It's Tax Time

fthunt · ‎12-24-2010

If you own property and have been itemizing (your deductions) your tax return - - you might want to brush up on the new tax laws. There are some interesting articles posted on the Internet. In the past about 30% of tax payers have been itemizing - however - now only about 5% will be allowed to.

Just a heads up that might be helpful.

Eager2Learn · ‎10-21-2011

I do own a home, and usually my itemized deductions are more than my taxable income. I'm wondering how I'll be affected.

chrystaltree · ‎05-10-2010

We've done our own online for the past few years. We do it because there is no need to study any new tax regs or tax forms. We need not concern ourselves with all that. We...or to be exact hubby....only has to have all of our documents and forms laid out neatly and orderly in front of him and answer the questions honestly. The tax form automatically populates. There's a "help" window for questions. However, if we were concerned with tax law, we would have our taxes done by a tax accountant.

Sweetbay magnolia · ‎04-14-2013

Thanks - I'll be paying attention, though we do have a CPA do ours. Apparently our state didn't move with new federal regs (I'm still unclear on the whole thing) so that could be interesting.

Cogito ergo sum

LizzieInSRQ · ‎12-27-2010

I use TurboTax to file my taxes (online site, not their CDs).. That way I don't have to know about tax updates. They do. What I pay to use them is worth every penny to use their user-friendly site.

fthunt · ‎12-24-2010

I also have my taxes done by a CPA but I have to assemble all the income and expense figures for the year......which takes me about a month. Then I give this info for final preparations to the CPA. My alert is for people who usually do the same but perhaps don't have to this year with the changes.

froggy · ‎03-10-2010

@Eager2Learn wrote:
I do own a home, and usually my itemized deductions are more than my taxable income. I'm wondering how I'll be affected.

The main thing that affects us is the doubling of the standard deduction. This may affect you if your interest and taxes and other itemized deductions now add up to less than the new standard deduction. It is probably not a bad thing for most taxpayers.

fthunt · ‎12-24-2010

BINGO - that's exactly why I posted the alert - you are absolutely correct. Most people coming out of the Christmas fog may not have caught up to the tax issue. Thank you for your comments.

Carmie · ‎10-25-2010

Since most of the IRS is not working right now, this is going to be a wild ride as far as taxes go. They will not be able to answer any questions or give advise.

They are also not able to process your tax return until our government is up and running again or send you a refund if you're due one.

Those ads from H&R Block that say that they will give you up to $3000 interest free when you file are going to spike a lot of interest in that program. Who knows how long this is going to take?

Annabellethecat66 · ‎03-12-2010

I'm very lucky because my daughter is the go-between for myself and the accountants who do my taxes. Otherwise, I'd be crazy.

She tells me what I need to send to them. I give the papers to her, she goes through them, packs it up and I drop them off to the accountants.

The accountants send the information electronically to the IRS (VA and Federal). But they are only filing for an extension on my behalf. You still have to pay the tax if any is due, but it gives you months to be able to collect more paperwork that (hopefully) will help with the final taxes.

I don't work so I pay estimated taxes during the year. I, like many of you, have investments, that I get an income from. All of that must be reported. It's not like the IRS doesn't already know all of our business, I think of it as 'verifying what they already know'. Ha! That's always fun (?) too. The accountants tell me how much to make the check out.

Bla Bla. The reason I mention this 'stuff' is because there are many people like myself (I'm 72, a widow). I know there are many HERE like me.

It's difficult to keep up with all of the changes that take place even in one year. Changes in the tax codes; but also changes in our lives. Perhaps we've lost a partner. Perhaps we've 'down-sized'.

If any of you know of someone who is old(er) and you suspect is having difficulty filing their taxes, I would suspect they would appreciate any information you could give that would make life easier when it comes to this time of year (taxes).

I don't think there are many people in this country who (for want of a better word) would be called 'dead beats'. Most people understand all that we derive from the money our taxes give us.

I honestly believe it's just overwhelming trying to keep up and do the right thing.

Phew! I've already started gathering my paperwork, how about you?