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I owe Uncle Sam money this year, any way to avoid this?

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I did that entire 1099 bit as well, and as far I as I could ever tell you cannot deduct your commute to your workplace as an expense.

And, seriously, $300?? I'm not saying $300 is chump change (well maybe on ATOT) but at the end of the day, that is pretty much nothing for taxes.
 
CPA said:
I owe over $7K and am happy about it. Not happy to pay it, per se, but happy that I borrowed from Uncle Sam at 0% rather than Uncle Sam holding my money at 0%.
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Ouch. That sucks. You may have borrowed at 0% but now you have to take a loan to pay it back, unless you happen to just have 7k lying around? Most people don't have that kind of money lying around. Then again this is ATOT. That's couch change. :awe: The couch being a car seat from the spare M3.

I need to call my tax person so I can figure out how much RRSPs to buy, this year I don't want to put too much in RRSPs as I rather keep my money, but I also don't want to end up paying taxes. I tend to just buy a bunch of RRSPs and hope for the best, and usually get about 1k back. Still in a situation where I could potentially lose my job so I really need to start building an emergency fund. Lots of restructuring going on right now in the company.
 
I'm willing to bet someone named "CPA" had planned to owe $7K come tax time. (Because that's what I used to try to do whenever the opportunity arises. These days with interest rates so low, I don't bother.)
 
CPA said:
I owe over $7K and am happy about it. Not happy to pay it, per se, but happy that I borrowed from Uncle Sam at 0% rather than Uncle Sam holding my money at 0%.
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I'm not sure how having to pay a penalty on such a large underpayment of federal income taxes still comes out to 0%, but then again, I'm not a CPA. Did you make less money last year?
 
How the fuck do any of you owe ANYTHING? Your employer makes your deductions. Unless you are lying on your W4, they always overly deduct by far for me. I'm calling BS.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Ouch. That sucks. You may have borrowed at 0% but now you have to take a loan to pay it back, unless you happen to just have 7k lying around? Most people don't have that kind of money lying around. Then again this is ATOT. That's couch change. :awe: The couch being a car seat from the spare M3.

I need to call my tax person so I can figure out how much RRSPs to buy, this year I don't want to put too much in RRSPs as I rather keep my money, but I also don't want to end up paying taxes. I tend to just buy a bunch of RRSPs and hope for the best, and usually get about 1k back. Still in a situation where I could potentially lose my job so I really need to start building an emergency fund. Lots of restructuring going on right now in the company.
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I get my bonus in March. 😉
 
s0me0nesmind1 said:
How the fuck do any of you owe ANYTHING? Your employer makes your deductions. Unless you are lying on your W4, they always overly deduct by far for me. I'm calling BS.
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Lying? You are not legally required to put down exactly what your household (or deductions) members. You are to use to estimate how much should be withheld so you don't owe at the end of the year. But, it's an estimate. So, how is that lying?
 
boomerang said:
Just curious, who does your taxes?
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I do my own taxes. Always have, except one year under my parents I had our family CPA offer to for chump change.

Same result every time, from the moment I enter my W2 I get a decently fat return back. I would rather not (as CPA suggested with giving a 0% interest free loan), but aside from lying about my W4 deductions, what the hell do you do?
 
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jagec said:
I'm not sure how having to pay a penalty on such a large underpayment of federal income taxes still comes out to 0%, but then again, I'm not a CPA. Did you make less money last year?
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Yes, I did.

I will state that I changed my withholding at the beginning of this year, because I was pretty close to the penalty. I'm expected to make more this year, but I don't want to risk the penalty, though in reality the penalty is generally very small.
 
CPA said:
Lying? You are not legally required to put down exactly what your household (or deductions) members. You are to use to estimate how much should be withheld so you don't owe at the end of the year. But, it's an estimate. So, how is that lying?
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It's a form that is filled out with specifics on how many deductions to take with specifics on how what to take them for. I figured it more as an "official form" that you aren't supposed to lie on when you submit. It doesn't ask "How many deductions would you like to take?" It asks Do you have a Spouse? Do you have a child?

So you're saying I should add an extra deduction for having a dependent even though I don't have one?

Either way I wouldn't have known, so thanks for letting me know.
 
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s0me0nesmind1 said:
It's a form that is filled out with specifics on how many deductions to take with specifics on how what to take them for. I figured it more as an "official form" that you aren't supposed to lie on when you submit. It doesn't ask "How many deductions would you like to take?" It asks Do you have a Spouse? Do you have a child?

So you're saying I should add an extra deduction for having a dependent even though I don't have one?
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Not attempting to speak for CPA, but you can fill out your withholding form (almost) however you like. There's even a worksheet to help you tweak your number of allowances based on your particular circumstances. You just have to make sure you don't under-withhold to the point you have to pay a penalty.

Your W4 doesn't dictate your taxes. That's where you can't lie.
 
s0me0nesmind1 said:
It's a form that is filled out with specifics on how many deductions to take with specifics on how what to take them for. I figured it more as an "official form" that you aren't supposed to lie on when you submit. It doesn't ask "How many deductions would you like to take?" It asks Do you have a Spouse? Do you have a child?

So you're saying I should add an extra deduction for having a dependent even though I don't have one?

Either way I wouldn't have known, so thanks for letting me know.
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Look, first you need to understand that the withholding tables are flawed to begin with. It is based of wages after withholding deductions under the presumption that you will take the standard deduction. Well, many people itemize, standard deduction is not a factor. The tables also don't take in consideration tax credits nor AMT. So, right off the bat the tables are an estimation of your annual tax based on a specific scenario.

Additionally, the IRS does not publicize that you can change your W4 at any time throughout the year. So, if you have life event (say a new baby) and don't change your W4, you are no longer using the number of household members for withholding. Simply, the W4 is a tool to help approximate your taxes by year-end. For me, this year, I probably had too many withholdings, but I've already adjusted for that. But, no, I don't have to put exact household members.
 
LegendKiller said:
lol.

So let me get this straight, you racked up 166k+ in loans, make $77k and *STILL* can't figure out how to pay into your 401k despite earning match + tax deduction? And now you're bitching about $300 in taxes?

Did you happen to major in Medieval Art History with a minor in stupidity?

Why don't you just complete the epic fail and make your dad pay for the loans.
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Have you ever been laid? Do you really have nothing better to do with your life then post hateful useless garbage on a computer forum?

My company only started matching $2000 last November. Before that I was getting a .4% match per year which is $300.
 
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CPA said:
I owe over $7K and am happy about it. Not happy to pay it, per se, but happy that I borrowed from Uncle Sam at 0% rather than Uncle Sam holding my money at 0%.
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That's about what I expect to owe this year as well. We normally pay quarterly estimated taxes but my wife informed me that I never printed the vouchers off last year. Oops.
 
2 years back was the first time I owed taxes and it was huge... like $6k or $7k... that sucked but it prepped me for the following year...

The following year was more like $2.5k-$3k...

Not sure what I will owe this year yet, but I'm hoping it will be similar to last year. As long as it is within some % of your income, there is no penalty.
 
Exterous said:
Ouch. I don't have kids but if I did I would be skeptical about having that much money in student loans in my name



.4% match? That seems a bit odd
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Student loans is something I need to learn more about for when my kids pop out. I plan on having college funds, but not ALL their college funds. I want them to take a loan out for part of it. However, from what I looked into I didn't realize that MY fucking income determines if my kid can or can't get a loan.

So If I'm a retarded parent shutting out 3 kids on 30k income, my kids can rack up 177k in debt on the government dime. If I make 100k, I have to foot the bill?
 
s0me0nesmind1 said:
Student loans is something I need to learn more about for when my kids pop out. I plan on having college funds, but not ALL their college funds. I want them to take a loan out for part of it. However, from what I looked into I didn't realize that MY fucking income determines if my kid can or can't get a loan.

So If I'm a retarded parent shutting out 3 kids on 30k income, my kids can rack up 177k in debt on the government dime. If I make 100k, I have to foot the bill?
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I think thats true for FAFSA related loans but I don't think thats true for private - you just need a co-signer
 
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s0me0nesmind1 said:
... However, from what I looked into I didn't realize that MY fucking income determines if my kid can or can't get a loan.

So If I'm a retarded parent shutting out 3 kids on 30k income, my kids can rack up 177k in debt on the government dime. If I make 100k, I have to foot the bill?
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Government doesn't want intelligent people. Government wants dependents.

Government writes the laws. Law favor redistribution of money from the middle class to the lower class. Lower class increases in size. Middle class shrinks. Upper class funds political campaigns -- they can buy favors.

Best of luck with avoiding paying the $300. Government defense contractors don't need it for their forever war anyway...

Uno
 
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