2019 Tax Thread

[mpc]

Feb 13, 2020 23:53:53 GMT -5 just said:

We didn't quite expect to buy an EV this year, and by the time we bought it in September, I wasn't bothered changing anything, so we are getting that full 7.5k credit back which is nice. It's going right against our loan.

Did you install a charger at home? There's a 30% rebate for that too. I've been doing mine in TurboTax but can't find where to input that. One thing I googled said that form would be available feb 20. I was debating doing my taxes by hand to save the $40 for turbotax, but was running them anyway just to see what the number would be. 

[just]

Feb 18, 2020 11:20:41 GMT -5 mpc said:

Feb 13, 2020 23:53:53 GMT -5 just said:

We didn't quite expect to buy an EV this year, and by the time we bought it in September, I wasn't bothered changing anything, so we are getting that full 7.5k credit back which is nice. It's going right against our loan.

Did you install a charger at home? There's a 30% rebate for that too. I've been doing mine in TurboTax but can't find where to input that. One thing I googled said that form would be available feb 20. I was debating doing my taxes by hand to save the $40 for turbotax, but was running them anyway just to see what the number would be. 

We haven’t installed one yet. But that’s good to know for 2020. Thanks.

[mommin]

When are/did you submit your tax return? Submitted the first week of February
How are your preparing your return? Paper? Accountant? Software - Turbotax, FreeTaxUSA, Credit Karma, others? Turbotax. I ran the numbers through taxact too just to make sure they were correct.
How did things shake out? Did you end up where you want to be for refund/owe? We are getting a huge refund which is really nice since DH was laid off very unexpectedly in October. We installed solar on our home this summer so that was about an $8k credit on top of our almost 5-figure refund. This will allow us to pay off the last bit of our loan from DH's truck we bought in August and provide another month's worth of expenses. I definitely don't always encourage a large refund but it definitely worked out well for us in our current situation.

[tealblue]

Still waiting on my H’s business accountant to provide his K1. This is the first year he’s been an owner of the business (in addition to getting a W2) so I literally have no clue what the tax situation will be.

I’m crossing all my crossables that she withheld enough for his quarterly tax payments so we can have a good refund.

[icedcoffee]

Ours should be easy this year. Neither of us changed jobs or bought a house. We increased withholdings last year after owing a bunch. I did have another kid, but that's easy. Looking at about $1,500 back from fed and $1,300 back from state. Need to add a brokerage account tax form but that should be trivial.

[leeba25]

So .... we had an absolutely ridiculous year, for multiple reasons: I was laid off at the end of 2018, and (1) spent half of 2019 on unemployment, which affected things a lot. Plus, (2) I received my severance (I had been at my company for a long time), as well as (3) some equity that vested, so that also counted as income on my W-2.

I thought that 2 & 3 would lead to a huge tax bill....at least it did for some of my former coworkers.... but I think because of #1 pushing my income lower overall, my tax liability was wonky.

Bottom line? We’re getting refunds from the feds: 3k, and state: 17k. Yes, 17k.

I had a ton of money put aside for taxes because so many of my coworkers had ginormous tax bills last year (they had taken their severance in 2018). One of my coworkers paid 50k last year, another 36k.... I am in shock. I mean it’s good shock, but still. It was a shitty year, taking so long to find a job, I mean I’m not complaining.

Anyway. Sorry for rambling. Lol.

[Covergirl82]

We submitted our taxes today. We're getting $6300 back from Feds and $370 from state. Usually we don't get that much back, but DH overpaid Soc Sec due to his job change, and we had around $36,000 in deductions between child care and charitable contributions. Ideally we'd like to be around $1,000 in refunds, so I'm going to look at my Fed withholding and adjust slightly.

I'm ok with a bit higher refund this year, as we will have more than enough spending money (food and souvenirs) for our WDW spring break trip, and should have extra money after DH's bonus (and paying off our travel trailer) to put a few thousand dollars on the mortgage principal, which will get us below our mortgage principal balance goal by the end of 2020.

[pinkdutchtulips]

Submitted mine last week through TurboTax ... on paper i got back $750 from the Feds and $3100 from the state (CA) but ...... bc xh screwed me over in the tax department (liquidated his SEPIRA w/o paying taxes on the withdrawal and bc that was the ONLY year we filed married joint and CA being a community property state with him NOT working, NOT filing taxes ... guess who the IRS is going after Me  ) the IRS is getting both refunds until it's paid off. 

[nomad100]

I am still waiting on one K-1. Gah! I know I am getting a big refund because I had to to pay big quarterly taxes last year due some crazy financial stuff that happened in 2018 resulting in a big tax bill. This year was back to normal so no big tax bill and my big refund. I feel like the girl in Willy Wonka "I want it now!!" but I cannot file until the K-1 arrives. Everything else is ready to go. Sigh.

The only positive is that the company that is issuing the K-1 converted to a C corp so this won't happen again next year.

[melmel48]

When are/did you submit your tax return?   I got my taxes done this past Saturday


How are your preparing your return? Paper? Accountant? Software - Turbotax, FreeTaxUSA, Credit Karma, others?  I pay a tax guy


How did things shake out? Did you end up where you want to be for refund/owe? Refund of $1,000....  I think this is as close as I can come to breaking even. 

[Wallflower]

I've finished mine and my mother's and just want to give it a few days before I do a final review and submit. I owe state ~$400 and I'm getting ~$2,400 back from the feds, so netting $2k which is much better than I thought. (One reason I want to double-check everything.)

[aprilsails]

I’m in Canada so I have to wait on some final RRSP paperwork. It looks as though both DH and I will get $4000 returns. DH will roll his directly into his TFSA and I will set mine aside as slush spending for the rest of my year on maternity leave. I don’t plan to spend it but I like to have the additional flexibility and if I don’t need it I will make a big RRSP contribution with whatever is left.

We pretty well always receive large returns due to deductions for RRSPs and child care expenses. I was tax nerd impressed with myself since the cap for childcare spending is $8000 and we spent $8100 last year. Maximum benefit!

[just]

In case y'all were waiting with bated breath... after submitting on 2/13, and being accepted 2/14, my federal was approved today - exactly 2 weeks - and will be deposited mid-next week. State - all of $25 - came in almost immediately

[sadlebred]

Both of my refunds from State and Federal were back within a week.

[trissie18]

Both our federal and our state refunds were deposited in two weeks.

[scout8]

I mentioned earlier in this thread that we were going to owe massive amounts of taxes on investment properties we sold. This is after taking close to a 200K loss! Well, we do have a well into the 5 figures tax bill, but it is about half of what I thought! It feels like a bit of a windfall.

[notsopicky]

Just got back from the annual tax appt. I've seen the same person for 5+ years and I look forward to seeing her every year.

We owed low 5-figures to the feds but it was 10K less than I budget for and 5K less than I was estimating, so I consider that a win. And we'll get a whopping $850 back from the state, lol. A massive commision check is what tips the scales for us--last year there wasn't one, and we didn't owe a dime (we got back about $1500 from the state/zeroed out w/ the feds).

I'm glad it's done for the year. H took a new role in his company recently, so these once-in-a-while commissions are most likely no more.

[sandandsea]

I’m wrapping mine up. I use taxslayer and have for about 10 years. It’s easy to keep it there because everything rolls over from year to year. We owe a lot, every year. DHs company withholds at a very low rate for vesting RSUs and it screws us from a tax perspective. This year we finally got the option to ask for a higher withholding rate on options so I’m hoping 2020 feels better when I compute how much more we owe. Tax reform still angers me since we are in a high tax blue state so I feel like we only lost deductions even though in actuality our rate hasn’t changed significantly.

[Mushe]

Just wrapping mine up. I aim for zero, and got pretty darn close! I use TurboTax online and have for years. I’m lazy and it’s easy to have things pre-populated and to see the trend. Pretty much every year, we get a notice from IRS that we didn’t report stock sales, because of how H’s company reports ESPP, but pays it through his payroll. I look forward to another letter coming soon. 🙄

We ended up installing solar this year, kind of a quick decision, and our Federal refund is <$200 more than the credit, so yay Mush, good estimating! State, we owe $750 for some reason. I’ll tinker with my extra withholding again, but don’t mind a small bill.

I do kind of want to puke at the amount we’ve paid in taxes, although I don’t mind when I think the people in charge are using the dollars well. To pay so much and see cuts to entitlements that I think are vital is disheartening.

[oswin]

Mar 9, 2020 15:04:10 GMT -5 Mushe said:

Just wrapping mine up. I aim for zero, and got pretty darn close! I use TurboTax online and have for years. I’m lazy and it’s easy to have things pre-populated and to see the trend. Pretty much every year, we get a notice from IRS that we didn’t report stock sales, because of how H’s company reports ESPP, but pays it through his payroll. I look forward to another letter coming soon. 🙄

We ended up installing solar this year, kind of a quick decision, and our Federal refund is <$200 more than the credit, so yay Mush, good estimating! State, we owe $750 for some reason. I’ll tinker with my extra withholding again, but don’t mind a small bill.

I do kind of want to puke at the amount we’ve paid in taxes, although I don’t mind when I think the people in charge are using the dollars well. To pay so much and see cuts to entitlements that I think are vital is disheartening.

Does your H's work send you a 3922 for the ESPP? They should. I don't know how it works with Turbo Tax, but you should be able to report the sale with an adjusted cost basis, since it is included on the W2.

[agnes]

We had our tax appt on Friday. We're getting back like a net $200 refund - owe fed, refund state. I'm pretty happy about that!

[Pibs]

We did our taxes this weekend using H&R Block and confirmed with Credit Karma.

We're getting about $10k back and I'm super irritated.  Last year we ended up owing $5k despite adjusting according to the Fed's calculators to compensate for the BS tax cuts.  Apparently that was partly due to an error in something on husband's work/bonus/stock end so when we adjusted again we over compensated.  OR has a kicker law so we're also getting $5k back from the state.  Obviously I'd rather get a refund than owe, but I just want to break even and stop this roller coaster each year!