Amending a 1040 using Turbotax

[Muse]

I always use Turbotax Premier to do my taxes. I did mine today, filed electronically about 3 hours ago. I failed to notice a 1099-DIV form showing I received ~$295 in dividends from my bank. It so happens when I filed ~3 hours ago, TT said I didn't owe taxes or qualify for a refund. I suppose that won't change after I amend my return to reflect the additional ~$295 revenue in dividends.

I normally figure out all my medical expenses and enter that stuff. Did so last year but TT said I could take the standard deduction and owe no taxes anyway. This year I didn't enter any medical and waited to see if I'd owe taxes and again, the standard deduction had me at zero taxes, so I didn't actually enter my medical expenses, saving me some work.

Do I have to wait for the IRS to accept my return before amending using Turbotax? Anyone have experience with this? TIA...

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I always use Turbotax Premier to do my taxes. I did mine today, filed electronically about 3 hours ago. I failed to notice a 1099-DIV form showing I received ~$295 in dividends from my bank. It so happens when I filed ~3 hours ago, TT said I didn't owe taxes or qualify for a refund. I suppose that won't change after I amend my return to reflect the additional ~$295 revenue in dividends.

I normally figure out all my medical expenses and enter that stuff. Did so last year but TT said I could take the standard deduction and owe no taxes anyway. This year I didn't enter any medical and waited to see if I'd owe taxes and again, the standard deduction had me at zero taxes, so I didn't actually enter my medical expenses, saving me some work.

Do I have to wait for the IRS to accept my return before amending using Turbotax? Anyone have experience with this? TIA...

... whether you owe or don't owe is 99% dependent upon how much you were witholding from your paycheck.

Yes your deductions can play a factor, but you shouldn't choose what you enter for deductions based on your refund (or owing)

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I always use Turbotax Premier to do my taxes. I did mine today, filed electronically about 3 hours ago. I failed to notice a 1099-DIV form showing I received ~$295 in dividends from my bank. It so happens when I filed ~3 hours ago, TT said I didn't owe taxes or qualify for a refund. I suppose that won't change after I amend my return to reflect the additional ~$295 revenue in dividends.

I normally figure out all my medical expenses and enter that stuff. Did so last year but TT said I could take the standard deduction and owe no taxes anyway. This year I didn't enter any medical and waited to see if I'd owe taxes and again, the standard deduction had me at zero taxes, so I didn't actually enter my medical expenses, saving me some work.

Do I have to wait for the IRS to accept my return before amending using Turbotax? Anyone have experience with this? TIA...

But to answer your question - yes, I would wait until the IRS accepts your return before filing an amended return.

Just sounds like the correct order of operations. I wouldn't amend something that hasn't been accepted in the first place.

 

[Muse]

... whether you owe or don't owe is 99% dependent upon how much you were witholding from your paycheck.

Yes your deductions can play a factor, but you shouldn't choose what you enter for deductions based on your refund (or owing)

I wasn't employed, my income was from DIV, INT, MISC (a bonus for funding my brokerage account) and SSA.

Why should I enter all my medical expenses if TT decides to not use my details and just goes with my standard deduction which even without entering any medical expenses has me at zero taxes?

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I wasn't employed, my income was from DIV, INT, MISC (a bonus for funding my brokerage account) and SSA.

Why should I enter all my medical expenses if TT decides to not use my details and just goes with my standard deduction which even without entering any medical expenses has me at zero taxes?

Because any medical expenses above 7.5% of your AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) are deductible - but it doesn't make sense to deduct them if the standard deduction is more than your total itemized deductions: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tip...This leaves you with a,$2,100 (5,475 - 3,375).

Of course, Turbo Tax doesn't know this if you don't enter that information in. I also have zero clue how close you are to itemizing on your tax return. I completely agree that entering your medical expenses doesn't matter if you aren't close to itemizing with other common tax-deductible expenses (e.g. Mortgage Interest, State taxes, etc.)

Also (to my knowledge) whether you OWE taxes or not makes no difference. The fact that enough money was withheld makes zero difference on your deductions. Right now I can change my employer witholding to be extremely below what it should be - or extremely higher than it should be. The IRS doesn't care because if it's extremely higher then they get an interest-free loan. If it's extremely lower they can charge me interest + penalties for not witholding enough.

 

[Muse]

I'll amend and see if I then owe taxes. If so, I'll enter my medical and see if that makes a difference. Odds are good I still won't owe any taxes... thanks!

 

[JulesMaximus]

I wouldn’t bother amending your return. The IRS will make the adjustment and send you a notice on the difference, which will be miniscule.

 

[PowerEngineer]

First thing I would do is just rerun my taxes after adding the additional DIV form. If it turns out you still wouldn't owe any taxes then I wouldn't bother filing an amended return.

 

[Muse]

First thing I would do is just rerun my taxes after adding the additional DIV form. If it turns out you still wouldn't owe any taxes then I wouldn't bother filing an amended return.

They wouldn't care that I screwed up? I didn't lie, it was correct as far as I knew when I signed it. According to TT I wouldn't be charged to file the 1040x, which is what I think it's called.

 

[ponyo]

They wouldn't care that I screwed up? I didn't lie, it was correct as far as I knew when I signed it. According to TT I wouldn't be charged to file the 1040x, which is what I think it's called.

They'll charge you penalty and interest if you owe them money. If you don't owe them money even after adding the dividend earning, I wouldn't bother with the amended return. What are they going to do? Charge you interest on $0?

 

[kn51]

Yep, don't worry about it.

 

[JulesMaximus]

They'll charge you penalty and interest if you owe them money. If you don't owe them money even after adding the dividend earning, I wouldn't bother with the amended return. What are they going to do? Charge you interest on $0?

I filed a return a bunch of years ago where I forgot to include some 1099 interest income. It wasn't much, maybe a couple hundred dollars and it change the amount I owed so the IRS just fixed it and sent me a letter notifying me of the change. I don't recall a penalty.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I filed a return a bunch of years ago where I forgot to include some 1099 interest income. It wasn't much, maybe a couple hundred dollars and it change the amount I owed so the IRS just fixed it and sent me a letter notifying me of the change. I don't recall a penalty.

By penalties, it's simply an interest charge - which I would chalk up to "interest" that could have arguably been had if they had that money sooner from you. So if you forget a 1099-INT with $150 in income - just sp[it-balling a penalty of 4% for 3 months you're talking a penalty of $1.50 I think?

That's the most I've ever heard for something as trivial as forgetting a small 1099-INT.


There's also a difference between "Oops, I forgot to report that small 1099-INT because I don't pay much attention to it" and "Ooops, I forgot about that off-shore investment account"