Tax Season

[wilco64256]

Hey look it's that time of year again and I bet a pretty decent chunk of the folks around here probably don't know that one of the local programming-types (yours truly!) is also a bit of a tax guru.  I actually have a Bachelor's in Accounting and have been running a tax business (first as a franchise manager for a major tax chain and now just completely on my own) for six years.

I'm always more than happy to answer any and all random questions about taxes and don't charge anything for plain old advice or general knowledge.  The only thing I ever charge for is actually doing returns for folks, which I can do either for people who physically walk in or just via scan/fax of tax documents and signatures (I did taxes for several out-of-state folks before, it works fine).

I even have a really super-pathetic website that I need to improve over at http://www.faircloudfinancial.com .

Anyways, I'm here to help out so feel free to shoot questions at me using the email address on that site (better than PM'ing me here so I can keep the tax stuff separate).

[Fierce Deity]

Would dumping a bunch of tea into the Boston harbor make a difference for us tax payers, or would I just be ticking off the entire tea-drinking nation?

I do have one question. Which tax return usually outweighs the other, federal or state? I remember one year, I had a significant amount from one of them (I forgot which one), and then I got around 50 cents from the other. I felt like there had to be a reason behind it, but at the time, money was money, so I didn't bother making a big deal about it.

[Blackthorne]

I hate taxes.  I don't want to pay them.  Is there anything I can do?

Sincerely,

Willie Nelson

[wilco64256]

Would dumping a bunch of tea into the Boston harbor make a difference for us tax payers, or would I just be ticking off the entire tea-drinking nation?

I do have one question. Which tax return usually outweighs the other, federal or state? I remember one year, I had a significant amount from one of them (I forgot which one), and then I got around 50 cents from the other. I felt like there had to be a reason behind it, but at the time, money was money, so I didn't bother making a big deal about it.

Most often you'll get more back from your federal return than your state return.  Sometimes you may even get a refund on your federal return and end up owing something to your state.  It's just because the federal level has better credits and things like that, and the federal tax rate is typically lower than the state one.

Also employers are more likely to be on top of withholding the right amount of taxes for your federal stuff because those tax tables are easy to track down and don't get adjusted all that often, while figuring out how much to withhold for your state can be a nightmare.  Some states are really good about getting their tax tables out so companies know how much to withhold and some states really suck at providing that information quickly.

[wilco64256]

I hate taxes.  I don't want to pay them.  Is there anything I can do?

Sincerely,

Willie Nelson

Don't make any money 

[LadyTerra]

What if you lost or changed jobs?  How do you deal with taxes for that?

[wilco64256]

What if you lost or changed jobs?  How do you deal with taxes for that?

Depends on what type of jobs they are - if they were regular employee jobs where you got paid hourly or something like that where they withhold taxes from your checks for Social Security (may say OASDI on your stubs) and Medicare then you should still get a W-2 from each of them to report your income for each job for the year.  If they were contract jobs where they weren't withholding money for tax stuff then you should get a 1099 form for each one to report what you made.  On the contract-type jobs sometimes you might not get the 1099 if the employer is lazy but you're stillr esponsible for reporting how much you made.

I've seen people who had like 5+ jobs during the same year so they had all kinds of stuff to report.

[writerlove]

I'm in the process of looking for a job and possibly have to move if i get one. If I were to get one before the April deadline, would I have to file this year? Or do i wait and file on next year? I'm clueless on taxes and any knowledge would be good.

[wilco64256]

Taxes that you'd be filing by April this year are just for reporting the money that you earned during 2011 so if you're just about to start a new job no that wouldn't be something to report until next year when you report your income stuff from all of 2012.

[snabbott]

My wife is collecting short-term disability for her maternity leave. They paid her for a period that is in both 2011 and 2012. How do you count that? Is it the fraction of the time that was in 2011? If so, do you go by total number of days or only "working" days? (That gets complicated, too - at least part of the time was during Christmas break.

Or do you go by when she actually got the money?

[wilco64256]

My wife is collecting short-term disability for her maternity leave. They paid her for a period that is in both 2011 and 2012. How do you count that? Is it the fraction of the time that was in 2011? If so, do you go by total number of days or only "working" days? (That gets complicated, too - at least part of the time was during Christmas break.

Or do you go by when she actually got the money?

They'll have a form to you guys (they're actually required by law to send it to you by the end of January) that shows exactly how much income she has to report for 2011.  Keep an eye on the mailbox for anything that says anything like "important tax document enclosed" throughout the month.

[snabbott]

Oh, good. I knew employers had to do that, but I wasn't sure about insurance companies. Thanks!

[wilco64256]

OK it's been a pretty busy couple of weeks for me and I'd like to stay that way for a bit so how's about this:

Any of you lurking forumite TSL fans who would like a screaming deal on getting your taxes done professionally send me a message here or a direct email via the address on my site in the first message and I'll do them for you for $80.  Federal and any states you need, direct deposit, e-file, everything.  You can just scan and email me your tax forms and the information form from my site, I'll send you a form or two to sign depending on where you live once it's done (that's typically within a couple hours of when you send stuff to me, I'm quick like that) and you're on your way.

And let's step it up another notch - refer somebody else to me to get their taxes done and I'll do theirs for $80 as well and give you $20 of it for sending them along.  Even if you don't get your own taxes done by me.

Ok I think that's pretty cool.

[waltzdancing]

So here is a question:

I have always done my taxes with Turbo Tax. This year I am doing it on my own, my dad always did it for me, I can't find my last year files! Do I need to have that return from last year because I haven't seen a question from Turbo pop up asking.

[wilco64256]

So here is a question:

I have always done my taxes with Turbo Tax. This year I am doing it on my own, my dad always did it for me, I can't find my last year files! Do I need to have that return from last year because I haven't seen a question from Turbo pop up asking.

If it automatically pulled like your name and birthdate and stuff from linking to last year's return then you should be just fine - if not then you'll need a copy of last year's when you're all done because it will ask for your AGI (adjusted gross income) that was on the return for 2010's taxes.  If you can't track it down you can call the IRS and get the number from them as well.

[crayauchtin]

My student loans have STILL not sent me the papers I need to do my taxes, though they keep claiming they have. The point is that I haven't gotten them.

-_-

If I can't claim them on my taxes, does that mean I get to stop paying them?

[wilco64256]

My student loans have STILL not sent me the papers I need to do my taxes, though they keep claiming they have. The point is that I haven't gotten them.

-_-

If I can't claim them on my taxes, does that mean I get to stop paying them?

Ha I wish.  Though it's also worth noting that a lot of student loan companies post these documents on their website now if you have any kind of online access.  I know that FAME, American Education Services, and Sallie Mae at least all post theirs online as I've had several clients who printed theirs from those sites while they were here.  Might be worth looking into.