Anyone nervous to do their taxes?

[Superchikk]

I feel like lots of people only look at the refund or amount due total and compare that to prior year. But really to know the difference from year to year we should be looking at the net tax amount from year to year (meaning net of child tax credits, earned income credit, etc).

You're correct. A side-by-side comparison from year-to-year is provided by my tax accountant, and he helps us estimate what we should pay in over the coming year to keep us from owing a ton or providing the government with an interest-free loan. But since we're self-employed and our income fluctuates some, it's difficult to balance things, especially with all the rule changes and being unsure how they will affect us.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Ours are pretty well done. Just waiting on the 1098T from the university. We're both retired military and I am back in school. House was paid off years ago and no medical insurance/deductions paperwork. DH is 100% military disabled, so no taxes on his retirement. Basically my retirement and his SSA as taxable income. We have property taxes but NM eliminated that for 100% disabled, one of many benefits the state offers military retirees. Turbo Tax keeps saying the standard deduction is the best option. We still give to a number of charities but don't ask for a receipt because they doesn't add up to the thousands we would need to offset standard deduction. We're doing much better with the new tax laws.

 

[Summer2018]

I'm impressed that folks are able to file so early. We have 1 tax document in-hand and are waiting on about 5 others to arrive. So not filing soon.

I've done an online calculator, and I think we will come out ahead this year because of the changes. We've always made too much to qualify for the child tax credit, but it looks like we will get a $6000 credit for our 3 kids because of the higher limits. We always have to pay, so that should lower the amount, I hope.

I just got my W2 yesterday. DH is still waiting...

 

[twoolle]

The government still owes me $900 from last year. We amended our return in April, and we are still waiting for our money. I'm not looking forward to this year after my raise. We are close to being at the point of not getting a refund and possibly having to pay.

We also amended ours in March. I tracked it online and after several weeks it finally told me to call and check the status. I called and they told me they had received it but no one was working on it so they advised me to send again with a letter explaining why. I did that and received our refund a few weeks later, a long with interest! Although that interest is now taxable income, lol. Only like $20 interest but still I laughed.

 

[barkley]

Just waiting on the 1098T from the university.

have you checked your student account on your university's website? i ask b/c dd's waits till the last minute to mail them but they were available a couple of weeks ago on-line to print up.

 

[LovePug]

I'm nervous, very nervous. Still don't have my W-2s. I keep trying to figure out if there's any point in itemizing. I'm sure I won't be able to itemize more than the standard HOH deductions, but have one child, own a home, and pay state and local taxes. I'm sorry I don't "get" how taxes work and with the new changes, I wonder if it is worth itemizing. Is it best to itemize with dependents, or will that be covered with the simple form?

 

[TwoMisfits]

I'm nervous, very nervous. Still don't have my W-2s. I keep trying to figure out if there's any point in itemizing. I'm sure I won't be able to itemize more than the standard HOH deductions, but have one child, own a home, and pay state and local taxes. I'm sorry I don't "get" how taxes work and with the new changes, I wonder if it is worth itemizing. Is it best to itemize with dependents, or will that be covered with the simple form?

Dependents don't affect itemizing at all (unless they have high medical bills)...you get their "benefits" separate from itemizing...

For itemizing, it depends a lot on your home worth and loan value (are you paying a ton of taxes, mortgage interest and PMI...or not), your state/local taxes, and your charitable giving...if you think you'll be higher than 18K (the standard deduction for HOH) for those values (which tend to be the big 3 for itemizing), then you should look at it...if not, don't worry about it.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

have you checked your student account on your university's website? i ask b/c dd's waits till the last minute to mail them but they were available a couple of weeks ago on-line to print up.

Yes, I checked. The bursar's site states Not Available. They are always late with the information.

 

[LovePug]

Dependents don't affect itemizing at all (unless they have high medical bills)...you get their "benefits" separate from itemizing...

For itemizing, it depends a lot on your home worth and loan value (are you paying a ton of taxes, mortgage interest and PMI...or not), your state/local taxes, and your charitable giving...if you think you'll be higher than 18K (the standard deduction for HOH) for those values (which tend to be the big 3 for itemizing), then you should look at it...if not, don't worry about it.

Thank-you! I only owe about 50k on my mortgage now and there is no way I'll hit 18k in itemized deductions at this point in my life. This will save me time on taxes. Now to see how the end result shakes out.

 

[auralia]

Made more, paid in more, got back 1500$ less total federal adjusted gross income was 88,000 but hubby is military so it's quite a bit higher than that. This was the first year I went back to work after having kids so our income went up about 20000 for the few months I was working of this year.

 

[kydisneyfans]

Made $12,000 less last year.
Tax burden increased around $3,000. Comparing apples to apples, if we would have made the same as 2016, our taxes would have increased by over $5,000.

My wife and I both work from home. Losing home office hurt. What hurt more was the unreimbursed work expense. We're required to maintain certifications, purchase manuals/books, and computer software, but we can no longer claim the cost.

We lost our son's exemption, he's in school but lives at home. The only thing we can claim now is the tuition.

 

[BrerRabbit66]

No anxiety about filing taxes because this is what I do for a living. We had several changes this year with DH retiring mid-2018...salary, vacation payout, pension. SS benefits and 1099 income. At the start of 2018 we adjusted our withholdings because I didn't know what his income would be. Now that the taxes are done, we get a nice refund but I will adjust withholdings again to get us back to a break even point.

Now its time to talk to clients about the deductions they lost and whether they took my advice from last season....let the anxiety begin!

 

[georgina]

I really don't know what to expect. With neither of us working, there is little to no withholding, so I pay federal and state estimated tax quarterly. I just paid as much as we owed last year to avoid penalties, and hope to get federal back at least, which I will just apply to this quarter's estimated tax. PA doesn't tax pension and regular IRA withdrawals, so yay for that. A lot of our income is investment income, and I am working on gradually converting DH's IRA to a Roth, so that will be ordinary income. We had a change in health insurance and a lot more medical expenses in 2018, plus I bumped up our charitable contributions in December, so I will be itemizing for last year and then again for 2020. DH goes on medicare in June, another adventure for us.

 

[Superchikk]

Made $12,000 less last year.
Tax burden increased around $3,000. Comparing apples to apples, if we would have made the same as 2016, our taxes would have increased by over $5,000.

My wife and I both work from home. Losing home office hurt. What hurt more was the unreimbursed work expense. We're required to maintain certifications, purchase manuals/books, and computer software, but we can no longer claim the cost.

We lost our son's exemption, he's in school but lives at home. The only thing we can claim now is the tuition.

We're both self-employed, and this is why I'm concerned.

 

[hopemax]

I have to LOL at our taxes. DH has been so worried that since he switched jobs mid-year, that the withholding from the new job wouldn't be appropriate for the new tax laws. So for 6 months, all I've heard is that we can't count on a refund this year. What we failed to consider was the impact of his job change.

While he didn't max out his Social Security withholding at either employer, the total between the two, resulted in overpayment, so we're getting $2K back just from that. Plus, he was paid severance and vacation payout from Job #1 which was taxed at a higher rate than our typical rate.

So we're getting our 2nd highest refund ever (the first was because of the homebuyer credit during the financial crisis).

 

[a1tinkfans]

Nope

 

[BrerRabbit66]

We're both self-employed, and this is why I'm concerned.

I'm reading your situation to be different than @kydisneyfans. They indicate they "work from home" and lost ability to claim expenses...this is true if they are considered an employee and are paid on a W-2 as Employee Business Expenses are disallowed. You mentioned you are self-employed (paid w/cash or on a 1099), this qualifies you to claim your expenses for your Self-Employed Business on Schedule C...nothing changed as far as claiming expenses in this situation.

 

[Summer2018]

We also amended ours in March. I tracked it online and after several weeks it finally told me to call and check the status. I called and they told me they had received it but no one was working on it so they advised me to send again with a letter explaining why. I did that and received our refund a few weeks later, a long with interest! Although that interest is now taxable income, lol. Only like $20 interest but still I laughed.

We went through H&R Block. Over the summer we contacted them, and we were told to give it more time. By the fall, we were told to check online, but the website was always down. Meanwhile, the man who prepared our taxes was unreachable. We double checked bank statements to make sure that the refund hadn’t been deposited. It wasn’t. Now that it’s January, he will be back in the office, so hopefully we can straighten it all out.

 

[dakotix]

We bought solar for our house last year so I'm a little nervous on how to figure out those credits but that's why we use turbo tax.

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

I hate doing our taxes. I don't know why, but every year we end up owing and it is no fun. I keep upping the amount my employer witholds. and yet we still owe. I am not hopeful that the changes will do us any favors, but I guess we'll see.

Us too. So annoying. I'm to the point that I don't even hope for a refund anymore, I just don't want to owe.