2023 Tax year time

[kdonnel]

My tax situation is generally simple and doesn't change too much from year to year but I am always nervous that my withholding is off and I will owe big.

I didn't panic this year when the filing pin letter showed up in Informed Delivery. In years past the IRS sent it out in a regular envelope that would always make me think I was getting audited. Then the mailman would deliver the letter and I would find my identity theft filing pin. This year the filing pin was not sent in a regular envelope but instead in one of those half fold pages where you have to tear off the sides and top to open. I instantly recognized it as not a scary letter from the IRS but instead probably my filing pin.

Does anyone else get some anxiety around tax time?

I have made the first rough draft at my taxes and should be good this year, getting a small amount back from the Feds and owe a small amount to the State. A net positive to me but not so much I feel like I should adjust my withholding.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Normally, I don’t feel anxious just kind of “here we go again” ish ish.
Since the man died my taxes have become more convoluted and thus I let professionals take care of it instead. It was hard the first year to let go ( I suspect my picture is in the dictionary next to control freak) but it’s easier when you’ve confidence in your team.

 

[china mom]

I do not get nervous but I do get annoyed because invariably, I will be missing one single tax document which must be chased down.

We are complicated enough that I use a tax preparer and I always worry that they will miss a deduction so I end up sending too much information and confusing them.

 

[lynxstch]

Very simple taxes here, no missing forms and no anxiety. Mine are already done and filed.

 

[tvguy]

No anxiety at all. Last year we got almost everything we had withheld from our IRA withdrawals back. We had zero earned income.
My wife went back to work last year and her earned income came to less than $3,000 and I expect the withholding will more than cover the actual tax liability so I expect another huge refund from both the feds and state.
Next year will be interesting because my wife's job ends in May, she should have about $7,000 in earned income this year with withholding. I got my first Social Security payment this month with no withholding, my wife will get her first Social Security payment in June with no withholding. I will ask my CPA when I get my taxes done if I should do withholding on Social Security. But we will stop IRA withdrawals this year so we may actually had zero tax liability a year from now.
Hopefully we have done everything we can do with our investments to reduce our tax liability. As I recall, my mom paid zero income tax to the feds or the state for 27 of the 28 years she was retired because of how her investments were structured. Tax free municipal bonds are your friend.

 

[georgina]

I don't worry about withholding because I pay quarterly estimated taxes so I make sure our Federal payments are 110% of the previous year. Since I itemize every other year, we usually get a lot back one year and owe the next. There is often something new to read up on, in 2023 we installed an EV charger and there are tax credits for that.

Since moving to Virginia a few years ago, their forms are much more complicated. PA was basically just a flat tax.

 

[sam_gordon]

Just got our last document (that I'm expecting). I usually wait until about Feb 7 - 10 to file just in case there's a document I'm NOT expecting. That's if we have refunds. If we have to pay, I wait until April.

 

[wabbott]

Working on my taxes even now. I lack a couple of 1099's, but I've estimated from my year-end statements that will get me pretty close. And yes, anytime I see a letter or any kind of correspondence from the IRS, a twinge of paranoia hits.

I used to use Turbo-Tax, but I got tired of the nickel and dime price increases every year. About 6 or 7 years ago, I found a site on the internet called Excel1040.com. It was created by a retired nuclear engineer who is a spreadsheet geek. He makes his creation free for everyone, and only asks for donations if you feed the need.

He has duplicated all the forms, schedules, and worksheets that the IRS publishes, and has them all linked together with calculation formulas. Unlike TurboTax, you can make individual entries and see how it affects the bottom line. He also publishes a forecast worksheet for next year's taxes.

I absolutely love the thing.

https://sites.google.com/view/incometaxspreadsheet/home

 

[soccerdad72]

Still accumulating forms - my wife will upload them all into her tax portal shortly and we'll wait word from her tax department what we owe.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Still waiting for documents. Should all be here by mid February.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

No anxiety. I get excited cause we always get money back and use it for a vacation.

 

[CGB]

Income tax returns are like a game to me. How close to $0 can I get?

 

[gmi3804]

Simple here. One mortgage, one property tax bill, one 1099 for my business, all our holdings and trusts are at the same brokerage house. I keep a spreadsheet of business expenses and donations.

 

[iivye]

I file 5 returns for various family members. I don't charge them and it's a pain to try and get all the information which gives me anxiety. I would love to tell them to go pay someone but then I feel guilty since two of them are my mom and grandma and I'm a CPA.

I do get nervous whenever I get a letter from the IRS, especially if it is for the company I work for since they've been audited a few times.

 

[amcnj]

I guess am more eager to get it all done with for another year, and anxious for the statements to be made accessible. There is always one that seems to take forever, often held up for certain situations that don’t apply to me. Why they can’t just segregate out those that it pertains to is beyond me.

I also prepare returns for free for relatives and friends, and have been doing so for decades now. Currently I am down to only 6 though. I am not an accountant, and never played one on tv, and now use tax software. Half the struggle in the paper days was obtaining all the forms you needed. Invariably someone would have some unusual situation that year which required additional forms I hadn’t gathered ahead of time. Combine that with being slow to get me their information, and it could create some unexpected tax time anxiety for me.

 

[Rex1993]

I get a bit of anxiety thinking about way too many late nights in March preparing returns.

 

[disneychrista]

If this year is anything like the last couple years I will owe. I will likely do my returns in the next few weeks so I can see how much I will have to pay.

 

[_19disnA]

It's something you do annually and no big deal to me. Plan ahead by taking out the taxes when you sell any investments to avoid owing a lot at tax time. For most people, I assume taxes are fairly straightforward and some seem to make it a much bigger deal then it really is. Perhaps things are more complicated if you own a business or are self-employed. If you work at a company, they will send you a W2 form and the other forms relating to things like dividends/interest/capital gains will show up in the January/February timeframe to allow you to complete your return. I have used the H&R block software the past several years and find it very easy to use. You can input the data from your various tax forms as they arrive, so you don't have to wait for every document to begin to enter information. You can also file the federal forms electronically, but the state forms involve an extra charge, so I just submit those through the mail.

 

[TippyThomas]

No anxiety for me as mine are about as simple as can be. I don't have a lot of things going on financially that require much attention.

 

[georgina]

I use the free fillable forms on the IRS website to submit electronically. Last year I finally stopped preparing DS's tax for him and suggested he use freetaxusa (free federal) to file. Of course I ran his numbers myself to make sure he got the same outcome from the program. They only charge for state forms, but since he lives in Washington he has no state tax.