*** OFFICIAL 2018 Tax Thread for Anandtech ***

[shortylickens]

Keep in mind I am not going to help you. This will be place people can come to ASK questions and if they are super lucky, one of the more knowledgeable members could help them out.

First order of business:
There is no official word on whether or not you can file late this year because of the government shutdown. But we will try to learn ASAP. As of right now, taxes are still due Monday April 15th.

 

[Charmonium]

Let the bad advice and pop corn flow!!!

I don't need no stinkin' tax advice but I'm happy to whine and complain.

The spike studded butt plug this year has been foreign investments. If you own, let's say, shares of Daimler and they declared any dividends last year, those were taxed by the German government. So as I imperfectly understand how this works, some portion of that money is exempt from US taxes.

I'm not even going to try to understand this kind of bullsh*t though so whatever software I'm feeding this data into had damn well take care of it for me. Generally it does - except when it doesn't.

So while Turbo Tax did manage to pick up the amount of each foreign tax, for some reason I have to go in manually and enter the amount of the "qualified(???)" dividends from which it was taken. I consider that work and if I wanted to work, I'd spend 2 months doing all of this myself.

 

[cronos]

Found the tax thread!

Just finished going through the process at TurboTax and I'm too scared to submit it because my return is absolutely massive, it feels impossible. There has to be something wrong, but I went through everything twice (some parts three times) and TurboTax insists that everything looks good.

Without too much details, according to TurboTax my return for 2018 is about five times the usual amount I received. Is this even possible?

 

[shortylickens]

Submit and see.
Its better to do it now, and get a negative reply from the IRS than to wait until April and have it rejected.

 

[Brainonska511]

Submit and see.
Its better to do it now, and get a negative reply from the IRS than to wait until April and have it rejected.

Also better to submit early for your refund in case your information had leaked at some point in the past and someone else tries to claim a refund in your name

 

[cronos]

Submit and see.
Its better to do it now, and get a negative reply from the IRS than to wait until April and have it rejected.

Also better to submit early for your refund in case your information had leaked at some point in the past and someone else tries to claim a refund in your name

Good tips, thanks! I will submit right away. I obviously like getting money back, just don't want to deal with the hassle of audits if the huge amount of return created a red flag for the IRS.

I looked at the paperwork again this morning and I think my wife needs to adjust her withholding (she started a new job in 2018). She doesn't remember what she did, but the amount taken from her each paycheck seems really high to me.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Found the tax thread!

Just finished going through the process at TurboTax and I'm too scared to submit it because my return is absolutely massive, it feels impossible. There has to be something wrong, but I went through everything twice (some parts three times) and TurboTax insists that everything looks good.

Without too much details, according to TurboTax my return for 2018 is about five times the usual amount I received. Is this even possible?

Tell us your numbers (Adjusted gross income) plus any tax credits (child tax credits) that it may be citing along with the total tax amount it gives you and we can give an honest opinion.

But just saying "I have a bigger amount being sent in a refund to me than normal" is not much to go by. Could be the tax reform really benefited you. Could be that you withheld too much from your paycheck.

 

[Scarpozzi]

So my parents did a quitclaim deed this year to give me a few houses to keep them in the family. I read up on this last night. Can anyone tell me how to handle it? No money changed hands and we haven't had the houses appraised....both are small vacant cabins. My understanding is they have the tax burden, but I'm just trying to to get the info for them.... figured I'd start here.

 

[Brainonska511]

So my parents did a quitclaim deed this year to give me a few houses to keep them in the family. I read up on this last night. Can anyone tell me how to handle it? No money changed hands and we haven't had the houses appraised....both are small vacant cabins. My understanding is they have the tax burden, but I'm just trying to to get the info for them.... figured I'd start here.

Isn't there a gift tax that someone may have to pay if the gift is worth more than the exempted amount?
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/gift-tax-implications-putting-children-quitclaim-deed-63221.html

 

[brianmanahan]

So as I imperfectly understand how this works, some portion of that money is exempt from US taxes.

what did you have, distributions from a bunch of different foreign holdings? the foreign tax credit reduces taxes and usually only takes me a few minutes to do for several foreign holdings. i have mutual funds in a lot of countries, so typically just throw the dividends under a single "various" entry.

the 1099 should show what the qualified and ordinary dividend amounts are.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Isn't there a gift tax that someone may have to pay if the gift is worth more than the exempted amount?
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/gift-tax-implications-putting-children-quitclaim-deed-63221.html

I read that same page last night. I suppose I'll just need to read a 709 and try to calculate some estimates on what the possible amounts are. Our attorney didn't mention this when we set it up 6 months ago.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I read that same page last night. I suppose I'll just need to read a 709 and try to calculate some estimates on what the possible amounts are. Our attorney didn't mention this when we set it up 6 months ago.

It appears they just have to claim the value to be deducted from their estate so it's counted with their estate total. I didn't understand what the IRS was going for with this, but figured it out.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

For anyone here that is potentially more of a tax expert than I am... I am having 2 particular issues this year:

Issue #1 - Lack of 1099-INT

I have a few banks that have not sent me a 1099-INT for interest I have earned that is well-above the $10 minimum for sending a 1099-INT. This probably isn't a big deal, I have all my interest accrued in Quicken to easily report my actual interest, but I can't help but wonder that something went wrong and perhaps they will mistakenly report it for year 2019 or something? Anyone have experience here?


Issue #2 - HSA mishap

So I have been deducting for my HSA (2018 max contribution is $6,900 for family) out of my paycheck. For anyone that keeps up with this stuff, the maximum for 2018 fluctuated up and down and then back up. It's a long story ... Regardless, my employer wasn't deducting the full amount since the IRS moved the total amount down and then back up. I self contributed the amount that I thought was the difference ($50). Turns out, my employer adjusted at the end of the year to meet the full $6,900 amount.

On my last paycheck of the year, since I had already self-contribvuted $50, the final amount from my paycheck ~$240 pushed it over the $6,900 mark. Thus, the HSA custodian rejected the amount and sent it back to my employer. My employer then paid it out to me.... completely tax free... Wtf? Since this is from my last paycheck from 2018, I felt like they should have

1) Deducted tax + Social security + Medicare
2) Sent me a Corrected W2 - because this is income I earned from 2018 - even though it was paid out in 2019.

Neither happened, they paid me the full $240, without deductions, and also not as a wage - so it doesn't look like it will be sent as taxable income for 2018 - nor 2019. This seems wrong IMO? My W2 also says that my paycheck contributed $6,900 (maximum total) for my HSA - when the reality is that it is $6,900 - $240 that was rejected... This is partially why I think they should be sending me a corrected W2.

Anyone have any experience here? It's definitely an odd mis-hap. In the end, I made a self-contribution to max out my total of $6,900 to my HSA for the year but that doesn't mean my paycheck is correct.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

For those that are filing now have you noticed it lower than last year? I noticed a couple of articles yesterday about those already filing are finding themselves, on average, about 8% lower than last year's return. My wife hasn't done our taxes yet so I cannot provide personal feedback yet.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

My dad said that if you make under a certain amount, you get all your tax money back.

Is this true?

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

My dad said that if you make under a certain amount, you get all your tax money back.

Is this true?

lol.

The bottom 50% of America typically either pays close to $0 in federal income taxes (not withstanding Social Security / Medicare withheld taxes) to the point of taking more back in taxes than paid (As in they pay negative in tax). This is due to the standard deduction along with tax credits such as child dependent tax credits.

My Mother in law is a good example, she makes ~ $18k a year working at Walmart.

Example:
A couple makes $35,000 in taxable income and has 2 children

$35,000
-$24,000 (Standard Deduction for married)
=$11,000 in taxable income - All of this falls within the first married tax bracket of $0 - $19,050 taxed at a rate of 10%
=$1,100 tax due at the end of the year (10% as described above)

BUT - The family has 2 children. Each child gets a tax credit of $2,000.

$1,100 tax bill
-($4,000) [2x 2000]
=$2,900 refund. They effectively pay $0 in taxes and actually got money back from the government.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Finally ended up submitting my tax return. Took forever for Robinhood to send me their 1099s.

Ended up with a big fat refund check of $77. I thought I was going to get more back, but all my interest and capital gains took most of it away.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

lol.

The bottom 50% of America typically either pays close to $0 in federal income taxes (not withstanding Social Security / Medicare withheld taxes) to the point of taking more back in taxes than paid (As in they pay negative in tax). This is due to the standard deduction along with tax credits such as child dependent tax credits.

My Mother in law is a good example, she makes ~ $18k a year working at Walmart.

Example:
A couple makes $35,000 in taxable income and has 2 children

$35,000
-$24,000 (Standard Deduction for married)
=$11,000 in taxable income - All of this falls within the first married tax bracket of $0 - $19,050 taxed at a rate of 10%
=$1,100 tax due at the end of the year (10% as described above)

BUT - The family has 2 children. Each child gets a tax credit of $2,000.

$1,100 tax bill
-($4,000) [2x 2000]
=$2,900 refund. They effectively pay $0 in taxes and actually got money back from the government.

Mm, okay that makes way more sense now.

I think that's what he was basing that statement off of.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

The new tax laws are complete garbage for me. My refund is over $3k less than last year. I lost out on $5k+ on property tax deductions.

 

[Ken g6]

Finally ended up submitting my tax return. Took forever for Robinhood to send me their 1099s.

Ended up with a big fat refund check of $77. I thought I was going to get more back, but all my interest and capital gains took most of it away.

Just finished my first pass on my federal taxes. Betterment's Tax Loss Harvesting means I had a net negative capital gains. (Though I got way more dividends than negative capital gains.)

I just wish my tax software didn't force me to check every entry in my 1099. I had over 400 (Edit: entries in my 1099) this year! Fortunately, my tax software suggested I combine most of those into short-term and long-term capital gains categories, which left only about 30 wash sales I had to treat separately. I wonder whether wash sales under $0.50 can be combined too; but I didn't this year.

It looks like my refund will be about the same as last year. Combine that with extra money in each paycheck, which adds up to about the same as the refund, and that's a net win for me.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

My return is $3800 less this year compared to last.

 

[highland145]

The new tax laws are complete garbage for me. My refund is over $3k less than last year. I lost out on $5k+ on property tax deductions.

So are you saying that you live in a high SALT state and have been underpaying your federal in the past compared to people in low SALT states?

 

[Pantoot]

In case anyone else has run into it, Turbotax currently has a bug with form 2210. There is a waiver for underpayment penalty if you paid 85% of your tax due, but for some reason turbotax isn't handling the form correctly, as the 85% exemption only requires you to submit the first page or something.

Anyway, I have to write a big check this year, which sucks, but looking at the overall effective rate it was about 1.5% less than last year.

 

[DietDrThunder]

The taxes on my AGI is $2,780 less than it was for 2017, even though I made more money in 2018. I adjust my W4 a few times during the year to have what I owe or what I will get in return as close to zero as possible. This year I will have to send the IRS a check for $15.

If you are comfortable with doing your own taxes without assistance, you can file for free using the IRS approved website tool free-file-fillable-forms.

 

[purbeast0]

The new tax laws are complete garbage for me. My refund is over $3k less than last year. I lost out on $5k+ on property tax deductions.

Yup. It's complete and utter shit and fuck you again Trump.

I went from like $42k deductions last year to $24.5k this year. We went from getting back like $3k to owing $150.

My mom and stepdad went from getting back $8k last year to owing $3k this year. We make probably around double or more than double what they make.