4th Annual Tax Thread - 2006

[Prfstrkr]

oops, i guess i did not make myself clear.

The check for last year has been paid and was written with my dad's name. Does this mean I cannot claim it as my payment of property tax although my name do appear on the bill? Thanks

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: Prfstrkr
oops, i guess i did not make myself clear.

The check for last year has been paid and was written with my dad's name. Does this mean I cannot claim it as my payment of property tax although my name do appear on the bill? Thanks

It is up to you. Your name is on the taxes, so technically you can claim it.
If the IRS ever looks into your return, they may view it differently - they do not like technicalities unless it is in their favor

 

[Prfstrkr]

Thanks. That makes a lot of sense since a lot of people do not directly pay their real estate taxes, instead the mortgage company collect them altogether with the mortgage payments.

 

[Shimmishim]

Tennessee has no state income tax.... do I have to file a state return for tennessee? i know it's a silly question but this is my first time having to file for a state not having an income tax... thanks.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: Shimmishim
Tennessee has no state income tax.... do I have to file a state return for tennessee? i know it's a silly question but this is my first time having to file for a state not having an income tax... thanks.

You have answered your own question.

If there is no state income tax, what would you file?

 

[MorphineChild]

Alright real quick, I moved states and jobs this year, kept my old address in Indiana for a while until the house sold, then switched to OH. Received my W-2's from my new company and have the following issues.

Box 15 I have a set of W2's with the Indiana State and ID#, then I have a set with the Ohio Sate and ID #, and then I have a set with nothing in the state and the employers state ID no says "Total State" and has a large amount of state income tax taken out. The locality name (box 20) states the town where I live now.

I am assuming (and asking this question) that these taxes and wages should fall under the ohio state tax return form, am I correct in this assumption?

 

[iversonyin]

I'm getting a K1 from a LLC, but they havent send it to me yet. Assume they are going to be late. What should I file before April 15?

 

[snowdogg187]

If I paid tuition towards a degree and my employer reembursed me for everything would that help me at all?

Thanks, Great Thread!

 

[snowdogg187]

ok, I'm pretty sure that it is not an expense since the employer paid for it.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: MorphineChild
Alright real quick, I moved states and jobs this year, kept my old address in Indiana for a while until the house sold, then switched to OH. Received my W-2's from my new company and have the following issues.

Box 15 I have a set of W2's with the Indiana State and ID#, then I have a set with the Ohio Sate and ID #, and then I have a set with nothing in the state and the employers state ID no says "Total State" and has a large amount of state income tax taken out. The locality name (box 20) states the town where I live now.

I am assuming (and asking this question) that these taxes and wages should fall under the ohio state tax return form, am I correct in this assumption?

I have no knowledge of the Ohio tax forms.

From correspondence with TurboTax and TaxCut, if you PURCHASE multiple state copies, their S/W will handlewages across states.

Some states will break of local taxes on the W2, others do not.
The indivigual state tax department will handle the situation properly when you follow the instructions required for the state.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: iversonyin
I'm getting a K1 from a LLC, but they havent send it to me yet. Assume they are going to be late. What should I file before April 15?

If you feel that you must file prior to 17 April, then file without the information and then when the info shows up, file an ammeded return 1040X.

Otherwise wait until 17 April and follow above advise

 

[timelapse]

First off, thanks for the help!

Here is my question / dilemma on Federal taxes:

From Jan 1st, 2006 to Nov 1st 2006 I permanently lived in the US (NY), where I earned a salary. On Nov 1st 2006, I sent my stuff to my sister's home for storage (in VA) and travelled overseas (tourism) until Feb 1st of this year, where I moved permanently to OH.

Even though I did not earn a fixed salary from Nov 1st, 2006 to Feb 1st, 2007, I did earn interest on my ING Direct savings account.

Should I report all of my ING interest income as Federal or just a 10/12 ths of it? And how about next year, given that the first month of 2007 was spent outside of the US? Are there any other special considerations I should look into?

Thanks!

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: timelapse
First off, thanks for the help!

Here is my question / dilemma on Federal taxes:

From Jan 1st, 2006 to Nov 1st 2006 I permanently lived in the US (NY), where I earned a salary. On Nov 1st 2006, I sent my stuff to my sister's home for storage (in VA) and travelled overseas (tourism) until Feb 1st of this year, where I moved permanently to OH.

Even though I did not earn a fixed salary from Nov 1st, 2006 to Feb 1st, 2007, I did earn interest on my ING Direct savings account.

Should I report all of my ING interest income as Federal or just a 10/12 ths of it? And how about next year, given that the first month of 2007 was spent outside of the US? Are there any other special considerations I should look into?

Thanks!

You were on vacation, but your $$ was still working for you in the USA.

Where you were has no bearing.

The only thing about being out of the country would be if you were not around to file your taxes on the due date; you can request an extension due to that fact.

 

[StageLeft]

OMG, I just spent two hours with taxactonline (taxcut I used to use but it and turbotax cost about $5k this year), but it really is terrible. Its questions are not good and it's not straight forward, I shall not use it again. I just used HRBLock's online program which is great until I find out it cannot handle Alabama part-year and I have to go into their office or pay for an online person to check it out. No thank you.

I'm now registering for online turbotax that CLAIMS to do alabama part-year properly. I am aware I can do it manually but would prefer to avoid that. Geeze.

 

[BChico]

I got three W-2s from my company, NJ, NY, and IL. I reside in NJ, but all of the federal wages (box 1) and withholding is on the NY W-2. I am using Turbotax to prepare my federal return; I am planning on manually doing my states returns. Do I need to enter all three W-2s even though only the NY w-2 has federal information, or can I just submit that one?

 

[Prfstrkr]

My friend was telling me that if you owe state tax, then you can put the amount back into Federal return as a negative number in "other incomes". Is that the right way to do? Thanks

 

[BKLounger]

where in the world on the income section of federal do i claim income from exercise of nonstatutory stock options? I have already claimed dividends elsewhere. Would this maybe fall under capital gains or other income or maybe something else?

 

[BUTCH1]

Hello, quick question: I purchased a new car 10/29/05 but did not know I could deduct the
sales tax so I did not itemize for last year. Can I itemize this year and claim it or must I
file an ameneded return (and itemize) for 2005?? Thanks in advance for any help...

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Prfstrkr
My friend was telling me that if you owe state tax, then you can put the amount back into Federal return as a negative number in "other incomes". Is that the right way to do? Thanks

You may have to wait until next year. Not positive, but the concept is right. FOr instance, I got back $218 last year from state and so this year I had to claim that as taxable income--I'd essentially padded my state deduction too much so that my federal was lower (though it wasn't deliberate obviously) for 2005 taxes, and then when I got the money back I had to in 2006 cover the diff. So if I had paid in extra taxes to state in 2005 (since state is done after federal), then this year I'm sure I could have come in and said "Look, I just paid $300 extra to state last year, so this year I get an extra $300 deduction."

--

Anyhoo, I just finished my taxes. Taxactonline.com has a questionable interface. Turbotax has the most options, since it handles part-year alabama residents, but it was CLEARLY slopped together in this regard because some of the errors I were getting for alabama looked like internal codes the dev team was using while testing, pretty pathetic. Taxcut could not do part-year alabama residents automatically but otherwise has a really clean interface, so I"ll probably go back to that one next year. All gave me the same federal amount except turbo tax for a few bucks lower because it forced me to amoratize points on a second mortgaqge I got (it said I had to, but the other programs did not mention this, and I don't think I had to in my case so I was out about $40 but the program was NOT letting me not amoratize).

 

[imported_elwood]

I did a few contract jobs last year and was paid without any taxes withheld. I made less than $600. I haven't received any tax forms. Do i need to worry about filing?

 

[Triforceofcourage]

I purchased the Becker CPA review course for about 3,000.
Can I deduct that from my taxes? Can I take the standard deduction and then on top of that deduct the 3,000 or do I need to itemize?

Thanks,

Triforce

 

[JEDI]

Roth question:

The limit for 2006 is $4k if under age 50, right? and only if my gross is 4k+.

My W-2 is only $3k, but i have $15k in gambling profit (no W2-G).

1) am i limited to $3k for my roth, or does my gambling winnings allow me to put in 4k?

2) If i put down $15k in gambling winnings, will the IRS tell me that's my primary form of income? if so, what are the tax consequences of that?

 

[Prfstrkr]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Prfstrkr
My friend was telling me that if you owe state tax, then you can put the amount back into Federal return as a negative number in "other incomes". Is that the right way to do? Thanks

You may have to wait until next year. Not positive, but the concept is right. FOr instance, I got back $218 last year from state and so this year I had to claim that as taxable income--I'd essentially padded my state deduction too much so that my federal was lower (though it wasn't deliberate obviously) for 2005 taxes, and then when I got the money back I had to in 2006 cover the diff. So if I had paid in extra taxes to state in 2005 (since state is done after federal), then this year I'm sure I could have come in and said "Look, I just paid $300 extra to state last year, so this year I get an extra $300 deduction."

--


Anyhoo, I just finished my taxes. Taxactonline.com has a questionable interface. Turbotax has the most options, since it handles part-year alabama residents, but it was CLEARLY slopped together in this regard because some of the errors I were getting for alabama looked like internal codes the dev team was using while testing, pretty pathetic. Taxcut could not do part-year alabama residents automatically but otherwise has a really clean interface, so I"ll probably go back to that one next year. All gave me the same federal amount except turbo tax for a few bucks lower because it forced me to amoratize points on a second mortgaqge I got (it said I had to, but the other programs did not mention this, and I don't think I had to in my case so I was out about $40 but the program was NOT letting me not amoratize).

Thanks

 

[axelfox]

I am an independent contractor/self employed.

If I pay professional dues/fees in the year 2006 for the year 2007, can I deduct those in my 2006 tax return?

Also, how do tax preparers, CPAs in particular, charge for preparing taxes? Hourly? Flat Fee? Percentage of possible return?

Thanks.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Originally posted by: BChico
I got three W-2s from my company, NJ, NY, and IL. I reside in NJ, but all of the federal wages (box 1) and withholding is on the NY W-2. I am using Turbotax to prepare my federal return; I am planning on manually doing my states returns. Do I need to enter all three W-2s even though only the NY w-2 has federal information, or can I just submit that one?

Much will depend on the state instructions.
Some want all incomes entered and then you split out the out of state income.
Others look at a percentage.