Anyone up for a tax challenge? Help me estimate my 2009 tax bill!

**reallyprettyhappy** · 09-03-2009, 07:19 AM

REALLY? No one? I think I may need to finally hire someone

this is the one thing that I really can't stand doing. Thanks anyway.

**wnlbutterfly** · 09-03-2009, 08:32 AM

You have a lot of things going on. What about property tax on the cars? Did you amend last year and get the $8k for first time homebuyers already? Brand new car? Sales tax on that new car might be deductible.

I'll run some numbers.....they will only be estimates of course.

**reallyprettyhappy** · 09-03-2009, 08:38 AM

we didn't amend last year's return to get the first time home-buyer's credit, because we already amended it because my husband's W2 for 2008 was wrong and I didn't notice until I had already submitted our return. So, no, we haven't claimed that money yet. We are planning to be in the house for at least 36 months, so I'm comfortable claiming it.

The car was new. Sales tax was 3585, and it looks like license/title was 87.

We haven't gotten the other car registered here yet, but I believe that will be coming due in October. Will probably be around 100.

I didn't know that about the car tax thing. What about property taxes? can I deduct those too?

**wnlbutterfly** · 09-03-2009, 09:24 AM

Yes, property tax also, and how many kids do you have? I assume they are under 17.

**reallyprettyhappy** · 09-03-2009, 09:33 AM

OK, we have 1 one-year-old.

should I count all of the money that we've put into escrow for the property taxes for this year? Or just the amount paid out for this year?

It says my last installment paid was 1207. I'm really not sure what the figure is for this. each month, about 200 goes into the escrow account for property taxes, so if you can estimate using that...

**wnlbutterfly** · 09-03-2009, 09:46 AM

All these numbers are estimates....

Taxable Income W-2's: $139,065 (income minus contributions)
Interest +200: Taxable income= $139,265

Using this as your taxable income:
Grad Tuition: $0 (phases out at income level $116k)
Day care (1 child only $600)
Student Loan: $1,894 (reduction based on income)

Itemized deductions: $17,842 (add property tax)
Personal exemptions: $10,950 (based on 3 in the family)

This brings your taxable income to around $112,117
Tax on that is around $20,717, but you will have AMT and they are still working on tweaking that.

Child Tax Credit, but it will be reduced and I can't get the worksheet to come up, so I will just estimate it to be around $800 ($1k is the max)

So total tax will be near $19,317

You have already paid in $20,122
$8,000 credit (as long as the home was more than $80k, if it was less it is 10%)

That's around an $8,805 refund. You will be adding in your property tax to reduce your taxes, but you will have Alternative Minimum Tax added in.

You could take your forms to a tax preparer, they will charge per form. Since this is all documented info (meaning you will get W-2's and such), you could do this with an software program at home. These programs will do the math for the reduction and phase-outs due to income. If you do take it to a pro, be sure and take everything, just because I said you won't get tuition credit based on this info, something might change and you do get some credit for it.

Hope that gives you an idea anyway.

**wnlbutterfly** · 09-03-2009, 09:58 AM

Property tax: When you get your mortgage statement at the end of the year it will say exactly what they paid. Our escrow pays the tax twice a year, but since you bought in June you might only have one payment, or they might pay in Dec.

The money you put into escrow usually also covers PMI and home insurance, and they can legally require a cushion (so you pay a little extra).

As a tax person I would say it looks like you have your W-4 pretty close to where it should be. However, if more of income 2 becomes taxable, then you might want to make some adjustments, another $34k taxable and not having the $8k homebuyers credit would probably have you owing Uncle Sam.

Also, I would be checking into your state taxes. We are in the midwest and for whatever reason they never withhold enough taxes. On a situation like you have given us here, you would be owing to the state (and here it would be a big chunk of change). Of course you might be lucky and live in a state without income tax....just a heads up.

**reallyprettyhappy** · 09-03-2009, 10:00 AM

Could you explain what sets off the AMT? I haven't paid that before, and I don't really have much background on it, so I'm just wondering. I can't tell you how much I hate thinking about taxes. Thank you so much for helping me.

**wnlbutterfly** · 09-03-2009, 10:17 AM

Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)

They upped the limit to MFJ $70,950 (income over that may be subject to AMT). I don't know what all the particulars, I have to confess that the software program does the calculations.

AMT was one of those taxes that was originally put into place to hit higher wage earners, but they hadn't really kept up with the cost of living on it and it is starting to hit more and more taxpayers. I can't say 100% if you will or won't, just be prepared if it pops up.

Anyone up for a tax challenge? Help me estimate my 2009 tax bill!