US INCOME TAX!

The good news is I'm getting a refund from the IRS. You can shelve the violins, madam (though, if you know "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", you could play that, thanks).

Ah yes, I remember a third of my check being taken for income taxes while living in NYC. God bless Texas and it's lack of state income tax. yee haw!

If any of you (as Ally noted) are in dire taxation straits, feel free to gimme a call - I can't provide violins, unfortunately, but I could sing you some selected works from the songbook of Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Such thinking also doesn't take into account those all-important CREDITS - for instance, the breaks given to full-time students, or other categories I can't think of right now.

Nobody cares, Raposa. Try being one of the many of us that live in NYC and get hit with unreasonably high city, state, and of course the federal. or try being British. Jesus christ.

Pfffft. Try being a resident of Washington "Taxation Without Representation" DC.

(That said, for the first year since whenever, I am getting a refund. Now if I could only print the d*** forms.)

Withholding: the lazy man's friend.

David, what you just said makes absolutely no sense. Do you even know how taxes work at all? Because this isn't even the most tax- unknowledgable bit of your post - what are you talking about with the credits? Whether you pay absolutely nothing per paycheck to taxes or pay your entire paycheck, you still have to file the exact same way, so credits/etc don't matter to withholding. At all. But no, what I quoted makes no sense, so either your skills of explanation have lost you completely in this discussion or you don't understand the tax system at all - if you're withholding enough to get a "big chunk of change", then you wouldn't pay your taxes all at once. How can I discuss this? Jesus. I work in accounting.

Nitsuh, yes, you should withhold if you're not good at savings. Basically, withholding is a good idea to me, but not overwithholding - you put in your correct amount of exemptions on the form and then go from there. Putting in extra to "get a bit more back" is asinine; putting in the right amount because you might spend it is sensible.

No matter what any of us say, NYC or Washington are NOT as bad as Britian. That place is insane with the tax.

I usually break even with withholdings anyway. As it should be.

But the beauty of democracy is that I can pretend my money goes solely to programs I like, and the fighter jets are financed by the vast mid-stream majority of Bush-voters who are actually keen on that sort of thing. Now if only the vast mid-stream majority would learn to apply that imaginative trick to WIC payments and the NEA budget.

(Besides, if I had that extra $60 in interest I guarantee at least $40 of it would wind up with some institution I approved of even less.)

All I know is that I withhold a certain amount from my paycheck in addition to the monies withheld out by the state and the federal government. Every February or so, I sit down with a tax form and a glass of water and do some math. My status as a full-time student lessens the amount of tax I actually owe to the US, thanks to the Lifetime Earning Credit. All this means is I "get money back". Yay for me.

I like Nitsuh's justification - it's the same sort of reasoning I'd apply, had I ever really thought about where the money ends up.

Up there, in my "nonsense" post, I was saying that folks withholding enough extra cash that they end up receiving a significant refund would be better off just investing the extra cash somewhere else and pay the taxes when they're due. From what I understand, that's what Ally & Samantha were saying at the beginning of this thread - to paraphrase, it's STUPID to withhold more money than necessary when you're just losing the opportunity to USE that money. But, then, Ally comes back w/ "if you're withholding enough to get a "big chunk of change", then you wouldn't pay your taxes all at once," which seems to contradict what was stated previously. If that's not the case, feel free to try & set my tax-law-ig'nant self straight.

uh.

What happens if you file late? Should I board up the winders fer the g-men?

Tax extension info

can't wait for my refund :D :D

No, not filing for an extension.

What happens if you simply late?

The problem with filing for an extension is that you have to make an "estimate", and if you can do that, you might as well file.

Witness relocation info

Definitely a lol to be had there + bonus lol w/it being a "dance-theater anarchist's utopia".

I did my federal, but what do I need to do for NY state? When is that due?

april 15.

turb0tax or some other online filing thing will have your shit done in like 20 min. no need for extensions.

another year, another extension.

Don't worry, taxes are voluntary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7mRSI8yWwg

What happens if you file late?

You end up paying penalties (which accrue like compound interest) on top of any tax you owe. You are much much better off filing an extension. As long as your estimate is close (I think within 10% of actual), you don't have to pay any penalties.

There is no way I can get w/in 10% of actual. I mean come ON. If I can get that close, I might as well file.

Yeah the only reason I've ever filed an extension is because I was missing some critical forms/info (K-1, etc). The one time I ended up paying penalties though, it was really not worth it. I would have been better off overestimating, paying, then filing to get the refund, rather than nearly double my tax burden in penalties + interest.

Willful failure to file is a criminal misdemeanor and in some cases a felony

File even if you owe, even if you can't pay, even if you claim crazy deductions. Get an extension but do not fail to declare income to the IRS. You'll pay either way. IRS keeps track of this and technically when, not if, they find you, you could get audited, penalities, probation, criminal record (fraud is considered moral turpitude).

I paid four months late in 2006; doesn't appear to have been a problem.

Jaymc the IRS doesn't give a shit.xls. That is terrible advice. Filing late is against the law.

Sorry perhaps you meant you filed timely but paid late. If so, my bad.

Whoa--I was thinking that state came a few months after federal. May have to file an extension. I think I have to fill out extra paperwork bc I moved here in the middle of the year.

No, I meant I filed late. And it wasn't meant as advice. Just saying what happened. I wouldn't do it again, but the fact of the matter is that I was fully prepared to be penalized and I wasn't; in fact, I mistakenly overpaid and so I got a big refund check.

History of nonfiling;

Repeated contacts by the Service;

Substantial tax liability after withholding credits and estimated tax payments;

I think I may be OK here, felicicop.

I believe I may GET money back, since I ought have massive tax goodies from the fact that I'm now a homeowner.

Colleague of mine claims 15 deductions, to my 2.

do you actually want to know whether you did it right? it sounds like you don't really want to know.

When I was a waiter at a sort of nice restaurant, a wine rep told us to save receipts for eating out and liquor purchases and deduct them as career education expenses. I did it and the person at H&R Block went along with it. Seems pretty questionable.

that is only deductible if you itemize/file Schedule A. It is a bit questionable - certainly not all restaurant meals and booze purchases would be legit.

When I went on a Roadfood tour with Jane & Michael Stern in 2010, he was in line next to me at the New Mexico State Fair and got a receipt for a piece of pie. I had a bit of a blinding OMG moment and said "everything you eat is a deductible expense, isn't it?" and he just looked at me and smiled real big.

there were a couple years when i made several hundred extra dollars doing music writing. it occurred to me at tax time that, if i'd had a receipt for every single thing i'd ever done for fun in that year i could have made out like a bandit. but alas.

I think the classic question is really not whether you "can" do all that kind of stuff, but whether you're setting yourself for eventual audit. The more you do, the more likely an audit.

I'm starting to feel like a broken record here, but it doesn't really work that way.

Even after my voluminous questionable deductions, I still wound up owing Illinois thousands of dollars every year I was a waiter in Chicago. In the 3 years I worked at restaurant, I never received a single paycheck above $0 b/c every cent of my $4/hr went to taxes. Imputed tips keep everyone honest and they make the tax bill bite you in the ass. Should have paid quarterly, but after 4/16, I re-entered my fantasy land.

jesus

a possibly elitist (on my part!) question: can any of y'all afford a good accountant?!?

Good accountants aren't necessarily that expensive. It depends on what you want him to do with your finances.

alfred OTM ... my accountant is def more expensive than TurboTax and probably H&R Block/Jackson Hewitt, and even though i have a LOL tax law degree i've still had him do my taxes these past four years.

but the accountant i use isn't break-the-bank expensive. it isn't as if i go to one of the Big4 to do my taxes.

Am I wrong to think that an accountant isn't going to do give me an advantage in doing my very simple taxes, which consist of wage income only and no reason to think I have unused itemized deductions?

I just use taxact every year. Takes me about 30 min and I'm done.

I use Taxslayer.com. It's easy and cheap and when it seems to do due diligence to ferret out deductions.

je55e: in that circumstance -- where all you have are W2s and maybe an odd 1099 from a bank or a mutual fund company -- then no, going to an accountant is probably a waste of money & you should just use TurboTax or TaxAct for yer returns.]

however, there were a number of people in this thread who indicated that they were freelancers/self-employed or had tip income. in that case, i think that such people should definitely consider finding a good accountant.

OK. Just wondering if I was missing out on some super secret loopholes or something.

The only good thing about my student loans being in repayment is that I can deduct payments on interest. Wish I could deduct payments on the principal.

Yeah I'll have that comfort for a long time to come.

Freelancers, don't forget your quarterly estimates today.

aaaaaaaaagggghhhhh, so THAT'S what happens when I don't have any business expenses. Jaysus!

Surely you have some - didn't you use your phone/computer? Paper? Internet connection?

Yeah, those usual items were there, but I didn't buy any business equipment or do any business related travel. My quarterly payments were a bit lower than usual and my income was up just a bit. It's not a monster-sized tax hit, but it was noticeable -- especially since I usually applied my refund to my quarterly estimated payments, which covered 1.5 of them. This April I have to pay a few hundred for 2012 AND make the first 2013 quarterly payment in full.

do you have an IRA?

No...I need one.

Never too late, they say.

you have until April 15th to start and contribute to a regular IRA, though you could always do a SEP-IRA, which has higher contribution limits, and if you file an extension you have until the extended date to contribute for tax year 2012.

I LOVE HOW THIS THREAD TITLE IS IN ALL CAPS AS THOUGH TO CALM AND SOOTH YOU THROUGH THIS DIFFICULT TIME

ha what a world!

i am literally filling in a form

i had to read a multipage table until i found my "tax", which i then copied to line 15

What kind of taxes do you have to pay

http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Taxation-of-Nonresident-Aliens

Looks like you're taxed the same way we are. Wow

Careless tax preparers who throw a typo into your return, overreporting your estimated payments and leaving you with an additional surprise tax bill — classic or dud?

you or someone you paid?

Someone I paid. I've been using this firm for 15 years and this is their first mistake, and the IRS isn't charging any interest or penalty, so I'm going to let it slide this time, but damn, irritating.

could be a lot worse

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/analysis-donald-trumps-tax-plan/full

I want to post about this but not clutter up the general mourning/analysis thread.

He wants to increase the standard deduction to $25k (for single people, didn't specify for head of household status whether it would be higher and somewhere between single and married filing joint as is traditionally the case). One of my recurring problems with the tax code is that the cost of living in the U.S. is so varied, and the standard deduction seems based on the cost of living in cheaper areas. Having to explain to someone making $25,000 in San Francisco or NYC that the government doesn't consider them low income because you can live fairly comfortably on that in Tennessee, is not something I enjoy as a tax person.

no kidding

I'm trying to find out how much, under the GOP plan, my taxes will actually be reduced, and the best I can come up with is like, $1k. and I'm pretty high upper middle class incomewise. who is going to see all these big cuts?

Everybody who makes over $415,051 per year who will immediately see their tax rate fall from 39.6% to 25%, for starters

Unless they are a sole proprietor, in which case it drops to 15%

http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonynitti/2016/11/09/president-trump-what-does-it-mean-for-your-tax-bill/#7cc751c4b8b6

That's how you stick it to the elites, duh.

see the thing that was confusing about the trump tax plan is that it mentions "pass through businesses" - a sole proprietor is not a pass through business. Partnerships and S-Corps are pass through businesses. Does he actually mean pass through businesses or all businesses?

if trump doesn't know, then no one else knows. I'm pretty sure he has no clear idea what he's going to ask for, let alone what he'll get from Congress.

the Forbes piece has different information than the taxpolicycenter one. The bracket rates have changed.

Both analyses are arguing that it will encourage people to be independent contractors and not employees, which I don't think is entirely true, and is dependent on income level. Self-employment tax isn't going to go away under this plan, so for those who actually have self-employment income from their businesses, it's the 15% tax + 7.65% (the employer portion of FICA taxes). I guess that's great if you're in a high tax bracket, but for people who would be in the lower brackets, it wouldn't make much difference.

I feel like the reason this point is in his plan is not to encourage small businesses and entrepeneurship, but to give rich real estate investors tax breaks on the income from Real Estate partnerships that currently doesn't benefit from reduced capital gains rates.

will I still be able to deduct tons of shit because I'm a musician and count everything as a 'business expense' outside of my actual high paying day job?

that's all I care about

Yes, and I'm sure the Trump Administration will reduce funding to the IRS for examinations, audits, and enforcement as part of its starve the beast strategy.

another article that only addresses a couple points of the plan

http://www.npr.org/2016/11/13/501739277/who-benefits-from-donald-trumps-tax-plan?