Tax Time

[rennigade]

Didn’t want to pay TT

plus didn’t irs hire a bunch of new agents? Maybe it will be quicker this year.

Cash app tax is free. Doesn't matter how much you make.

Finally got it working. My app was broke. Had to uninstall/reinstall since I upgraded phone. Still waiting to file PA tax...apparently it's not ready yet.

[disneysteve]

plus didn’t irs hire a bunch of new agents?

No, they didn't.

[kork13]

plus didn't irs hire a bunch of new agents? Maybe it will be quicker this year.

No, they didn't.

Although they didn't get the funding to hire all of the folks they need, I did see an article from WaPost talking about the IRS having reduced their backlog of returns to the lowest level in years -- cut by over 65% compared to the same time last year. So they may have some measures in place allowing them to at least be more efficient with processing & evaluating all of the returns. And they have hired a bunch of CSRs at least, so that they can help folks with simple things.

I found the link to the article, though it may be behind the paywall.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...elays-refunds/

[rennigade]

Didn't the IRS want to originally hire 10s if thousands of new employees? Did that fall through? The middle/working class will be the targets and the low income and ultra wealthy will not be touched.

[disneysteve]

Didn't the IRS want to originally hire 10s if thousands of new employees? Did that fall through? The middle/working class will be the targets and the low income and ultra wealthy will not be touched.

Nope. That was another conspiracy theory.

What actually happened is that the IRS budget was increased, which was badly needed. Somebody somewhere said, hey, if the IRS is getting this much more money and the average agent earns this much, that means they could hire 87,000 more agents. Somehow that casual calculation got picked up by some in the media who aren't too interested in facts and reported it as if it was true.

The IRS will use the budget increase to do numerous things. Yes, they will hire employees, but not just agents. They'll hire everything from custodians to customer service reps to clerical staff to agents, and a lot of it will be simply replacing people lost to retirement and normal attrition. Plus, the money is spread over 10 years I believe. They're not hiring 87,000 new people this year.

[Jluke]

After dropping the ball not realizing that there is the free efile with the IRS (forms only) TT sent me an email for 20% off the next day.

at least I can be the Guinea pig for IRS turnaround for paper returns.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Owe a lot. i know it but we sold some stock and I'll big. I didn't pay it and just paid my 110% safe harbor

[kork13]

I'm still waiting on 1099s from Vanguard and a couple others... But realistically, with everything going on plus a 2-week trip in mid-Feb (tax-free for the month with CZTE though, so that's nice), I don't expect that I'll really have the time to sit down & mess with my taxes until probably the first week of March.

Owe vs. refund back? Zero idea. I normally try to run projections around Sep-Oct or so to fine-tune our withholdings, handle any TLH/LTCG, and so on... But I've not been able to do that this year, and with as much as has been changing both in our financial life & the tax law, I truly can't even begin to guess how it'll end up. I always target +/- $500 or less, but with no mid-year course correction, I'll probably exceed that in one direction or the other.

I started filling in our tax info today (we use H&R Block software), and so far it's looking like we'll actually end up very close to net zero! I still need to add in my Vanguard 1099DIV (haven't gotten it quite yet, but should be ~$2200 of mostly-qualified dividends), plus maybe some education credits for DW (awaiting her 1098T)... But as of now, total is showing +$32 as a refund. I'm expecting I'll end up within +/- $300 of zero .... which would be pretty sweet.

[disneysteve]

I dropped everything off at the accountant today (except the Vanguard 1099 which won’t come out until Friday). We shall see what happens.

[rennigade]

I dropped everything off at the accountant today (except the Vanguard 1099 which won’t come out until Friday). We shall see what happens.

We received our vanguard 1099-DIV back in mid January. Wonder why yours and Korks took so long?

[kork13]

We received our vanguard 1099-DIV back in mid January. Wonder why yours and Korks took so long?

It may have to do with the specific funds we own not finalizing their books until later? I dunno. I didn't sell a single share in 2022, so not even any 1099B/cost basis junk to deal with, only dividends... So it seems like that would be fairly simple. But then again, Vanguard's back-end processes are in such abysmal shape, I'm honestly not surprised anymore by delays, poor customer service, or a terrible front-end UI.

[myrdale]

2019 & Before, filed S0, received about $2,500 per year.
2020 filed S1, owed $1,200.
2021 filed S1 and withheld $100 extra per month, received $200.
2022 switched from traditional 401K to Roth 401K.......

I am scheduled to get my taxes completed tomorrow afternoon. I have my fingers crossed the switch from Traditional to Roth will not have a huge impact one way or the other, but I am guessing I will owe a couple hundred.

[jenn_jenn]

I finally had the courage to start our taxes. Unexpectedly, we owe somewhere around $20k.

Almost all of our income is regular W2. We both claim S0 and I had an additional federal tax withholdings in Q4.

It’s expected and we have the money set aside for it but yuck.

[disneysteve]

It may have to do with the specific funds we own not finalizing their books until later?

Exactly. It's based on what investments you hold. It has nothing to do with Vanguard. They're just the messenger. My mom has been with Ameriprise for many years. She doesn't get her tax paperwork from them until around March 15 each year. She just sends everything else to the accountant when she has it and he prepares the rest of her return but doesn't file until he gets the Ameriprise 1099.

It's no problem here. Our accountant knows I'll send it as soon as I have it. He even said he has many other clients who don't have all of their paperwork until late February or into March. The only reason I got him everything else already is because he offers an early filing discount to try and avoid getting swamped at the last minute.

[kork13]

The only reason I got him everything else already is because he offers an early filing discount to try and avoid getting swamped at the last minute.

This is sorta why I finally started mine the other night -- even knowing that I don't quite have all of my documents, getting the bulk of it done now makes it easier to deal with later once I get the last of everything. I'm currently on a business trip overseas (Qatar, where business hours end at 1pm), so I have a little more time to mess with my taxes now than I'll have once I get back to the states. For the same reason (spacing out the time expenditure), I normally actually start my taxes around the end of January. This year I was delayed starting simply because of how busy it's been of late.

My father, by contrast, always procrastinates to the very end, and most years files for an extension. I keep telling him to just work on it slowly over a few weeks & it's easy... even moreso now that he's retired. I think by now he's just so used to waiting that he can't change his habits.