Official Tax Season Thread? vol Splash Out m8

Nice reminder for any low to mid income people. The retirement saving credit is highly underutilized. It's like the one mentioned above but at a lower threshold.

Basically a percentage of what you save can be credited back and knock off any tax liability you may have. The saved amount also knocks down your AGI. An average single person earning $30k can save $400 on top of their saving of $2,000. Whatever you would have withheld can now go to your savings. Your $2000 saved already saw an immediate 20% return.

Another example. An average dude making $19k has an average tax liability of around $600. If you save $1000, half of that negates your liability. You have $1000 put away and now owe maybe $100 bucks at the end of the year. But now your AGI goes down and your liability is a mere $500. You Could almost get away with withhding nothing and using that extra weekly income into your savings. Not exactly free money but these little quirks can be helpful. Tl;Dr. Save $1000 to get $500 in credits



Explain is there is a 401k credit ?
 
https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/taxes/can-you-take-the-savers-credit/
Yeah it appears a qualified 401k can count.

It's great for those who only have part-time jobs and just getting started out there. Or even some families in the $64k range.
People say they use their over withholdings as a one time saving and liking that refund check. Here, it's actually saved , you owe less, and you withheld less

The last thing you're thinking about is retirement or savings when your making $18k but you can lessen your taxes owed liability to basically zero. It's a tough prospect I deal with all the time. No one can see long term.
 
Last edited:
I just bought my first home in March ‘18 and its 100% financed. So ive been paying over $700 in interest monthly.

I file single and usually get about $1000 back.

Should this house help net me a bigger refund?
 
I just bought my first home in March ‘18 and its 100% financed. So ive been paying over $700 in interest monthly.

I file single and usually get about $1000 back.

Should this house help net me a bigger refund?
Unless you itemize more than the new standard deduction of $12,000, there is no real advantage to your interest. Using $700 a month as your Example, you'd have $7,000 in paid interest for the year. It's my understanding that it's not a dollar for dollar deduction, rather based on the % of your tax bracket. If you're in the 25% tax bracket, your looking at a deduction of $1,750. So you'd still need to itemize another $10,000, before it has any real benefit over the standard.

---------
I've talked with countless people from all walks of life and everyone is pretty pissed off. Not sure who's doing their taxes or what, but all of them are complaining that their getting back less, or oweing more. I know this tax change was pushed at us as a positive. What are you all seeing?
 
Unless you itemize more than the new standard deduction of $12,000, there is no real advantage to your interest. Using $700 a month as your Example, you'd have $7,000 in paid interest for the year. It's my understanding that it's not a dollar for dollar deduction, rather based on the % of your tax bracket. If you're in the 25% tax bracket, your looking at a deduction of $1,750. So you'd still need to itemize another $10,000, before it has any real benefit over the standard.

---------
I've talked with countless people from all walks of life and everyone is pretty pissed off. Not sure who's doing their taxes or what, but all of them are complaining that their getting back less, or oweing more. I know this tax change was pushed at us as a positive. What are you all seeing?

It would seem the only difference is you don't have to itemize if you have less than 12k to itemize. Wouldn't the return/what they owe remain the same if they fall in the category of itemizing less than 12k? Or come out better?

Can't see how the math would come out differently.
 
I just bought my first home in March ‘18 and its 100% financed. So ive been paying over $700 in interest monthly.

I file single and usually get about $1000 back.

Should this house help net me a bigger refund?

Unless you itemize more than the new standard deduction of $12,000, there is no real advantage to your interest. Using $700 a month as your Example, you'd have $7,000 in paid interest for the year. It's my understanding that it's not a dollar for dollar deduction, rather based on the % of your tax bracket. If you're in the 25% tax bracket, your looking at a deduction of $1,750. So you'd still need to itemize another $10,000, before it has any real benefit over the standard.

---------
I've talked with countless people from all walks of life and everyone is pretty pissed off. Not sure who's doing their taxes or what, but all of them are complaining that their getting back less, or oweing more. I know this tax change was pushed at us as a positive. What are you all seeing?

Homeowners can also deduct their real estate taxes, as well. I believe the cap is now $10k on total state & local taxes that you can deduct, though, so that includes BOTH your real estate taxes and the state income tax (if any, depending on your state) that you had withheld during the year. Up until this year, you'd have also been able to deduct PMI (mortgage insurance) that is charged by lenders for all home loans made with <20% down payment. This was a boon for us over the years, as someone like me who had an FHA 5% loan on a $180k house had $1500-2k in PMI to deduct each year.

It's all gone to total **** now, though. Last year I received $3400 back from Fed filing, and state was a wash ($0 owed/ $0 refund).

My current situation:
Single (me and my girl aren't married; I claim all deductions and she files standard deduction)
AGI: $62k (up from $58k last year)
Deductions: $13k (down from $15k last year - loss of PMI and unreimbursed employee expenses killed me)
Tax: $6940 (up from $5460 last year; this year's includes and add'l $300 I owe because StockX reported the Supreme Box logo hoodie I "won" for retail price in their drawing as a prize valued $1k)
Taxes Withheld: $7520 (down from $8630)
Refund this year: $585 Fed, and I owe $114 state.

So I had $1100 in my pocket throughout the year because of less withholding, but I'm still out almost $2k in total taxes owed/collected because of a higher tax rate and the loss of deductions I was able to claim until this year. This was Paul Ryan's final kick to the collective middle class nuts on his way out the door.

#FeelsBadMan :smh:
 
snkrfollower snkrfollower good info. I know on paper, the appeal was new tax brackets with most seeing a 2-3% 'drop'. But when it all comes together, all the little stuff they took out and messed up, is biting people pretty hard it appears. That's politicians for ya.

dwalk31 dwalk31 yeah I mean you can itemize 20 different things and come up short, it would just void them out essentially and give you the better deduction. I know with some tax software, you can input stuff if you want , or just ignore it. I know for my state, we have a bigger unreimbursed medical claim $$ number that the feds don't care about. So that's about the only thing that I itemize.
 
Oh, one other MAJOR thing: last year when itemizing I was able to claim the $4050 personal exemption, which was knocked off of my AGI to determine my "taxable income." The mother ****ers eliminated that this year, too.
 
So the Trump tax plan isn’t working for the average citizen? Color me shocked.

And yep, our return was lower this year, too.
 
So the Trump tax plan isn’t working for the average citizen? Color me shocked.

And yep, our return was lower this year, too.

If everything remained equal to the prior year, the tax return/what you owe would remain the same or you would owe less/receive more.

Many people received more in their checks, but are receiving less at tax time. It is the same money.

Unless you made more, or had a life change then all else being equal it should not net you less.
 
Had another child this past year and didn't update my withholding to 2 (it's been 1 or 0). $6k back thus far....and have to take the standard deduction though I own a home.
 
Yeah, basically having kids or donating ungodly amounts of $$$ to charity are the only way middle class peeps would see a break on their year-to-year taxes now. I thought my girl (who just takes the standard deduction) would see a break this year and get a bigger refund because of the $12k standard deduction, but it's basically the same as last year. I'll see what her withholding differential was during the year, though - maybe she saw substantial increase in take-home, but I doubt it.

Edit: Just had her check her paystubs, and yeah, her fed withholding went from $311 to $158 per pay period from 2017 to 2018. So as a standard deduction filer she saw her tax savings in her weekly paycheck.
 
Last edited:
Last year i got 1800. This year i got back 800$


I got my return just yesterday too
 
I thought i owed damn near $1200 until i got my Mortgage Credit Certificate in the mail...

Still only getting $600 back total but better than owing. I screwed myself not taxing my 401k withdrawl at 20% when i took it out.
 
Got back $2,040 this year, filed yesterday. Last year I think I got $2,200 and change.

Used TurboTax again. Love it, but almost got got. I was THIS close to having them pull the $20 charge (for the service they offer of retaining your info) come out of my federal return, and they were going to charge me $39.99 to do that! I'm luckily I questioned it, Googled, and saw that it was the easiest way for them to charge you. I simply entered my credit card info instead and wasn't charged a fee.

You've been warned - http://money.com/money/5233775/turbotax-refund-processing-fee/
 
Filed the 16th. Both state and federal were accepted yesterday. Wonder how long until it hits my account.
 
Got back $2,040 this year, filed yesterday. Last year I think I got $2,200 and change.

Used TurboTax again. Love it, but almost got got. I was THIS close to having them pull the $20 charge (for the service they offer of retaining your info) come out of my federal return, and they were going to charge me $39.99 to do that! I'm luckily I questioned it, Googled, and saw that it was the easiest way for them to charge you. I simply entered my credit card info instead and wasn't charged a fee.

You've been warned - http://money.com/money/5233775/turbotax-refund-processing-fee/
Is this through the app/website? Sounds like something they would pull.

I've been doing the CD route for 10-15 yrs. I fear it's on its last legs. As long as you have the old .ttx file, the import of your personal info is done instantly. Samssclub has each version for $20 off. Each CD gives you five efiles per computer and 1 state e-file. Meaning once you use that 1 free state efile up, they'll charge you. Likewise with the five federals. On the app, I don't believe there is any type of family plan. So each e file may cost you upwards of $40 depending on the additions and deductions. I'm dropping $55 and doing 6-7 people's taxes. A lot of the app uses are dropping $60 per person?

You can always get around the state efile fee by using the forms that the TT program populates and entering those figures on your states own tax e-file website. They make it look clunky but the PIT forms are all in order.
 
Filing for the first time. Dumb questions...

-If you have a Paypal Business Debit Card linked to an Ebay business, can you write off purchases made on that card?
-I have a couple of parent and private student loans that I am paying off (under my dads name as a cosigner) could that help me in any way?
-For both of my jobs I put 0 allowances, is it true that the less you claim the more you'll get back since they are taxing me the max amount?
 
Filing for the first time. Dumb questions...

-If you have a Paypal Business Debit Card linked to an Ebay business, can you write off purchases made on that card?
-I have a couple of parent and private student loans that I am paying off (under my dads name as a cosigner) could that help me in any way?
-For both of my jobs I put 0 allowances, is it true that the less you claim the more you'll get back since they are taxing me the max amount?

Relating to your first question is if this business credit card charges are related to business expenses then yes you can consider this your business expense against your business income. If it’s sneakers you bought then no :lol:

Regarding to the second question student loan interest use to be deductible but it completely phased out once you made over 85k if I remember correctly. Unfortunately I don’t prep individual returns as my focus is corporate financial tax but I think they kept student loan interest. Again you need to see what the phase out income is and what you made.

Essentially yes but there are too many variables. Say you make 100k in one job and another 50k in another. Your 50k job won’t know you made 5100k so they’ll just withhold at the income you made there. So your state and loan tax deduction could be above the limit and you could owe more. The W4 now is very detailed as it requires you to consider every tax adjusted that can adjust your AGI. So are you married and how much does your wife make, you you pay property taxes, do you make 401k/403b contributions, hsa contributions, pretax commuter plans, taxable portion of life insurance your company covers, 401k Roth contortions rather than standard 401k. When I joke around that the new W4 is literally alegra I don’t joke around. For me as a tax professional I think it’s a bit much but for your common person who can barely add. RIP.

Also the adjusted the withholding % to be lower so they essentially artificially said you see an extra couple bucks per pay check but as a result you’ll get a small refund down the line. For those of us making closer to 100k and up we actually saw nice chunk of savings. But for those below your savings are really minimal to be honest. When they say the well off made up with the biggest chunk of the savings it’s not just an ad lib. It is what happened.
 
Relating to your first question is if this business credit card charges are related to business expenses then yes you can consider this your business expense against your business income. If it’s sneakers you bought then no

What if its sneakers or clothes bought to resell? Or a camera to take pictures of these items :nerd::nerd:

But it completely phased out once you made over 85k

Gross or after taxes/deductions?

Pretax commuter plans, 401k Roth Contortions

Info on these pretax commuter plans? I drive and pay tolls almost every day. Would be great to know that I could write off these EZPass payments. Also school me on these 401k Roth Contortions
 
Is this through the app/website? Sounds like something they would pull.

I've been doing the CD route for 10-15 yrs. I fear it's on its last legs. As long as you have the old .ttx file, the import of your personal info is done instantly. Samssclub has each version for $20 off. Each CD gives you five efiles per computer and 1 state e-file. Meaning once you use that 1 free state efile up, they'll charge you. Likewise with the five federals. On the app, I don't believe there is any type of family plan. So each e file may cost you upwards of $40 depending on the additions and deductions. I'm dropping $55 and doing 6-7 people's taxes. A lot of the app uses are dropping $60 per person?

You can always get around the state efile fee by using the forms that the TT program populates and entering those figures on your states own tax e-file website. They make it look clunky but the PIT forms are all in order.
I was about to do them through the website and pay online. The CD route better to use? Which version to use Basic, Deluxe, or Premier just for the phone support, state tax preparation, etc. Leaning towards Deluxe.

Good looks on the Sam's Club with the $20 off. Just waiting on some input which to buy.
 
What if its sneakers or clothes bought to resell? Or a camera to take pictures of these items :nerd::nerd:



Gross or after taxes/deductions?



Info on these pretax commuter plans? I drive and pay tolls almost every day. Would be great to know that I could write off these EZPass payments. Also school me on these 401k Roth Contortions

Well regrding for those sneakers, are you reporting the income on the flip? If you are then sure it’s cost of goods sold. If it’s a passive activity where you don’t report which many of us are guilty of then no you can’t. So 500 flip price - 200 purchase and what other fees you paid with shipping and such.

Regarding the student loans like I said I don’t know if this changed you’ll have to research that on your own. I’d do it myself but I’m too burned out on my work to research tax stuff that doesn’t affect me or my moms business :lol:. Sorry.

Pretax commuter plans have to be offered by your employers. Only the purchase of say a subway pass or other monthly train ticket or parking expense would qualify. Nothing else, not gas, not ezpass.

Again 401k Roth has to be offered as part of your employers 401k plan. Most plans offer the option of whether to take pre-tax amounts (ordinary 401k) or post tax (Roth 401k). The nice thing about it it’s not like a ROTH IRA which is limited to a certain MAGI. So even if you make a million you can can still contribute the 19k as a roth amount. Just remember that your employer match will always be ordinary. But also understand that no matter how much you contribute to your 401k you can still contribute to a IRA. Even if you phase out of the ROTH based on income you can back door it by making an ordinary contribution and then converting it to ROTH the next day. But the phase out for that to be forced is like 128k MAGI or something around that amount.

Taxes have a lot or weird terminology and acronyms but it’s relatively simple once you can just sit through it and read it. Just spend some time and research. With the internet the resources are great.
 
Back
Top Bottom