TNL US Tax Thread 2012

[dog$]

Today is the first day allowed for electronic filing of your 2011 Income Tax Return.

News items for this year:

The Making Work Pay Credit (Schedule M) was not extended to this year, so that means that the extra $400/$800 payment which you had last year isn't there this time. The vehicle sales tax adjustment is also gone, which means no more Schedule L.

The filing deadline is April 17.

Schedule D has been completely overhauled and has spawned a new Form 8949 for reporting of transactions of stock and capital assets. Schedule D-1 has therefore been phased out.

Schedules C, E, and F are making new lines for merchant card payments. For 2011, there won't be any entries allowed, but the space is made for 2012 and beyond.

The IRS testing regulations imposed on Paid Tax Preparers are now in force, so you can expect to hear about that in the upcoming commercials by HR Block et. al. Speaking of which, I have come to find out that this is the last year in which Jackson Hewitt is going to offer RALs, so it's possible that this change might come to the other chain preparation stores as well.

Besides being a pest, a primary reason which I am starting this thread now is to make an offer to those of you who may still happen to file your returns on paper. As mentioned in another thread, I'm trying to become an official software developer and transmit tax returns electronically by my own means (this is a process which needs to be tested annually). A side product of my work is that I create IRS PDF forms which do all of the manual calculations automatically, since you can embed scripts into the forms (when you create them using LiveCycle). I have 31 of these forms for sale individually or in a package at protaxforms.com. My special offer to you is that if you want to actually use these forms, just PM me and I'll send you whatever forms you need for free. All that I would ask in this case is for you to recommend my product to other people.

As always, if you have any questions, please post them here, PM me, or find me at #tnl.

[Some Stupid Japanese Name]

I did my taxes yesterday. I've been using the same guy for ten years and he's getting up there in age. He seemed kind of befuddled and was misplacing forms and what usually takes a half hour took over an hour and a half. When I got home my chick went over the figures and he fucked up some simple math. I also noticed that unlike every other year, he didn't stamp and sign the forms, which leads me to believe he is no longer a licensed tax preparer.
I've been going to him mostly out of habit and loyalty. I'll be looking for a new guy next year, or just do them myself.

[Nash]

Thanks for ruining my day with this thread by reminding me that I need to do my taxes.

[Thief Silver]

Thanks for this thread Dog$! Still waiting on my W-2; My goal by next year though is to be filing more than just a W-2, and to start doing contract work.

[Chux]

Was going to use last paystub of the year, but then realized that I gotta find my daughters social security number (Wife put it somewhere), and then log into our mortgage account and find the interest paid on that... So yeah.

[YellerDog]

Gotta collect W2's. Did a lot of 1099 freelance this year and a poor job of saving, I expect to be stuck on a harsh payment plan. C'est la vie.

Socking away paychecks to throw at it.

[Gohron]

I should be getting tons of money back this year with school deductions from both my wife and I and also filing jointly. One of these years I'll finally get around to figuring out what we'll owe on our taxes so we don't get such a big return (and will probably funnel that extra paycheck money into long-term savings) but I've been too lazy thus far. It can be a little difficult with variable income.

[dog$]

Fixed some of my forms and added Schedule SE to the package. I really don't get why the tests want me to submit Schedules C and F but didn't mention SE.

I did my taxes yesterday. I've been using the same guy for ten years and he's getting up there in age. He seemed kind of befuddled and was misplacing forms and what usually takes a half hour took over an hour and a half. When I got home my chick went over the figures and he fucked up some simple math. I also noticed that unlike every other year, he didn't stamp and sign the forms, which leads me to believe he is no longer a licensed tax preparer.

Yikes. Good thing you looked it over. I wonder what credential he has (or had previously) - the Paid Preparer regulations are the least stringent out of anyone who is a "licensed" preparer. He should have at least that much down.

I should be getting tons of money back this year with school deductions from both my wife and I and also filing jointly. One of these years I'll finally get around to figuring out what we'll owe on our taxes so we don't get such a big return (and will probably funnel that extra paycheck money into long-term savings) but I've been too lazy thus far. It can be a little difficult with variable income.

A good rule is to always claim one additional exemption than whatever you normally put on your W9. With your child coming, you can probably get away with one of you putting an extra two, since you'll have some Child Credits to look forward to.

Otherwise, as long as you withhold as much in the current year as your tax liability was in the prior year, you won't be subject to any under withholding penalty.

[Chux]

Got my W-2, got my Mortgage interest paid, got my Mortgage Insurance Premiums paid, waiting on Steph's W2. BE ATTITUDE FOR GAINS.

[Yoshi]

It's time for your annual reminder that if you get a refund, you're a dumb ass.