Taxes!

and my AGI went down this year because of retirement contributions. there's no way to win.

Unless I can place some kind of withholding on our Social Security

you mean above the standard amount they withhold if you say you want taxes withheld? (i think it's 10%?)

IRS giving a 3 month extension on paying taxes owed. They haven't official extended the filing deadline yet.

California has extended the filing deadline and payment deadline until June 15th

Stimulus payment checks: No information available yet
At this time, the IRS does not have any information available yet regarding stimulus or payment checks, which remain under consideration in Congress. Please do not call the IRS about this. When the IRS has more specific details available, we will make it available on this page.

The IRS is a great source of passive-aggressive content

Soooo how's it going for everyone.

Interesting thing I learned -- there's an IRS app that you can use to track refunds etc.; it also serves as a non-texting authenticator, which is a good idea:

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs2goapp

And another tax season upon us here in the US -- and yesterday I learned about something important:

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2022/01/irs-will-soon-require-selfies-for-online-access/

The title is clickbaity but accurate -- here's how I summarized it elsewhere for some colleagues:

I wanted to alert everyone about an upcoming change -- which honestly should be getting more publicity that I've seen -- regarding access to one's IRS account and more besides. This article -- Krebs is very much a known name in the information security field, this isn't some rando! -- goes into thankfully patient detail, but in essence the IRS has entered into an agreement with the privacy/identity firm ID.me, which at some point this summer will be the sole way you can access your IRS account online. I'll add that setting up an ID.me account, as I did last night in response to all this, will also cover access to your Social Security account online as well as, as needed, your VA account if you have served in the military. I should note that my experience setting up my ID.me account and then linking everything to the IRS and Social Security was much smoother than the article author's experience, but as he notes, no matter what, the process does involve using a driver's license, state ID card or passport, as well as a biometric element, namely a face scan. This might not be for everyone and Krebs himself is clear about what issues he has with it, so I encourage a careful reading of the article.

But as he concludes: "Over the years, I’ve tried to stress the importance of creating accounts online tied to your various identity, financial and communications services before identity thieves do it for you. But all of those places where you should “Plant Your Flag” conduct identity verification in an automated fashion, using entirely static data points about consumers that have been breached many times over (SSNs, DoBs, etc). Love it or hate it, ID.me is likely to become one of those places where Americans need to plant their flag and mark their territory, if for no other reason than it will probably be needed at some point to manage your relationship with the federal government and/or your state. And given the potential time investment needed to successfully create an ID.me account, it might be a good idea to do that before you’re forced to do so at the last minute (such as waiting until the eleventh hour to pay your quarterly or annual estimated taxes)."

the IRS actually currently uses KBA (the thing where you get a handful of multiple choice questions where one is the name of a street you lived on 25 years ago, so a bit different from the SSN DoB basics), and requires specific info from a prior year tax return ... you don't have to have an IRS account to make estimated tax payments ... in fact, you can mail a check postmarked as of the deadline and they will count it as paid on that date with no penalty. ... sorry, i should totally avoid this thread.

Filed last night.

Not filing till April. I know I'm not getting a refund (I'm a full-time freelancer who refuses to pay quarterly taxes) so fuck 'em.

enjoy your penalties, Phil!

i’m finally catching up on all my years of not filing as an expat and it’s filling me with a profound sense of relief and well-being

Haha yeah I'm in a similar boat except I was mostly "volunteering" for my expat years so only filed for the last one, reported no income.

How's everyone doing. (Filed last week, IRS confirmed receipt, state's being a little sluggish but it can happen.)

Filed in mid-March. I lead a life of life of leisure.

All of California (except for a few outlying counties) have a federal extension until October because the storms constituted a disaster ... so, no rush here

I owe $2300

(i am entering into a payment plan)

Filed last month. Got a nice refund because my old career cratered ($310 in revenue last year) and I still have the same business expenses. I asked my tax guy how long I can pretend to be a DTP/design person claiming losses before the IRS says "no you're a bartender now" -- he said four years, which was reassuringly specific.

I ended up owing for the first time in forever, because I made a fairly basic and stupid mistake when it came to estimated tax payments. My business partner and I switched to a salary system this year to build up some savings for future endeavors, leaving some of our money in the bank each month. But when I made my estimated payments I only counted the money we'd actually disbursed, rather than our actual total business income — stupidly forgetting that the IRS doesn't care which account money is sitting in, you still have to pay taxes on it. So, that was fun.

I figured that out in February, but once I realized we weren't getting a refund I put off filing (and paying) until a few days ago.

I also realized that I think I can claim some bigger refunds from the last few years because of another dumb mistake I've been making — a good argument that maybe I should actually pay someone to do our taxes rather than muddling through on TurboTax. So now I need to spend some time doing that. (Best case, it will offset a chunk of what I just sent them.)

I don't mind paying taxes, but as a small business owner it's pretty complicated!

Guess I better start thinking about doing my taxes

I owe $6 + $10 for my Obamacare plan - that takes TurboTax from free to file to $60 because I owe the $10, so I've got to look at the free filing options this weekend.

I pay somebody to do it because I live overseas and it gets slightly complicated. The child tax credit is netting me $2500 this year after I pay the tax people though, so it is totally worth it to me.

Met this old guy, a friend's father in law, who was complaining about taxes, saying if you live in DC in a $3 million home with two kids in private school that Biden's proposed new capital gains structure imposes an unduly harsh burden. I (in so many words) told him he was full of shit. He apparently literally has a portrait of his Porsche hanging in his house.

Filed in February because I needed my EITC right away. Got $550 back (about a third of what I got last year) and treated it as a fifth paycheck, like I always do.

milo z wrote:

I owe $6 + $10 for my Obamacare plan - that takes TurboTax from free to file to $60 because I owe the $10, so I've got to look at the free filing options this weekend.

I swear I'm not a shill, but I've been using FreeTaxUSA for years with no problem. Federal returns are completely free; they make their money from state income tax returns and optional services. Since my state doesn't have a state income tax, I've never had to pay them a cent to file my returns.

Met this old guy, a friend's father in law, who was complaining about taxes, saying if you live in DC in a $3 million home with two kids in private school that Biden's proposed new capital gains structure imposes an unduly harsh burden. I (in so many words) told him he was full of shit. He apparently literally has a portrait of his Porsche hanging in his house.

So what else did Hugh Hewitt say.

I also realized that I think I can claim some bigger refunds from the last few years because of another dumb mistake I've been making — a good argument that maybe I should actually pay someone to do our taxes rather than muddling through on TurboTax.

After 16 years of Turbotax, I switched to an accountant -- a friend's dad, so he gives me a discount -- and, voila, I'm back to getting returns.

Oh wise soul. (I am a very simple person but getting my yearly return back with all the breakdowns and details is weirdly satisfying if only because so much of it seems based around things I would have never known to look for.)

Douglas Wolk did say as much re getting an accountant way back at the start of the thread, admittedly! Got through the 2000s okay but realized around 2009 I had made a silly mistake and going with an accountant recommended by a friend was the solution, still with said accountant. I remember talking to my dad about it then and he admitted that fairly recently (at the time) he'd done something similar where he realized a good accountant was the best way forward! Live and learn.

I email him three statements at most -- I'm fairly straightforward. But there are deductions and loopholes even TurboTax misses, apparently.

Mine provides a worksheet for a slew of details and expenses I complete and send back, on top of the statements themselves. It means a little work on my part but I've got it down to a science.

as a tax professional, I will say that some people really benefit from having professional help with their taxes, but others are just fine doing it themselves ... as in, there is only so much a professional could do for you that wouldn't be ... fraud ... and the new IRS budget is supposed to increase funding for free file software and technology, which I think is a good thing. A lot of people have pretty simple taxes.

Also we can now electronically file amended returns, so it isn't as much of a pain to correct mistakes as it used to be.

And I'm all for that!

+1 for Free Tax USA, been using for past 3 years - the scammiest sounding tax software possible but that actually is the least scammy out of the free-ish options.

i also used freetax usa for the first few years i was here. seemed fine!

all way too complicated for me now. i could probably do it, but 1) it would take a lot of time, and i'm happy to pay someone else to get that time back 2) i would always worry i screwed up. my previous accountant doubled his prices this year though, so i had a panicky week trying to find someone new. new guy is called joe. he lives on long island and will not work with you without a referral. i love him.

he hates me because i'm english. i think he's irish italian.

there are many reasons why accountants dislike their clients ... I'm on a FB group where we discuss this.

ha! what are the common ones?

outside of the standard dislikeable traits of: not paying the bill, complaining about services being expensive, wanting things done at the last minute:

here are a few common complaints that accountants have about tax clients they dislike:

1. the client that thinks they know as much as the accountant about taxes but often doesn't know what they are talking about
2. the client that continually never has their shit together and always has to be reminded/informed of the same exact things every single year
3. the client that does the thing that the accountant tells them not to do and/or doesn't do the thing the accountant tells them to do (e.g. make estimated payments, pay salary out of an S-Corp) and then blames the accountant for the resulting problems
4. the client that needlessly over-complicates things (as in there is no financial advantage to having the complex business type or series of transactions)
4a. a variant of the needlessly over-complicator -- in the old days this was "the client with the unsorted box of receipts" -- now it's pdfs and folders of receipts for things they can't deduct or income that isn't taxable

oh and #5 -- the bad liar -- any licensed tax preparer has to follow certain ethical guidelines, it's a bit like lawyers (though lawyers have more professional protections) ...

in tax prep, the ethical dance re fraud generally is based on the legal premise that the preparer can take a client's word for things as long as they don't have reason to believe the client is full of shit. Skilled tax people (like lawyers) have ways of phrasing questions or requests for documentation to reduce the likelihood that a client will reveal that they are full of shit. The worst is the one who will volunteer they are full of shit and insist that the preparer go along with the fraud/cheating, sometimes not realizing that they are asking the preparer to do something that could lose them their license.

re: 2, i have my shit together, but i definitely asked the previous accountant the same questions every year. to be fair that was because i wasn't allowed to email them. all communication had to go through a stupid https portal thing and previous year's conversations were impossible to search.

i am becoming a landlord/class traitor this year so looking forward to doing lots of 4a.

all communication had to go through a stupid https portal thing and previous year's conversations were impossible to search.

i hate those things -- a lot of accountants use them now. I am sure a lot of it is because they don't want to deal with coming up with their own computer systems because there was such a standardized way of how things were done in the paper + in-person appointments era ... also most accountants are kinda lazy tbh

So now the Feds are extending deadlines for some storm-ravaged states - what I can't tell is if it's only for people who live in the named counties, or if the new deadline is statewide?

https://www.ktvu.com/news/irs-extends-tax-deadlines-storm-victims-7-states-2023

My tax accountant uses a portal too, I uploaded a lot of stuff but insisted on meeting him personally. I consolidated accounts from three different firms into one this year, it was not all that much money in the long run but I was sweeping over funds including proprietary holdings that had to be liquidated and sold before transfer and including a donor-advised charity fund. I also contributed for the first time to a Roth IRA using the non-taxable portion of my 401k and transferring some taxable money from my IRA.

There were a lot of documents to upload and finances and financial strategy to think about, and I'm grateful that someone else was strategizing about it and explaining it to me

I'm going to do another Roth conversion this year but don't expect my taxes will be very complicated

xp - that deadline was extended back in January (to May) and then extended until October back in early March -- for California, it's almost statewide in that only a few counties are excluded, but the most populous ones are all extended

thanks sarahell - that KTVU article didn't include Alameda (their home base!) and I freaked for a minute but it seems that Alameda IS included

Salute to anyone getting it in under the wire, wherever you are.

on my way to the midnight post office

Direct File is a new tax tool to file your federal taxes directly with the IRS.

currently available in 12 states

https://directfile.irs.gov

I was just collecting and organizing all the information we'll need to do our taxes. It's all ready to go (!) except one or two forms that haven't arrived yet in the mail.