Income tax questions

[mickyphoenix]

Ive been working for a well known tax company for 10 yrs..
So if you have any tax questions I may be able to help..
Now I dont know each and every state but for Federal questions lol ask away..
Grrr its getting to be that time of year again... lol

[doglover22]

OOH! I've got one. My dh and I file married filing jointly every year. We have a pretty straight forward tax return every year...no stocks, retirement packages, etc. We always have taken the standard deduction of $7,500 but this year dh did a fair amount of travel for his job (which he was just laid off from). He drove our personal car and was not reimbursed by the company for mileage. We were wondering if we want to claim the mileage on our taxes if we have to itemize our deductions or if it is something we can claim in addition to our standard deduction. We figure that the mileage alone is around $1000 but if we have to itemize, we have no idea where/what the other deductions we can take are. Any help you could give would be great!


__________________

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]

[mickyphoenix]

Well if all he has is 1000 in milage you are going to want to stick to your standard deduction... You can only get around 34cents a mile. And when you are claiming unreinbursed employee expences you only get 2% of auctual expences and that figure will go over to the schedule A.. So there is no way that you can come above and beyone the standard deduction the irs is already giving you. So im sure you will to stick to your standard deduction. You can force the auctual expences but it will hurt you more then help you...
But if you have other expences to go on the Schedule A like mortgage intrest and property taxes, contributions hmm let me think lol ( been almost a year ), State withholding on your W2s.
there again that has to come above and beyond your standard deduction. and every year the Irs increases that. Ohhh and medical expences paid out of pocket but there again you only get a percentage.
im sure i have totaly coinfused you... Im sorry lol but hopefully it helped


__________________

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]

[doglover22]

Boy, that is a bummer. We don't really have anything else to itemize (no mortgage, medical, contributions, etc) so we will just do the standard deduction. Is there a way to claim some of the car payments, upkeep, or insurance since we had to buy a new car so he could travel for his job?


__________________

Check out these [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now], or go directly to [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now] EXP: 11.11.2002
Pre-order the Star Wars Attack of the Clones movies at Buy.com, and get FREE shipping!

[mickyphoenix]

aww well that too also goes into the unreinbursed employee expences. As for claiming payment and all the other stuff will get reduces becuase of the percentage thing. With all this stuff you can either take auctual expences like licence ins payment etc or milage you cant take both and as for payments you cant claim them but you can claim a percentage of it and only depreciate the vehicle.
What I didnt mention before you will have to figure out what percent is for employee expences. Unless this vehicle is used ONLY for his work.. But I still dont think it will work. You are going to do better with the standard deduction... Usually if a person has a mortgage they can itemize but most of the times ( not saying all ) people go with there standard deduction. And the Irs is raising that every year ( thats a plus for those of us that cant itemize) its not like you arent getting any deduction The Irs is giving you that standard free and clear.
the form you would have to fill out is a 2106 and those figures after they get all reduced down go to a schedule A and then it gets reduced even more. grrrr I know... But you are talking about a very sticky situation here with this matter. Irs has been clamping down on people that do this and making them prove it.
most of the time were I work this form only works with Truckers. But there are lots of contractors and such that can use it too.
Hoped that helped a little more


__________________

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]

Check out these [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now], or go directly to [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now] EXP: 10.31.2002
Save 20% off of your purchase at ICE.com with coupon code BCD20-613018.

[doglover22]

Thanks for your help! It does sound like we will just have to go with teh standard deduction. At least I already know how to do that so filing won't be a big deal!

[chippers21]

My 25 year old son is a law student with no other source of income but grants and loans. Can we still declare him as a deduction on our income taxes?

[mickyphoenix]

Yes you can as long as he is a full time student.
If he had a part time job though and made lets say under 5000 he may want to file a tax return to get back what he paid into the IRS. But if you claim him and he fills out a tax return make sure he marks down that that somone else is claiming him.
You will get his exemption and he will not be able to claim it.

[Dyllan]

I've got one for you.

It's pretty common knowledge by now that I won a Ford F-150 Supercrew Harley-Davidson Edition (which is still for sale, by the way) and a Harley-Davidson Fatboy (which I sold last Saturday) this year. I've been told that Ford will send me a 1099 for these.

I was also told by an AARP tax advisor (they do tax advice for everyone, not just the elderly) that I can claim a fair market value adjustment off the amount show on the 1099 if I have documentation to back it up. They suggested I have the dealerships that delievered the vehicles give me a written statement of what they would pay to buy them back from me and use that as an appraisal of the fair market value.

Is that legitimate? Is there any way I can save any more on my taxes than that? It's likely going to put me a couple tax brackets higher than I was.

Also, are there any costs I can deduct related to obtaining these vehicles (state sales tax, liscensing fees or even the mileage to drive out to the dealership?) and if so where do I deduct those?

I'll be itemizing (I've got pleanty of charitable contributions to deduct... tithes on a prize of around $50,000 value puts me way over the top for itemizing when I combine it with everything else). So far what I have to deduct is: charitable contributions, job search expenses (mileage and postage for sending out resumes - can I also deduct the cost of newspapers purchased to get want ads?), medical expenses (as I understand, medical expenses are deductable the year that they are paid. Is that correct? Also, can I deduct the amount I've paid for employer sponsored insurance, or is that non-deductable because it comes out of my check pre-tax) and some carryovers from two years ago when our charitable contributions were more than 50% of our adjusted gross income. Is there anything else I should be looking into to squeeze a few more dollars out of deductions?

Sorry to hit you with so many questions at once... and thank you so much for being willing to help us all with this.

If you have any computer problems, let me know. :-)

-Dyllan


__________________

Check out these [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now], or go directly to [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now] EXP: 11.11.2002
Pre-order the Star Wars Attack of the Clones movies at Buy.com, and get FREE shipping!

Check out these [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now], or go directly to [Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now]
[Only registered and activated users can see links. Either login above or Register Now] EXP: 10.31.2002
Save 20% off of your purchase at ICE.com with coupon code BCD20-613018.

[mickyphoenix]

ouch my brain hurts already lol
ok as for the truck thing ill check into that. LOL NEVER did a tax return where somone has won somthing that large... lol I know how i want to answer that but want to be sure before i tell ya.
now for the job search thing If i was doing your taxes i would let you deduct the papers but its a sticky one.
Yes medical expences are deductable the year they were paid.
Yes you can claim your medical insurance payments that you paid.
I think i read that you were trying to get a house so I assume you have no mortgage. so mtg intrest is out. and Do you have land you may be paying property taxes on? that is another one you can deduct.
As for the medical stuff like i was saying to doglover you will only get a percent of that.

But let me think and take a peek at my books and ill see what else I can come up with.
As soon as you realized you won that truck you should of called Irs and set up an estimated payments so you wouldnt get slammed at tax time with penalties. Sorry to tell ya that..
I had a poor little old ladie that only won 5000 last year and she went from not having to file a tax return to have to pay in alot (to her).. Its hard to think about tax time when you have won something and then you get that lovely 1099 and say ohh crap I forgot about Taxes when I won that.
Give me time maybe I can help you more when I pull out those old dusty books lol...

[Dyllan]

Penalties? Ouch... as I understood it, I don't have to pay estimated taxes until the quarter after I won the prize. I further understood that until I took ownership of said prize, I wasn't considered to have "won" it for tax purposes - that last was an assumption on my part. If I didn't take delivery of the vehicles until this month (October) do I have to pay estimated taxes, so long as I file by the end of first quarter next year?

Thanks again!

-Dyllan

[jakestrom]

I'm working two jobs and I am not having any money taken out of my paychecks for federal taxes. My wife does not work and I have two children. Is this going to be a problem for me? I don't want to owe any money at the end of the year. I am making about $2,800 to 3,000 a month (gross income). I live in Virginia, but I'm not sure if that matters for federal taxes. What should I do?

[kirsey2121]

I am no expert but our income here in Iowa is about the same, however we have one child, and tj files as head of household...we end up getting around 4000 back but I imagine if u aren't having ANY taxes taken out that you will have to pay in...maybe someone who knows more can help

[katlnhats]

Hi,

Since you can claim 4 dependents on your income tax form, you might be OK.
Let's all hope you are, good luck!!!! The dependents really do help.

Kat

[rosebud1972]

I have a tax question. I am living with my fiance and I am disabled with no income, no I have read that he can claim me as a dependent, can he also claim my children since he has supported them for the year also?