Tax Time

[kork13]

FYI the penalty for not having health insurance is about $900.

Pretty sure that penalty was repealed 3-4 years ago.... At least at the federal level -- does your state levy a similar penalty?

[QuarterMillionMan]

Man you're are good kork, my bad I should have specified that the penalty would apply to my California state taxes. I was on a roll doing my taxes & upon completion of the feds jumped into California. At the onset it was showing that I owed California $1000 but as soon as I clicked the box affirming that I had health insurance coverage for the entire year it then showed that I had a refund of $31 which I was overjoyed to see.

[bjl584]

I just got my taxes back.
I owe $1500 federal and $200 state.
About a thousand less than I thought I'd owe.

[ua_guy]

We'll be writing a $10,002 check, according to the prepared return we received back from the accountant yesterday. That's about what we expected.

[kork13]

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.

I finally bit the bullet and went through the hassle of doing taxes for each of my kids (required to file due to the size of their Alaska PFD payments last year).... now over a month since I started. I e-Filed for DW & I using H&R Block with the MilTax program (free tax prep/e-file for military members) ... but we'll have to mail in DKs' tax returns, since this is their first year required to file (hat-tip to LAL for the heads up on that requirement, which I eventually confirmed separately).

On the upside, doing DKs separately from DW/my MFJ return saved us roughly $150 total across the family (vs. including them on our MFJ return). I'm pretty happy with the final result. DW & I MFJ = $803 refund ... DS7 = $335 owed ... DS5 = $326 owed ... DD2 = $307 owed. Net from all 4 tax returns: $165 owed.

I love it when our taxes end up close to net-zero -- my goal is always to end up within +/- $500. I'm especially glad about the result considering that I didn't take the time to assess our taxes back in Sep/Oct'22 to make sure we'd be on-target. Overall, I call that a win! It's also a huge relief to have it done -- needing to do individual tax returns for DKs was really intimidating for me, though ended up not TOO bad once I got into it... basically took me 4-5 hours this morning to get through them all. And now? I feel much more prepared for what's to come in future years.

[kork13]

But to just fill out the electronic forms (just like you did to paper file) then eFile them is free & available to anyone regardless of income.

https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers...fillable-forms

Oh man. Didn't realize

My only heartache from doing my taxes this year is that when I tried using TaxSlayer's software (via IRS's FreeFile program) for DKs, it didn't do the calculations correctly at all. With DKs only having "unearned income", their taxes have to take my tax rate into account. I ran TaxSlayer 2 times through -- first time, it didn't ask for anything about my taxes (clearly wrong), so their results ended up roughly $100 low for each child. Then I re-ran it, checked a box to force the software to account for my taxes .... with the result of DKs "owing" over $15k in taxes ... EACH!! None of them had more than $3500 income per child. Obviously ridiculous.

So I gave up on trying different software, and reverted to the IRS's FreeFile Fillable Forms portal (https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/). I was actually relatively impressed. Yes, I had to fill out each form myself... but the system at least takes all of your personal info to pre-fill as much as it can. You can search for/select/add in any required forms at a click. And most appreciated, it also does all of the math calculations for you on each of those forms. Once you're finished with everything it either walks you through e-Filing (free), or else you click a button & it combines all of the various forms & spits out the completed tax return to print & mail. The system also saves your work online, so that you can come back to it later (though it looks like you have to create a new account every year & they wipe out the previous year at some point).

On the negative side, the separate forms/schedules don't always synch back to the main 1040 (sometimes they did though... kinda spotty integration). So you sometimes have to plug the result from those forms into the 1040 yourself. The other downside is that the system doesn't have ANY of the calculation worksheets integrated (for ex: the "Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet". So you have to download the worksheet & the relevant instructions from the IRS website, then meticulously step through the worksheet, constantly referring back to the instructions & the various 1040/other forms, while constantly double/triple-checking your work. This was the hardest part of doing DKs' tax returns this way.

(consider this a review of the FreeFile Fillable Forms system, since many may not be familiar with it)

[QuarterMillionMan]

We'll be writing a $10,002 check, according to the prepared return we received back from the accountant yesterday. That's about what we expected.

In 2020, i wrote at $37,000 check for capital gains on the sale of my 1-bedroom condo which I knew I would have to do but tears still flowed.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

My only heartache from doing my taxes this year is that when I tried using TaxSlayer's software (via IRS's FreeFile program) for DKs, it didn't do the calculations correctly at all. With DKs only having "unearned income", their taxes have to take my tax rate into account. I ran TaxSlayer 2 times through -- first time, it didn't ask for anything about my taxes (clearly wrong), so their results ended up roughly $100 low for each child. Then I re-ran it, checked a box to force the software to account for my taxes .... with the result of DKs "owing" over $15k in taxes ... EACH!! None of them had more than $3500 income per child. Obviously ridiculous.

So I gave up on trying different software, and reverted to the IRS's FreeFile Fillable Forms portal (https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/). I was actually relatively impressed. Yes, I had to fill out each form myself... but the system at least takes all of your personal info to pre-fill as much as it can. You can search for/select/add in any required forms at a click. And most appreciated, it also does all of the math calculations for you on each of those forms. Once you're finished with everything it either walks you through e-Filing (free), or else you click a button & it combines all of the various forms & spits out the completed tax return to print & mail. The system also saves your work online, so that you can come back to it later (though it looks like you have to create a new account every year & they wipe out the previous year at some point).

On the negative side, the separate forms/schedules don't always synch back to the main 1040 (sometimes they did though... kinda spotty integration). So you sometimes have to plug the result from those forms into the 1040 yourself. The other downside is that the system doesn't have ANY of the calculation worksheets integrated (for ex: the "Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet". So you have to download the worksheet & the relevant instructions from the IRS website, then meticulously step through the worksheet, constantly referring back to the instructions & the various 1040/other forms, while constantly double/triple-checking your work. This was the hardest part of doing DKs' tax returns this way.

(consider this a review of the FreeFile Fillable Forms system, since many may not be familiar with it)

Here's another heads up. You can file 5 times using the HR block software without paying for it. Most people don't know that. I owe a lot. It's been sitting in CDs and Treasuries though. This year because of some weird circumstances i haven't finished mine. Usually i'm done around now and sitting on paying. This year I may have to put myself on extension since DH hasn't been able to get his paperwork for 1 thing (a stock sale) Ugh. So I'll make a payment.

Just because you file an extension doesn't mean you don't need to pay. You just have extra time to prep the return but should be making a payment of what you owe. I chose not to make a payment at the time of the stock sale hence we owe a lot.

[scfr]

Income tax return was filed a few weeks ago.
Form 5500-EZ (for DH's solo 401k), though not due until July 31, was just filed and I got the lovely "report received" message --- so now I consider our income taxes really done!

Next up on the tax carousel? Transfer funds to checking in order to pay our property tax bill that is due April 30.

[disneysteve]

We made out okay with taxes. We owe $2,069 for Federal and are getting a refund of $827 from NJ. We also just got our $1,000 NJ homestead rebate which puts us just about even for the year.

Now the 2023 planning happens. My work income will be a lot lower as it is the first full year I'm per diem. Hopefully, my ebay income will be higher. Our investment income will be higher thanks to higher rates and finally getting the estate money from my cousin back in August. I'll check in with our CPA in the fall to see where we stand and if any adjustments are needed.

[srblanco7]

We submitted our taxes several weeks ago and our return, on the irs website, was stuck "being processed" well beyond normal terms. Checked yesterday morning to find a note that the irs found an error on our taxes and we're getting an additional $2k+ added to our refund. Notified our accountant (not particularly happy with him) and he checked and let me know he'd made an error with the coding of a W2 and that the irs is correct.

We'll put this in the good news category as I was beginning to think we were going to be audited. Did get me wondering how much the irs could do with just calculating taxes on your behalf and then sending a bill or refund.

[kork13]

I finally bit the bullet ...... I e-Filed for DW & I ... but we'll have to mail in DKs' tax returns, since this is their first year required to file

I haven't actually gotten my refund back for DW & I, but the IRS status website says it'll be issued on 5 Apr -- less than 2 weeks after filing.

I don't know why you would go through the bother of paper filing when the eFile is so much simpler & faster... That is, besides the random instances where you're *required* to paper file, like for our kids' first year.... My family has been out in San Diego for spring break the past week+, so we'll be mailing out DKs' returns this next week. I'd be surprised to see any action on them or our checks cashed inside of a month.

Yes, I know that delaying payment via the mail & paper processing is one motivation to paper file .... but is that float really what's gonna make it for you? I'd rather be done with it & know it's settled.

[disneysteve]

Yes, I know that delaying payment via the mail & paper processing is one motivation to paper file .... but is that float really what's gonna make it for you? I'd rather be done with it & know it's settled.

I’m not sure what you mean about the float. We e-file but that’s separate from making our payment. That we do by mailing in a check with the payment voucher. So we could e-file early and wait until April to send in our payment.

[kork13]

I’m not sure what you mean about the float. We e-file but that’s separate from making our payment. That we do by mailing in a check with the payment voucher. So we could e-file early and wait until April to send in our payment.

By "the float", I just meant the 4+ weeks processing delay between mailing the check & actually having it withdrawn from your account. But I didn't realize you could e-file & still send a check (I've only rarely owed, normally I have a small refund). So that makes it even more silly (IMO) to paper-file.

[Fishindude77]

Expect to get income tax information back this week and will likely be paying a substantial amount.

Got our annual real estate tax bills and got them paid. Happy to report they went down several hundred dollars.
One of the farms had an old empty house on it and that parcel had been taxed as a dwelling. Tore down that structure last year, cleaned up the lot and it's now getting taxed as bare ground, which saves a few bucks.