Did You Do Your Taxes Yet?
Taxes are due in two days and change. Did you pay them yet? If you still haven't sat down with your W2s, don't worry, there's still time to fire up the old Casio.
If you just remembered about this whole 'paying The Man' thing, don't fret, here's our tax advice from the past few months, much of it brought to you by our adorably knowledgeable helper, Tax Cat:
- Tax Tip For Lazy People: How To Get An Extension On Your Income Taxes
- Tax Cat: Help! I Owe The IRS Money And I Don't Have Any!
- Tax Cat: Let's Learn About "Necessary And Ordinary Business Expenses"
- Tax Tip: Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007
- Avoid An IRS Audit
- What to Do If You Can't File Your Taxes on Time
- Don't File Taxes? You Gotta To Get A Stimulus Check
- Choose A Qualified Tax Preparer
- Tax Cat: Let's Learn About "Necessary And Ordinary Business Expenses"
- 19 Free Tax Services Tested And Rated
- What Do I Have To Do To Get My $600 Tax Credit?
- Who's Afraid of Taxes? Not You!
- What To Do If You're Missing Your W2
- 2007 Federal Tax Law Changes
- 6 Tax Credits That You Shouldn't Overlook
- Low Income? You May Qualify For Tax Saver's Credit
- Tax Tip: Home Offices Are Worth The Deductions If You Qualify
- Self-Employed? Here's How To Do Your Taxes
- Get Basic Tax Info With Publication 17
- Don't Forget To Claim Your Student Loan Deduction
- Which Tax Records You Should Keep
(Photo:Chad Beckerman)
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I still don't know which of the three 1040 (1040, 1040A or 1040ez) I should file :/
I love Tax Cat. I don't know why.
Tax cat will pee in ur shoes if you don't file ur taxes ASAP.
Pay?
@cde: Form 1040 can be used in situations where you can also use forms 1040A or 1040EZ, but the converse is not true.
Although it is to your benefit to pick the simplest form possible for your tax situation (1040EZ or failing that, 1040A), you can use form 1040 without regret if you cannot determine which form you need.
Three days and change?
I currently have Sunday, April 13th 1:10 PM.
April 15th, 11:59PM is 2 days and change away.
Do you have a different deadline? :P
Man, I don't want to hear about this on the weekend.
Another suggestion if you don't have the money to pay your taxes is to put them on a credit card. You'll have to pay a convenience fee (usually 2.5%) and whatever interest you have, but at least you'll get rewards for it. Granted, the interest might be significantly higher, but it's an option.
I'm ready to kill my husband. I asked him for all his tax documents. This is our first joint filing. He waits until this morning to give it to me, making himself late for work, and I still don't have his 2006 1040 to get his AGI off of. Yes, I'm waiting for the last minute because I owe money, although it's looking like $250 less than my initial estimate.
I did mine within 30 minutes of receiving my W-2. Got my refund already and whacked my credit card debt with it. Dunno what I'm gonna do with my Economic Genital Stimulus Device yet. Probably invest it :P
Where's the option for "I used software to compute my taxes"?
Technically, I couldn't vote with those options.
But yeah: filed, received, and spent. I only procrastinated on taxes when I was self-employed and couldn't look forward to a small refund.
I got my federal refund back over a month ago. Filed the state return last week after I got my NC tax burden questions answered.
I actually called the IRS Friday with a question...they were FRIENDLY! and I was on hold for less than 20 seconds! I was shocked.
On the other hand, they weren't able to answer my question. But I deserve whatever punishment I get. You see...I mailed my taxes late Thursday night...and I DIDN'T PUT ENOUGH POSTAGE ON IT.
(banging head on desk)
Neither the post office nor the friendly IRS man could tell me for sure if it would be 'returned to sender', or how long that might take. So now I have to wait and see if it comes back by Tuesday so I can slap another %*&%@# TWO CENTS postage on it and remail it.
@witeowl: Yup, same here - filed, refund received and spent. All that's left is the tax stimulus refund in May. I hope the government appreciates my spending.
@JAY1937: I once forgot to put an apartment number on an envelope and it did come back to me, but I forget how long it took. It was stamped with something like "not specific enough" or something like that.
I want to say a few weeks. But, can you just put a stop payment on the check, if it included one, and mail a new check? Hopefully you kept records of the forms so you can reprint them.
Or, file online?
Good luck!
(and I agree that the one time I had to talk to them by phone, I had no problem. They once somehow marked me as not having filed, so I had to call up and see if they'd ever found my submission -- they had. I was surprised they lost track of it given I'd e-filed, but the woman I talked to was very nice and apologetic for my trouble).
Where's the "My husband did them by himself" option? ;-)
Taxes? I did them last year. I'm way ahead of myself.
I mailed the Federal out on the 1st of Feb and the refund was direct deposited on the 10th of Feb. That's the fastest I've ever seen.
@Buran: I thought of that, but the IRS man was very clear on this point: do NOT send/submit a second return. He said it would cause a huge amount of trouble if there were two returns floating around for the same taxpayer. I was all ready to prepare a second one; I did keep copies of what I mailed in (I'm not dense ALL the time.)
So it appears I'm stuck waiting...and hoping the return address I wrote on the envelope is readable :)
Did mine as soon as I got my w-2 - took a couple hours one Sunday with TurboTax. Got my refund a few weeks later, and used it to pay off the loan on my truck.
Working on it right now. I hope to stop by the post office Tuesday night, they're closing at midnight for taxes, right? Hope so :)
@christoj879: you better check with your local post office. not all locations are open until midnite for the deadline.
Done already, used TaxACT online and spent the refund paying down debt.
Did them nearly 2 weeks ago. Could have had it done sooner, but I procrastinated.
It was my first time ever doing my taxes (I'm 19, so my dad's always done them for me until now).
I used Turbo Tax, and even though I had four W-2s, I was still done in less than an hour. So unless they get more complex as you get older (and I don't see how they will...I already have stock that I had to report earnings on, in addition to all of my interest on my IRA and bank accounts), I don't get why everyone always complains about the time it takes to prepare your taxes.
@levenhopper: Doing them for a small business can be tricky, but once you're in the groove, you know aht to expect from year to year.
When I lived in Jersey, I made extra money to pay for printer ink and the tax program each year by doing other people's taxes.
Well, clearly this poll-creator didn't read the Consumerist Forums, or they'd have included another nicely sexist choice:
Make your wife do your taxes, and complain about how she does it!
I did, she did, and... I had nothing to complain about!
And now, here's hoping Uncle Sam doesn't default on our refund. It's time to buy another chunk of blue-chip Fidelity! Buy low...
Nope, I'm working on them now. I accidentally hit "I agree" and corrected some errors before my printer got done and I read the MBA bit from TaxtAct for their state filing (yes, it's actually some bank, but since it was predetermined, I'm not differentiating) which ended up being more than they say (7.95+14.95 != 7.95). I didn't finish the whole wizard, so I'm hoping they didn't go ahead with it.
I tried TaxSlayer, and while I got the same results (yay), they crapped out on me, by taking way too long towards the end, and ending my session. Their system is probably not set up well enough to handle all of us rushing to get it done on time :).
Taxes done! Used TaxCut this year, and really liked it. My refund is in my IRA, all ready for when I retire.
I did mine over a month ago using H&R Block.com. Took me about 15 minutes to do.
I did mine in January. Hooray tax refund...for textbooks and tuition. Sigh.
did mine last night, after realizing that I never mailed off the previous years', even though I'd completely filled them out. Ooops.
I owe bunches of dollars, so my checks are sitting by the door waiting for tomorrow.
@JAY1937: What about a form allowing you to file late? Would that be allowed? So when/if it shows up late, you're not horribly penalized (still penalized, just not horribly).
@levenhopper: It gets a little more difficult as you get more deductions. Add marriage to the mix plus owning a home, student load debt, itemizing deductions, and it'll take you a little longer. Take some short term and long term capital gains without full documentation of your buy date to determine your cost basis and you're in for a lot of work.
@levenhopper: Besides what @chiieddy mentioned: Throw in an AMT calculation, capital losses, mutual funds with some portion in international investments, home business...
My husband spends a few hours a year just collecting all the papers and preparing the package to send to the accountant. Then I spend an hour when it all comes back reading through the forms trying to understand how it all fits together.
Filling out the forms doesn't seem that hard, but knowing which forms and schedules are relevant to your situation is the trick. I don't begrudge our accountant one penny of his fee.
where's the option for "*calls dad to find out*"?
Go Tax Cat!
Go Tax Cat!
Go Tax Cat!