It seems weird, doesn’t it?
Here it is April 14, and I haven’t done my taxes. I could have done them and probably should have done them, but as a procrastinator I’ve put them off because of the delayed deadline.
How about you?
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
I’ll probably finish my taxes tomorrow, did most of them yesterday.
I finished mine last night, but haven’t filed yet. I owe both the Fed and the State, so if they don’t want their money for another month, that’s OK with me.
Waidmann
My understanding is that the filing date has been extended until July 15…!
I hope so…I haven’t done ours either. We have an accountant do them…but I haven’t sent all the stuff – don’t want to drive an hour and back to deliver the paperwork, and haven’t gotten around to copying and sending all the forms. Lots of forms. We closed our business last year…but there are still lots of forms that we haven’t finished with yet. I’m looking forward to the day when I can do them with TurboTax or some such. Something easy-peasy. I hate taxes. And I worked for H&R Block for a couple of years – long ago when it was all hard copy stuff.
Because of my mother’s death last year, and dealing with her estate along with both of us transitioning to retirement, we hired a local CPA to do our taxes in January. Just as they were starting to announce the delay in filing date she submitted our taxes. Got our refund awhile ago.
Same. For the same reason. 😉
I’m mailing mine tomorrow.
I finished up a trust tax return last week when the deadline was still 4/15. Then it was changed, but, it’s going out. Then I started my personal return and I handed it to my post lady today. I did pretty good on my estimated taxes since I am getting under $150 in refunds. I’ll find out tomorrow if I correctly guessed the postage for the envelopes.
If you pay estimated taxes, the due dates have been changing. Estimated taxes for 4/15 and 6/15 can be delayed until 7/15.
I use the H & R program since one version has the 1041 trusts returns. A friend finally switched from turbo tax to H & R and he is glad – said the H & R program was much easier to work through.
Haven’t done them, but feel it should be real soon — since stimulus checks will be going to those who filed. First?
Not sure I’ll even get a stimulus check, living in Slovakia. They don’t actually use checks here. They DO have my bank account number and deposit info, in case they need it.
I just finished them. Time now for a bite of apple and a cup of coffee while The Lovely Wife checks my work.
Took the whole pile into our CPA on Feb. 20, before the stay-at-home order. Just e-filed late last week, and we’re getting refunds, to my considerable surprise.
I used to do it myself, but for tax year 1999, because we moved from one state to another, and because I also had to do my father’s tax and his estate tax, and a daughter’s tax, I had something like nine separate returns to file. Took it all to a CPA, and have had it done ever since.
Sent ours in a week ago. Got an unexpected refund. I pay estimated taxes and try to get as close to possible to our actual tax bill. We had more medical deductions than usual last year, which gave us an unexpected refund.
Just submitted our first quarter estimated tax. I know we could delay it, but we don’t want to pay two quarters worth all at once in July. Force of habit and CD maturation dates have much to do with that.
Filed via Turbo Tax in Jan. Got money back.
J.J.- I sent my state estimated taxes in with the return. The check for the feds will probably go out when I get my covid check! But I agree that two quarters at once sure impacts the cash flow.
Filed my taxes early this year to get it over with and because my CPA gets swamped near the deadline. Our taxes have gotten much simpler in recent years and I could probably use TurboTax now, but my accountant is a nice guy and did our taxes for free the year I was deployed so I feel some loyalty. I’ll probably switch to TurboTax or H&R when he retires in the next year or two.
I guess I’m not a procrastinator. I got a refund on my personal return by direct deposit on February 25. A few days before filing my personal return I also filed a final return for a trust and my late mother-in-law’s final return. The latter resulted in a refund which arrived by check on February 29. All were complicated returns with many schedules. But I’m glad that I’ll only have to file one return a year after this.
Mrs parker is my financial adviser, filer of taxes, and keeps track of our investments. She filed our fed and state taxes on Friday. We’re getting $3,840 refund from the feds and owed the state $2,400. She usually waits until 4/15 but decided we would get our $2,400 ‘recovery’ sooner if she filed a little early. We have decided to divide the $2,400 between two of our favorite restaurants to help keep them afloat. We also order lunch twice a week from each of them.
Many small businesses are going to fail during this ill considered quarantine.
We own a few rental properties and have a number of other investments that makes the whole process too much hassle for my feeble mind, math challenged mind (Discalculia- I was diagnosed with it in High School when the doctors discovered my Synesthesia) I had an appointment with my CPA on February 4th to get them taken care of.
If there is a word that means opposite of procrastinator, that would be me.
Like Lynn Hargrove and a couple others our taxes were filed a couple of months ago and our Federal refund has been deposited.
Illinois doesn’t tax RETIREMENT income but does want it’s share of “un-earned” income from investments. We’re gonna mail that return this evening when we go out for our grocery shopping.
If anyone is interested I’ll post a Northeastern Illinois shopping report comment later.
If anyone is interested in simplifying income taxes, you should consider voting for Joe Biden. He’s thinking about redesigning the return into two lines:
1. How much did you make?
2. Send it to the IRS.
Fractal,
Every good man deserves a Mrs parker. 😉
Our CPA’s a are a husband and wife team. She is a double cancer survivor, so client meetings were canceled and documents were dropped off into the air-lock (foyer) and then the assistant retrieved the docs from the air-lock. Human contact free. Still waiting.
Oh yeah, they had a huge computer snafu. Doesn’t that sound fun? Battling COVID issues and your computer network crashes for days.
Our stimulus money showed up today, April 14th, via direct deposit to our checking account.
In other news, my (our, but I’m the stuckee on this stuff) taxes were completed on schedule, except for writing the checks (USA and state). My usual date for writing the checks is to date them April 1st, which I habitually do as a bitter commentary on it all. I’ll do that when I damn well get around to it.
ADDENDUM: In case anyone is wondering . . .
BEGIN PASTE
The Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service announced today that the federal income tax filing due date is automatically extended from April 15, 2020, to July 15, 2020.
Taxpayers can also defer federal income tax payments due on April 15, 2020, to July 15, 2020, without penalties and interest, regardless of the amount owed. This deferment applies to all taxpayers, including individuals, trusts and estates, corporations and other non-corporate tax filers as well as those who pay self-employment tax.
END PASTE
SOURCE ( irs dot gov ) . . .
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tax-day-now-july-15-treasury-irs-extend-filing-deadline-and-federal-tax-payments-regardless-of-amount-owed
Filed ours yesterday and also paid our Q1 estimate. Like others have written, could wait until 7/15, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
Tom Grey,
My understanding is if you e-filed last year (or e-file soon-ish this year) and your adjusted gross income is under $150k for a married couple they will automatically drop the $2,400 in the bank account they have on file from your e-file. I think it’s $75k for individuals to get $1,200. If you are over the limits they pro-rate the amount down as a percentage. Then, I think it is treated as income on next year’s filing.
parker,
Mrs. Rabbit, here at Casa Rabbit, is a math person and would handle them competently but she works crazy hours at the hospital and just doesn’t want to sift through our tax paperwork when she has free time.
RTF,
It is my understanding that helicopter cash is not taxable income, but of course I could be wrong. That has happened before.
Fractal Rabbit:
Casa Conejo.
I like the alliteration.
I got my $2400.00 direct deposit today. I filed early.
Apr 6, 2020
Don’t Worry. The $1,200 Stimulus Payment Won’t Cut Into Your Tax Refund Next April
Kelly Anne Smith, Forbes Staff
Advisor
Contributor Group
Personal Finance
*E*X*C*E*R*P*T*
What is an advance tax credit?
The stimulus checks are technically an advance of a special tax credit for the 2020 tax year. Some tax credits reduce your overall tax bill — the more credits you claim, the less in taxes you will owe. But other tax credits, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, are refundable—-meaning that if you don’t owe any federal income taxes, the government sends you a check for the credit. In essence, they’re payments from the government delivered through the Internal Revenue Service.
The stimulus payment is a unique fully refundable tax credit. Even if you don’t owe a penny of tax, you get the full $1,200 per person provided you don’t earn too much (and you’re not a dependent who is 17 years old or over). Plus, you’re getting this special tax credit in advance—if the IRS has bank account information for you, you will likely see the stimulus money in your checking account in the next few weeks. (If the IRS has to mail you a check, it will take longer.)
Yes, you will technically claim the tax credit on your 2020 taxes, provided you earn enough in 2020 to need to file a tax return. But there won’t be any double dipping here; assuming you already received the money, the credit will basically wash itself out so you won’t be able to benefit from it twice (once in the form of a payment now, and again later to lower your 2020 tax bill).
So why are people calling it an advance refund? Does that mean the government is taking away my refund next year?
This is the question seeming to cause the most panic on Twitter. The answer is no. Bottom line: your 2020 tax return and any refund you’re due when you file that return in early 2021 will not be affected by the check you’re getting now.
( END EXCERPT )
https://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/2020/04/06/dont-worry-the-1200-stimulus-payment-wont-cut-into-your-tax-refund-next-april/#1c763e245ea8
I filed using H&R Block software the last week of January, had the refund applied to my 2020 estimate. I need to make a large estimated payment for the first quarter, but will hold off until July. The cash I had set aside for Q1 taxes has been disbursed for unexpected vet bills and a lot of cash assistance for some hard up people I know. The Feds can wait, and I will figure out how to get more cash to send them between now and July.
I believe the only legitimate federal taxes in the American system are consumption taxes. I also believe that is what states should do also (property taxes are sort-of consumption taxes), but if a state wants to invoke an income tax I suppose it is Constitutional. I also believe the Federal income tax is unconstitutional and that the XVIth Amendment was necessary to make it legal, although the XVIth should have never been passed. Men like Washington and Jackson would have raised a sword to any government agent who claimed a share of wages earned in honest labor.
The fact that the XVIth Amendment allows Congress to raise revenue simply by raising income tax rates is a gross dereliction of their Constitutional duties. They should be forced to fund the government through consumption taxes, and have to fight those battles with the parties negatively impacted by those taxes.
And, most fundamentally, income taxes are anathema to growth. “If you want more of something subsidize it. If you want less of something tax it.” Income is something any country should want more of for its citizenry.
I do our taxes on principle. If the government requires something of all adult citizens it should be something all adult citizens can do. I am fairly well educated in the skills necessary; I have had plenty of business, finance, tax, accounting and economics classes pursuing my several degrees, and I have decades of experience working with budgets, forecasts and tax law in my day job.
Due to all that I am likely more qualified than the average American to perform the task, yet I still find it difficult. And our tax situation isn’t particularly complex. And I am certain I could give the paperwork to five different tax professionals and they would come back with five different answers, and none would be identical to my own work. I can’t imagine what it must be like for people without the benefit of my education and work experience; and multiple college degrees and decades of work experience shouldn’t be necessary to do something all Americans over the age of 18 are required by law to do.
How many Congresspeople could correctly prepare their annual income taxes? How many do?
This is literally a criminal situation. It is absurd our Congress requires such a difficult and impossible task of all its adult citizens. As the saying goes, “show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.” Due to this absurd system our Congress has imposed on us we are all almost certainly guilty of tax fraud every year.
Thanks, MJR. That was clear as mud.
Neo.
Then Casa Conejo it is.
I don’t know much Spanish except for words like Casa and Hasta la vista baby. Where I live and grew up, we all learned French so we could deal with French-Canadian tourists in our high school and summer jobs.
Conejo reminds me of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings where Tolkien’s character refer to rabbits as Coneys. Probably has something to do with French and Spanish being family and French melding with English post 1066.
Turbotax filers for years, because we had our own business for a while, and now get rental & mortgage income.
Filed last week, but took a hit because the withholding didn’t cover my SS money, which we started drawing last year.
done early as possible given my job loss…
Completed and submitted mine, along with the checks, back in late Feb/early Mar, before the COVID-19 CRISIS and extension of the deadline for filing. Having to pay every year I usually wait until the last minute but this year decided there was no reason to wait. And we are selling our home so I feared being distracted and forgetting to file if I didn’t do it right away. I will not be getting a stimulus check, which is good because I don’t need one.
C’est la vie.
I’ve done them, but I haven’t filed them, because I owe money. I got my stimulus “check” today, so I don’t think there’s a relationship between having filed 2019 taxes.
My thinking is that it’s the same amount of work whether I file my taxes early or at the last minute. The big difference between early and late is that late carries an anxiety burden.
Likewise, I put away my tools at the conclusion of DIY projects. It’s the same amount of work whether I put away my tools at the end of DIY projects or at the start of new DIY projects. But by putting away my tools at the conclusion of DIY projects, I don’t waste time and mental energy finding and organizing my tools at the start of new DIY projects.
I’ve come to believe my Scottish grandmother’s saying, “Haste makes waste.”
There are tasks that are attractive only when you are prevented from working on them, like a dog who’s all hot to confront another dog through a gate, but backs off as soon as the gate opens. I used to get an uncontrollable urge to deep-clean the bathroom when I was supposed to be studying for finals.
Before the lockdown, my idea of a perfect day was one in which no one could require my presence away from my property. That’s still true, but the low-level anxiety about what’s happening to my country’s economy, and my increasingly unhinged neighbors, overshadows my pleasure in indulging my usual preference for staying quietly at home.
JFM,
I did a fairly major project on our current home and spent HOURS searching for tools, nails, screws, tape, the glass of water I’d drink to stay hydrated… I kept setting stuff down and couldn’t remember where I had put things. Finally on one of my 1,000 trips to a big box store I bought a $12 tool belt. If I had spent that $12 at the beginning of the project I would have finished in 1/2 the time, but no, I was going to be frugal and not shell out $12.
The Scottish have another saying, “Pennywise and pound foolish.”
I got AesopSpouse a tool belt but he lost it.