military family. I may have issues with the politicians that run it, but letting them use my money for the course of that time doesn't bother me on a principle level.

[LawBeefaroni]

And I grew up in a military family. I may have issues with the politicians that run it, but letting them use my money for the course of that time doesn't bother me on a principle level.

The military is funded whether you overpay through witholding or not. It's not a patriotism thing. It's a liberty thing.

[Isgrimnur]

I fail to see the liberty argument.

Yes, the military gets funded whether they withhold more than what's required or not. But given my background, it's one thing I'm willing to do and also because it benefits me in the long run. If I had that extra money per check, it would get used in much the same way as the rest of my check. Even if I were to put it into savings, it would likely be used for other expenses during the year.

The year that the check from the IRS bounces, then I'll rethink my strategy. And given that banks are now charging, in some cases $5/month to hold accounts with them, I consider the $11/year to let the government hold it for me to be quite the bargain in today's marketplace.

[LawBeefaroni]

I fail to see the liberty argument.

Assuming that a federal income tax is acceptable, it's still my money until it is due. Witholding is a trick used to make some people look forward to April 15 and to obscure the amount of taxes collected on an individual basis. I'll pay what is owed when I owe it. Demanding that I do more (loan the governement money in the interim) and taking payments from me before they are due is a bit of an affront to my liberty.

But given my background, it's one thing I'm willing to do and also because it benefits me in the long run.

Do you think for a second that the IRS would give someone a break on their taxes because they served, or because they have family that served? This isn't an old friend who you help out with a little loan. It's a massively inefficient bureaucracy that does not waste 1 second of thought on you as an individual. Have you heard of the government pre-paying someone's unemployment check? Maybe fronting someone a bit of social security cash to get their yearly meds? Why treat them any different than they treat you? The IRS =/= the Armed Forces.


In fact, keeping my money probably benefits them anyway. I invested n*$1 last year. It is worth n*$2.15 today. That is an additional n*$0.40 that the federal government has made. Money that they wouldn't have if they were sitting on that $1 for a year. So I'm actually contributing more with minimal witholdings. And if I had completely lost that $1, I would still have to pay my regular income taxes. Even bank interest income is taxable so they have additional revenues if you keep it in the bank in stead of loaning it to them.


Unrelated, if your bank is charging $5 to keep an account, it's time to switch banks.

[Isgrimnur]

I don't have the same liberty outlook that you do. I still get my money, but this method allows me the ability to direct the funds in lump sums to things that otherwise might not see the funds in a piecemeal basis.

I think the IRS would give consideration for active duty military. Adult dependents? Not a chance. But the IRS is still part of the federal government. I don't like certain departments of certain companies, but I'm not going to throw the whole org under the bus because of it.

It's great that you have the discipline and ability to save and invest enough money to make it pay for you. As has been documented in this thread, I don't. My debt load and its interest rates make investing anything more token than my 401k and savings to handle expenses a losing proposition. Page 1 of this thread discusses why I don't get a form from my credit union for interest, as I make less than $10 a year.

And the bank that had started charging me $5 a month has been shown the door.

[Lassr]

Finished mine this weekend. Getting back less than last year. About the only difference; there is no $800 credit for making work pay this year so I guess that could have lowered it some.