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The 2014 Annual Anandtech Tax Time Thread!

Page 5 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
cabri said:
The tax software will do the same any accountant will do; provided you provide the correct/needed info

You may wish to get a desktop version of software, so you can take advantage of the help/assistance system easier

Both TurboTax and Block support the Schedule E (Rental income) - TT will overcharge you for the privilege. 🙁

I have used Block for Schedule E returns and it walks you step by step through everything needed. You just have to dig out the info for each step (which yo would also have to do with an accountant if they are good - some will only use what you provide and not tell you what you could be missing)
Click to expand...

TurboTax has gotten mediocre reviews.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/intuit_turbotax.html
 
So I just got notice of examination into my 2012 tax return. There actually were minor deficiencies, I forgot that I had worked a few weeks at one place and never got my W2, and I also received a signup reward with Chase for $125 which I guess I didn't report.

However, I also sold $10k in stock that year and reinvested. The actual capital gains were something like $260 but the IRS doesn't have proof of my basis so they reported it as $10k in income.

I plan on calling Vanguard tomorrow to see if they can provide me something clean to hand over to the IRS, but should I just mail that in for them to "consider changes"?

Will they recompute the amount and mail out a new packet? I'd gladly pay the $160 or so with penalties that it should be.
 
You may need to provide some proof of the basis.

Did you file the Schedule D for the stock and declare the basis?

It may be best to send an apology letter to the IRS with explanations.

They will not recompute unless you provide numbers for them to use; at the current time; they are using what they have.
 
Edit: Turbotax asked if the "partner" was a retirement account (box 12 checked) and it was. It then told me that I didn't need to report it and it would be deleted from the return. Question answered by the software... eventually.
- - - -
Original post:

I'm doing my 2014 taxes using Turbotax Premier and it came to a page asking me if I got any business items including Schedules K-1 and Q.

I did in fact receive a Schedule K-1 (form 1065) from a company whose stock I bought and sold (twice) in 2014, Emerge Energy Services (stock symbol EMES). It wasn't large amounts.

Well, thing is I have two trading accounts:

Margin account
Roth IRA account

Both buy/sell transactions were in the Roth IRA account. I'm 71, have never taken any distributions on the Roth IRA.

Should I enter in the information on this Schedule K-1 in my 2014 Turbotax return or just say I didn't have this "business income?" It certainly has nothing to do with my buys/sells/carryover, etc. involving my margin account, which is what I am including in this 2014 IRS return. My brokerage did not include any information on my trades in my Roth IRA in the letter then sent me concerning my taxes. Of course, I'm going to do my California taxes when I'm done with the federal return, and suppose I'll have to make the same decision.

I called my brokerage and the guy said I won't have any tax consequences concerning my Roth IRA at least until I take distribution, but he can't suggest what I should do in this instance.

Thanks for information!
 
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Quick question, my mother in law is in a nursing home, Alzheimer, on medicaid. She gets a monthly annuity from her deceased husbands pension which gets put into an bank account and then paid out to the nursing home. Basically she gets 2200 a month and pays all of it out to the nursing home and medicaid picks up the rest. This procedure with medicaid has been going on for a full year. She has no other assets. Does she even need to file taxes?
 
KK said:
Quick question, my mother in law is in a nursing home, Alzheimer, on medicaid. She gets a monthly annuity from her deceased husbands pension which gets put into an bank account and then paid out to the nursing home. Basically she gets 2200 a month and pays all of it out to the nursing home and medicaid picks up the rest. This procedure with medicaid has been going on for a full year. She has no other assets. Does she even need to file taxes?
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Short answer seems to be Yes.
Long answer is that some calculations are needed to determine what is considered to be income and when.

IRS Pub 575

Survivors of retirees. Benefits paid to you as a survivor under a joint and survivor annuity must be included in your gross income. Include them in income in the same way the retiree would have included them in gross income. See Partly Taxable Payments under Taxation of Periodic Payments, earlier.

If the retiree reported the annuity under the Three-Year Rule and recovered all of the cost tax free, your survivor payments are fully taxable.

If the retiree was reporting the annuity under the General Rule, you must apply the same exclusion percentage to your initial survivor annuity payment called for in the contract. The resulting tax-free amount will then remain fixed for the initial and future payments. Increases in the survivor annuity are fully taxable. See Publication 939 for more information on the General Rule.

If the retiree was reporting the annuity under the Simplified Method, the part of each payment that is tax free is the same as the tax-free amount figured by the retiree at the annuity starting date. This amount remains fixed even if the annuity payments are increased or decreased. See Simplified Method under Taxation of Periodic Payments, earlier.

Guaranteed payments. If you receive guaranteed payments as the decedent's beneficiary under a life annuity contract, do not include any amount in your gross income until your distributions plus the tax-free distributions received by the life annuitant equal the cost of the contract. All later distributions are fully taxable. This rule does not apply if it is possible for you to collect more than the guaranteed amount. For example, it does not apply to payments under a joint and survivor annuity.
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Because the funds are going toward medical needs; she may be able to use the Schedule A to remove some of the tax liability.
 
cabri said:
Short answer seems to be Yes.
Long answer is that some calculations are needed to determine what is considered to be income and when.

IRS Pub 575




Because the funds are going toward medical needs; she may be able to use the Schedule A to remove some of the tax liability.
Click to expand...

From what I can tell there would be no tax liability, looking at the forms schedule a and the 1040. Lets say she collected 25000 in income from SS and this annuity. she also paid out 25000 in medical expenses. the AGI is 25000, which on the schedule A you take that amount and multiply it by 7.5% which would be 1,875 in which you subtract that from the total medical costs, which would put her deductions at 23125, which in turn would drop he AGI down to 1875 and then you would subtract the 1 exemption of 3950 from that which would drop her taxable income to 0. So if my math is right, she owes nothing, so would she actually have to file? Before this past year, we had someone doing her taxes(she owed in the past years), I don't see a reason to keep paying these people to do the taxes if its not needed.
 
Quick question about child care credit. We send our child to a day program for $300 a month. How much can I claim?
 
So I just reviewed our taxes electronically using Turbotax Basic. After reviewing the itemized deductions Turbotax warned me to upgrade to deluxe or I wouldn't get the deductions shown. However when I printed out the tax forms they contained correctly filled out Schedules A & D.

After looking online I realize Intuit has really fucked themselves year

So my question is if I submit electronically will the basic version also submit the correct schedules as shown with the printout or do I have to pay the upgrade price?

Thanks
 
I owe the IRS money because I used my 401K to live on as work is extremely slow. I didn't withhold enough for taxes when I withdrew money.
I can't afford to pay the IRS what's owed right now. What are my options?
 
mcveigh said:
I owe the IRS money because I used my 401K to live on as work is extremely slow. I didn't withhold enough for taxes when I withdrew money.
I can't afford to pay the IRS what's owed right now. What are my options?
Click to expand...

when you file, you can add a Form-9465 asking for a re-payment plan to be setup
 
I'm trying to figure out how to do my stock SAR that I sold last year. I sold it and they deducted taxes and gave me what was left of the profit in a paycheck. I see that its noted in my W2 in the other section. But I also received a 1099B from the stock broker that my company uses.

So I'm confused, do I enter the 1099B? or do I just assume all the taxes and stuff are done in the W2? I can't figure out if I will be double stating it if I do the 1099B also. The 1099B that came has very little info other than the proceeds. Doesn't state the date acquired or the cost basis. Just only says the proceeds.

Has anyone seen an SAR paid out through the company paycheck? first time I've sold one.

Thanks!

edit: I found out that its already covered in the W2 so no need to report the 1099B.
 
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mcveigh said:
I owe the IRS money because I used my 401K to live on as work is extremely slow. I didn't withhold enough for taxes when I withdrew money.
I can't afford to pay the IRS what's owed right now. What are my options?
Click to expand...

I owe too, for the first time ever. I about shit when I saw the final numbers $2k+ to Fed and $260+ to state.

My kids and house have always figured in, but neither of my kids qualifies for any deductions due to their age this year. I can't afford a piece of property to write off the interest, so I changed my W4 from 5 to 2. That should put me about even I hope, for 2015 taxes. I donate to three main organizations, which I increased for the larger write off for 2015.

I'm doing all this because I think it's logical, but as I get older I realize more and more that what I think is logical isn't.
 
Cienja said:
I owe too, for the first time ever. I about shit when I saw the final numbers $2k+ to Fed and $260+ to state.

My kids and house have always figured in, but neither of my kids qualifies for any deductions due to their age this year. I can't afford a piece of property to write off the interest, so I changed my W4 from 5 to 2. That should put me about even I hope, for 2015 taxes. I donate to three main organizations, which I increased for the larger write off for 2015.

I'm doing all this because I think it's logical, but as I get older I realize more and more that what I think is logical isn't.
Click to expand...
Age of dependant does not matter as long as the income and support level is met
 
The past few years I've used TaxAct because it was so much cheaper than TurboTax and H&R Block's service. The interface wasn't as nice as TurboTax, but it's fine and I have a simple return anyway.

But thanks to terrible AT&T U-verse not loading ~25% of webpages the past few days, I couldn't use TaxAct. So I started TurboTax basic... and of course was forced to upgrade to Deluxe (forgot about this years ago).

I think the reason is that to deduct student loan interest, it requires a 1040, which TT Basic doesn't allow. The funny thing is that the tax savings I got by lowering my AGI is offset (and more) by having to use Deluxe. It seems there are new rules, or just due to higher income, where I can no longer deduct 100% of student loan interest. In fact this year it was only about $80.

So tonight I got hosed by AT&T U-verse, TurboTax, and the usual Fed + State. Doh!
 
Ok... got a question about deductions on a HUD1.
I've read a few things and am just confusing myself. I bought and sold a house both on the same day in 2014.
For the house I sold:
Box 406 is showing 13.64 in city taxes and box 511 is showing 394.14 in county taxes.

For the house I bought:
Box 406 is showing 14.12 in city taxes and box 511 is showing 587.85 in county taxes.
Also box 801 = 2615.50 and box 802 = 1010.00 for origination charges.

Which of these amounts is deductible on schedule a?
 
ryan256 said:
Ok... got a question about deductions on a HUD1.
I've read a few things and am just confusing myself. I bought and sold a house both on the same day in 2014.
For the house I sold:
Box 406 is showing 13.64 in city taxes and box 511 is showing 394.14 in county taxes.

For the house I bought:
Box 406 is showing 14.12 in city taxes and box 511 is showing 587.85 in county taxes.
Also box 801 = 2615.50 and box 802 = 1010.00 for origination charges.

Which of these amounts is deductible on schedule a?
Click to expand...

From my POV:
If it states that you paid a tax; it is deductible under property taxes
If it states that you paid a government fee; it is deductible under property taxes Schedule A

Origination charges are Points - also on the Schedule A
 
I've got personal income, two dba's, and several 1099 contracting jobs that paid me last year. I've been working 80 hr weeks to manage the dbas and contracting work AND I got married last year, so taxes are gonna be a mess - and I've never been good with this stuff anyway.

Therefore I'm just filing an extension and hiring a pro whenever I find time. I know I need to pay an estimated amount (which I expect to be less than $0 since the majority of my income was salaried W2 and because I spent roughly my annual income getting my dba's up and running).

The Extension form is a simple-looking one-page document but I can't make heads or tails of it. None of the Forms listed are 1099 or W2; all are unfamiliar. Also, since I have my personal taxes (married filing jointly and claiming 0) and my dba's (which I guess go off my EIN) I assume I need to file at least two extensions: one based on my SSN and one based on my EIN.

So questions:

1. How many Extensions (Form 7004) do I need to fill out, and which Form Numbers do I say they're for?

2. How would I go about estimating my Tentative Total Tax? Just income minus expenses?

Thanks in advance - much appreciation for this service!
 
File a 4868 which will cover the 1099 and W2.
That way you just have to list the estimate tax liability and the tax payments made (W2)
that will keep the IRS off your back for until August.

Let your tax pro cover all the other paperwork after the fact over the next couple of months
 
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