Anyone nervous to do their taxes?

[Happyinwonerland]

I hate doing our taxes. I don't know why, but every year we end up owing and it is no fun. I keep upping the amount my employer witholds. and yet we still owe. I am not hopeful that the changes will do us any favors, but I guess we'll see.

 

[verleniahall]

already done and just waiting to be able to submit- and no change for us- still get about 700.00 back between state and federal

 

[TwoMisfits]

Since I only look at the bottom line yearly tax figure (what I paid for the year vs whether I have to pay or not on Apr 15), I know I'm doing better this year, so I'm not worried. However, I know in advance my refund will be smaller (but still a refund since we have the child credit), since my spouse's withholding got changed in the year after the tax law package, and we got more money each paycheck, which was nice...

 

[pearlieq]

Can't say I'm too excited for this year too--we realized some capital gains so I've been making estimated payments on that for the last couple of quarters. Hopefully I did my math right!

This will probably be our last year itemizing for a while. We're only barely going to clear the standard deduction this year and will be well short going forward. So at least it should be much quicker next time!

 

[DLgal]

Already filed ours and both state and federal were accepted. Now just to wait on the refund from state. We owed a grand total of $90 this year (first year we have ever owed). I'm happy with that. Getting back almost $500 from state. I'm sitting here scratching my head about why people complain that CA is such a "high tax" state. Our effective tax rate was under 3%. Seems pretty low to me...

We make adjustments to our withholdings a few times a year, so no big surprises. We knew we would owe around $100 to the IRS.

 

[aprilchem]

Already filed ours and both state and federal were accepted. Now just to wait on the refund from state. We owed a grand total of $90 this year (first year we have ever owed). I'm happy with that. Getting back almost $500 from state. I'm sitting here scratching my head about why people complain that CA is such a "high tax" state. Our effective tax rate was under 3%. Seems pretty low to me...

We make adjustments to our withholdings a few times a year, so no big surprises. We knew we would owe around $100 to the IRS.

I'm impressed that folks are able to file so early. We have 1 tax document in-hand and are waiting on about 5 others to arrive. So not filing soon.

I've done an online calculator, and I think we will come out ahead this year because of the changes. We've always made too much to qualify for the child tax credit, but it looks like we will get a $6000 credit for our 3 kids because of the higher limits. We always have to pay, so that should lower the amount, I hope.

 

[DLgal]

I'm impressed that folks are able to file so early. We have 1 tax document in-hand and are waiting on about 5 others to arrive. So not filing soon.

I've done an online calculator, and I think we will come out ahead this year because of the changes. We've always made too much to qualify for the child tax credit, but it looks like we will get a $6000 credit for our 3 kids because of the higher limits. We always have to pay, so that should lower the amount, I hope.

LOL. We have such a basic return. We don't own our home, we have 2 W2s that we need and that's it. No real investment income to report earnings on (it's all tied up in retirement accounts and 529 plans). I do our taxes every year using Turbo Tax and file as soon as we get the W2s.

 

[smiths02]

We sold our rental house, so without factoring that in (which is the part that scares me because we are trying to figure out exactly what our "gains" on the property are since we lived in the house 8 years, then rented it 7 years)...

We did a lot better this year on just straight taxes. I am not looking at "refund amounts" but rather what we made vs what we paid/owe in taxes. We made slightly more and paid less in taxes because of the changes with our credits being better was well. Also, easier because taking the standard deduction makes more sense for us than itemizing this year.

 

[barkley]

From conversations I overhear at the office, many people did not understand that the tax changes went into effect for the 2018 tax year. Many Americans are in for a surprise this filing season!

i agree and i think allot of people who relied on offsetting what they pay in higher state taxes w/the deductions that have now been capped or eliminated on federal taxes are going to be very shocked (allot of retiree publications are talking of people moving out of those states to lower or non taxed states when the numbers hit them).

I'm sitting here scratching my head about why people complain that CA is such a "high tax" state. Our effective tax rate was under 3%. Seems pretty low to me...

i think in part it's due to the property taxes and other local taxes. we used to be able to offset allot of our california taxes w/our federal return. with the new changes it would have been pretty different. people complain where we live about property taxes-they have no idea; our current home is valued for tax purposes at almost twice what our home in california was (thanks to prop 13) but we pay 75% less than we paid there over a dozen years ago.

 

[LYSE]

On paper we had an excellent year ..which is always scary come tax time...the changes will help us out but we will likely still have to go on a payment plan...just 1 year after paying off our last installment plan.

 

[wvjules]

Nope. It is what it is.

 

[twoolle]

We sold our rental house, so without factoring that in (which is the part that scares me because we are trying to figure out exactly what our "gains" on the property are since we lived in the house 8 years, then rented it 7 years)...

We did a lot better this year on just straight taxes. I am not looking at "refund amounts" but rather what we made vs what we paid/owe in taxes. We made slightly more and paid less in taxes because of the changes with our credits being better was well. Also, easier because taking the standard deduction makes more sense for us than itemizing this year.

I remember the year we sold our rental house that used to be our primary residence. We did end up with a small taxable gain because we had taken depreciation on the house when we converted it to rental. But since I do our taxes it was not a fun process to figure it all out!

 

[smiths02]

I remember the year we sold our rental house that used to be our primary residence. We did end up with a small taxable gain because we had taken depreciation on the house when we converted it to rental. But since I do our taxes it was not a fun process to figure it all out!

The best part is that we bought it for $142,900 in 2003 and sold it for $140,000 (minus realtor fees) so overall we lost a lot of money on that house (considering we paid the mortgage for 15 years and the rent didn't cover the mortgage once we rented it, and now we will have to pay taxes on it). The fun part is trying to figure out what Fair Market Value was is 2011/2012 when we moved out and possibly having to pay taxes on money we never received (because we had to pay the mortgage balance and realtors)!
I probably won't do it myself this year, too stressful.

 

[Elle23]

We have owed between $1000-1500 the last few years. I’m figuring it will be the same this year. I am always amazed by people’s beefy refunds that can finance a Disney trip!

 

[DLgal]

We have owed between $1000-1500 the last few years. I’m figuring it will be the same this year. I am always amazed by people’s beefy refunds that can finance a Disney trip!

We have had these kinds of refunds only twice and both were due to qualifying for the Earned Income Tax Credit during years my husband was deployed to a combat zone (so we got back what we paid in while he was stateside plus the EITC refund). One year we got back $8000...and we did take a Disney trip with it!

 

[Malyficent]

I'm dreading this year's tax return but also anxious to do it so I know the impact. Waiting for H's W2. We overwithheld for years and got insane tax returns. I stopped that nonsense about 18 months ago. Last year we broke even with the Feds and got a decent state return but this year we should owe the Feds. I'm hopping it's offset by the state return but set aside $ just in case. I'm hoping I worried for nothing and we can use those funds to stretch our furlough funding.

 

[LYSE]

We have owed between $1000-1500 the last few years. I’m figuring it will be the same this year. I am always amazed by people’s beefy refunds that can finance a Disney trip!

I know people like beefy returns but really your just giving the government an interest free loan, the goal should be to have a minimal amount due or a small return...that's when you've done well and should be proud.

For us..well we had a lot of capital gains in December so that'll be fun.

 

[starry_solo]

Doing mine this weekend!

 

[smiths02]

We have owed between $1000-1500 the last few years. I’m figuring it will be the same this year. I am always amazed by people’s beefy refunds that can finance a Disney trip!

It annoys me to no end when DH will come back talking about people's refunds being so much more than ours.
How we should use their tax guy because they got a refund.
I am not saying that a tax professional wouldn't find a few more things, but the real difference is how much those people have withheld from their paychecks.

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

I was pleasantly suprised. I’m divorced with 3 kids though I only get to claim 2 for tax purposes. So I do get the EArned Income credits. Last year my total refund was about $4500, but part of the year I was still married to my ex and I made changes to my withholding after the divorce. This year my refund is $6800. It will fully pay for my Spring Break Disney trip and be enough for a down payment on a new to me car.