Other than having someone else do your taxes, are there any in depth lists of every tax credit/deduction you should consider while filing?

First time filing jointly, and wanted to make sure I get everything.

Purchased a new home in 08, was unemployed for a few months in 08, etc

2/22/2009 2:08:01 PM

I got a bit more than TaxCut said the federal government owed me last week. I may have qualified for a credit I didn't file for and they caught it for me?

2/22/2009 2:38:44 PM

Can someone explain to me the "use tax" of NC, I always thought that if you buy something out of state its sales tax free, but apparently its not???

2/22/2009 3:16:59 PM

correct, out of state goods purchased without payment of state sales tax "requires" the payment of the tax with your income taxes

2/22/2009 3:19:49 PM

well thats a load of bullshit, I have no idea how to estimate that, I guess I have to dig up all my CC records

2/22/2009 3:37:51 PM

Haha nobody ever does that. You will be the one guy in NC that pays the tax.

2/22/2009 3:40:52 PM

Quote :

"I got a bit more than TaxCut said the federal government owed me last week. I may have qualified for a credit I didn't file for and they caught it for me?"

About how much more did you get back? I assume that was in response to my post on the previous page?

2/22/2009 5:48:13 PM

Quote :

"correct, out of state goods purchased without payment of state sales tax "requires" the payment of the tax with your income taxes"

lulz

let me get on that

2/22/2009 5:51:24 PM

yeah, I can't see it ever really being enforced unless:

you get audited

and

you made several big out of state purchases

2/22/2009 6:25:02 PM

ncsubozo, ~ $40 or 10%.

2/22/2009 7:51:11 PM

I just finished sending off $1500 to the federal government today.

2/22/2009 7:53:06 PM

^but honey, i'm getting back a total of $1246. and you're getting back $$ from State. we're in the green, albeit just barely!

2/22/2009 8:10:35 PM

Quote :

"does any of the tax software have a tool so i can play around with next years stuff to try to figure out what kind of deductions i should be claiming?"

maybe this? http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196,00.html
but i dont have any 2009 #s, , so i can't do it

2/22/2009 8:54:07 PM

I knew there would be the spattering of "don't give the govenrment a free loan" posts. I personally love getting a fat check every March or so. I don't understand why everyone has to hate and say your refund should be exactlyish $0. I mean, with that line of thinking, shouldn't you pay no taxes throughout the year and invest all the money you would have paid, then use the "principle" to pay off your taxes?

I have no problems managing my money but I love having a beginning of the year bonus, that more than likely, I would have spent already. To me it's just like people who say all you have to do to stay in shape is diet and exercise..... yeah I guess.

2/22/2009 9:28:51 PM

I figured my use tax is gonna be like $10, think maybe I should just take the $10 hit and figure it as insurance in case of an audit, I read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_tax That NC is a full member of some organization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streamlined_Sales_Tax_Project to try and collect this.

Opinions?

2/22/2009 9:57:23 PM

Quote :

"I mean, with that line of thinking, shouldn't you pay no taxes throughout the year and invest all the money you would have paid, then use the "principle" to pay off your taxes?"

you have to pay an interest penalty if you underpay your income tax that severely.

2/22/2009 10:20:45 PM

Ifyou're a savvy investor I am sure the interest you make would far outweigh any tax penalty.

OK I have no idea. I just wish people would get off their high horse about giving the government an interest free loan.

2/22/2009 11:15:44 PM

here's my line of reasoning with refunds

a) we live comfortably on our current withholdings
b) 2% interest on $2000 - $3000 (combined state and fed) is less than $50.
c) having an unexpected $1000 expense in March/April would suck
d) having to pay interest penalties because I fucked up the withholdings would suck more and completely eliminate any potential gains

i guess i feel the opportunity cost just isn't worth it. for some people and some situations it may be, but not mine

2/22/2009 11:20:30 PM

That makes an immense amount of sense HaLo.

2/22/2009 11:50:58 PM

Consider also that, perhaps in the future?, states will be in such trouble that they issue IOU's and dont give your interest free loan back! Wasn't the PRK considering this.

2/23/2009 1:26:34 AM

Well I am in the military and I don't pay state taxes, and also.... I just could not imagine the Federal Government doing this to people. I mean, let's face it, the economy is heading towards dire straits, with the nation racking up debt at an unbelievable rate, and what does the government do? Start shelling out more free money to people at $600 a person to inject money into the economy. I could not imagine them keeping money from people that is rightfully theirs (which they may be depending on). That goes against our spend spend spend strategy.

2/23/2009 4:37:47 AM

Quote :

"To me it's just like people who say all you have to do to stay in shape is diet and exercise..... yeah I guess."

LOL wut

2/23/2009 9:35:46 AM

Quote :

"Consider also that, perhaps in the future?, states will be in such trouble that they issue IOU's and dont give your interest free loan back! "

California is apparantly already doing this, and other states are looking to follow suit.

2/23/2009 12:55:25 PM

Does it seem strange to be getting back over $500 from the state, and only getting back $70 from fed?

Something seems wrong, but I'm 99.99% positive all of my numbers are correct in TT

edit: a big part of the state I believe is I was a first time home buyer (march, so no credit) but I paid a whole year of county tax in my closing cost, which I combined with my real estate tax on my mortgage.
I believe this to be correct, because this is tax I had to pay on the purchase of my house and was not included in my mortgage.

Nevermind, found it on TT's site:

With the real estate tax deduction, you can deduct state, local, and foreign taxes that you pay for real estate property that you own, such as your home, a second home, or land. Deductible real estate taxes, also called property taxes, include taxes paid at closing when buying or selling a home, and taxes paid to your town office, county, parish, or other tax assessor (either directly or through a mortgage escrow account).

[Edited on February 23, 2009 at 3:26 PM. Reason : .]

2/23/2009 3:13:08 PM

I got a letter from the IRS telling me why they gave me more money:

Quote :

"We computed your recovery rebate credit for you on Line 70 of Form 1040."

That's supposed to be part of the stimulus check from last year but I was pretty sure I had gotten the full amount? I'm not going to argue.

2/23/2009 6:13:10 PM

Quote :

"you bought in 09? "

yes sir 1/30. Well i didnt buy. i built but i closed then. Thank you BofA for being slack and pushin git until the beginning of the year.

2/23/2009 7:01:42 PM

2309/220

missed the homebuyers credit for 08 by 9 days

would have been 9809/220

2/23/2009 8:00:12 PM

2/23/2009 8:30:56 PM

NC refunds are being delayed. Here is a link from the observer.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/232/story/578879.html

3/5/2009 10:10:48 PM

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=1152789

tax act: $12 for prep and fed+state efile

3/14/2009 5:49:39 PM

^i have used tax act the past couple years and recommend it.

I filed about a week, maybe week and a half, ago and got my federal return today.

unfortunately i owe a little back to the state.

3/17/2009 9:50:49 AM

^same. I haven't done this year's return yet, but I have used taxact for about 3-4 years now and I would recommend it.

3/17/2009 10:10:52 AM

Just got my nc refund direct deposit today... e-file was accepted 2/13.

[Edited on March 17, 2009 at 10:35 AM. Reason : ]

3/17/2009 10:34:13 AM

$10k from fed (with the $7.5k interest-free loan thing ) and $250 from state

i ♥ monies

3/19/2009 12:03:07 PM

$2300 from fed

$80 from state

3/19/2009 6:47:49 PM

Fed: $4000

NC: -$220.00

IL: $29.00

3/19/2009 7:34:30 PM

Anyone know of a good accountant to fix a screw up from last year? I already filed this year, just need some one to fill out all the paperwork for me to fix a misstatement of income from 2007. Shouldn't take an accountant too long, I have all the documentation, I just want to make sure it's done right.

3/24/2009 9:07:30 AM

Quick question. My wife formed an S corp late last year and has very little income from that (like $200). TurboTax is recommending we file jointly but it doesn't ask any questions about small business (probably because I am using Premier instead of the small business option).


For such a small amount of income from the S corp, do we need to bother filing anything?

3/25/2009 12:22:04 PM

you ALWAYS have to file something

3/25/2009 12:30:00 PM

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040se.pdf

Supplemental Income and Loss
(From rental real estate, royalties, partnerships,
S corporations, estates, trusts, REMICs, etc.)

[Edited on March 25, 2009 at 12:37 PM. Reason : ]

3/25/2009 12:35:40 PM

^ Excellent, thank you sir.

3/25/2009 12:50:40 PM

We're still waiting on our NC refund

I can only imagine how fast the government would be knocking down my door if I owed them money but hadn't paid it yet

3/25/2009 12:52:20 PM

They actually don't do that at all. They may charge you interest and in some instances fines, but they aren't so onerous about getting their money on time.

3/25/2009 1:25:47 PM

Thats a joke. NC is the fastest state in the union to garnish wages.

3/25/2009 6:24:56 PM

finally got off my ass and spent just about the entire fucking day doing my return. This year involved a shit-ton of new financial "events" that I hadn't experienced before, so had a lot of reading to do.

i had our witholding just about perfect

Fed: $77
State: $750

I'm a little weirded out to be getting $750 back from NC. typically, it's only a few bucks, or i owe. maybe i fucked something up... but i'm less afraid of a state audit than a federal one.

4/14/2009 10:31:47 PM

My state refund was finally put into my account after it had been filed for 1.5 months.

4/16/2009 1:27:36 PM

Has anyone else had trouble paying state taxes online? I havent been able to get on the dornc site for the past few days.

4/16/2009 2:24:09 PM

i get a whopping 229 back total. i don't know the breakdown because i'm a big fat baby and didn't do my own taxes.

4/16/2009 2:32:00 PM

I'm getting back about $2k.

4/16/2009 2:46:46 PM

yea my state refund got deposited last week after like 2 months.

4/17/2009 10:18:07 AM