Taxes - 2012 Edition

[btrage]

I'm sure we're all gearing up to start working on our 2012 taxes. I've been doing my taxes on Turbo Tax for the past 10 or so years.

2011 Review - My 2011 taxes sucked working on. Moved. Began renting old house. City income taxes for three different municipalities.

2012 Taxes - Bought a second home. Will be first time for me doing taxes owning 2 house at the same time. Our City income taxes will be down to just one municipality, and that was only for about 6 months of the year.

I've lived/worked most of my adult life in Cities that have had local income taxes. 4 different Cities I've paid income taxes too - Port Huron, Grand Rapids, Walker and Detroit. It's nice to finally live in a municipality that does not have a local income tax.

[wahday]

Pffft, taxes - I paid those last year!

[nrschmid]

I prefer to do my taxes the old fashioned way by hand with a pencil copy and read through all of the documents. I am somewhat of a tax geek and might go back to school for an accounting or finance graduate degree anyway. I don't own property but I have moved out of state twice in the past three years (and received unemployment assistance three times). I also do independent contract work on top of my regular job so I have quarterly tax statements to file as well. I can't remember the last time I received a refund (a decade ago if not longer). I don't want the government (federal and/or state) borrowing too much money from me interest free so I would rather cough up less money during the year and pay the remainder at tax time.

[Suburb Repairman]

Taxes... the one day I'm glad I'm in Texas. No local or state income tax simplifies everything. This year I stayed on top of things in terms of organizing and preparing for my 2012 filing. If it takes me an hour to do them I'll be shocked. I've used H&R Block's online tax prep the last several years, which imports a lot of the data from the prior year and has a really smooth e-file process. Of course, my taxes are really simple--even my investments outside or retirement plans are very simple to report and I don't have anything like income-producing property to cause headaches.

[kjel]

We have a pretty straight forward return. No local taxes here (they get it out of you other ways) and it should be relatively painless this year with a single W2 this year. No EIC this year but the new baby will help a little as will RT's college expenses. Probably $2-3K from the feds and break even to $200 back from the state.

[ddomin4360]

Pretty sure I'm going to be screwed a bit this year. I just found out one of my jobs has been taking out FICA and state taxes, but not federal income taxes!-

Thankfully I only have worked there for 4 months part-time so it isn't going to be much, but it still hurts.

[Mud Princess]

I used TurboTax last time around, but things are too complicated for 2012. I meant to call the accountant that a friend referred me to today but I got too busy.

[mendelman]

My wife gleefully does it every year. I let her have it.

[hilldweller]

I didn't even know there were local income taxes. That's some real b.s., especially if you're already paying the state income tax.

[JNA]

I didn't even know there were local income taxes. That's some real b.s., especially if you're already paying the state income tax.

yup we have them here in Indiana.

[DetroitPlanner]

This year taxes should be a breeze. In 2011 I donated my old home to a non-profit. That was certainly a complicated return. Hired a CPA to help me. That ate into much of what I gained by donated the home.

This year will be my first year as a non-resident paying local taxes. This means no local taxes on investment income.

Having a second home means an additional itemization.

[Richmond Jake]

I received my W-2 with my paycheck stub today. Started entering the numbers into TurboTax this afternoon. Preliminary results indicate we'll get a return from Uncle Sam. Still waiting for at least one more interest statement.

[kjel]

I am not entirely sure why our org has the W-2s mailed from the payroll processing company rather than distributing them with the paychecks. Supposedly they were mailed earlier this week, I hope it shows up this weekend. RT's was erroneously mailed to our old address which is no longer forwarding. She has to submit a written request with original signature to our business office via interoffice email (pony express) to have a duplicate sent to our new address.

[Hink]

We are paying someone.... not necessarily because I can't do it... but we are at the point that I am not comfortable doing it. I like having someone else liable...

[WSU MUP Student]

My wife is a CPA yet I still end up doing the taxes in our household. I actually sort of enjoy it though.

Our problem is just making sure we have all the correct paperwork because my wife always receives a stack of 1099s for dividends and interest. One year we found two in a drawer in the kitchen that we had forgotten to include with the original return. We were able to file an amended return and pay the additional amount that we owed without a penalty, but it was still a hassle. Looking at what paperwork we've already received this year, we will be lucky to get away without sending the IRS more than about $5,000k It's nice that we did well this year but we definitely need to change some stuff around to avoid this again next year!

[Linda_D]

My wife is a CPA yet I still end up doing the taxes in our household. I actually sort of enjoy it though.

Our problem is just making sure we have all the correct paperwork because my wife always receives a stack of 1099s for dividends and interest. One year we found two in a drawer in the kitchen that we had forgotten to include with the original return. We were able to file an amended return and pay the additional amount that we owed without a penalty, but it was still a hassle. Looking at what paperwork we've already received this year, we will be lucky to get away without sending the IRS more than about $5,000k It's nice that we did well this year but we definitely need to change some stuff around to avoid this again next year!

Suggestion: ye olde fashioned manila file folder stored close to where you/your wife check the mail. Get in the habit of putting every tax document into that envelope, and it will be there when you're ready to do your taxes so you won't waste time (and get frustrated like I do) hunting for them and you won't forget some.

The "great document hunt" used to have me procrastinating on taxes for years until I built a desk out of a flat door sitting on two file cabinets. Well, the door's long gone, but the file cabinet fits nicely under the new computer desk. The folder is in the front of the top drawer. When I get a tax document, I stash it there. When I'm ready to do my taxes, everything is right there, and I take a cold, snowy Sunday and do them.

[Hink]

I think there should be a cloud based system that the IRS uses. This paperwork crap is ridiculousness. I am sure there is an easy way to create a secure login for everyone in the U.S. who has to file.

There are so many ways that we could streamline things if we were so scared of the "man" coming after us all the time....

[WSU MUP Student]

Suggestion: ye olde fashioned manila file folder stored close to where you/your wife check the mail. Get in the habit of putting every tax document into that envelope, and it will be there when you're ready to do your taxes so you won't waste time (and get frustrated like I do) hunting for them and you won't forget some.

The "great document hunt" used to have me procrastinating on taxes for years until I built a desk out of a flat door sitting on two file cabinets. Well, the door's long gone, but the file cabinet fits nicely under the new computer desk. The folder is in the front of the top drawer. When I get a tax document, I stash it there. When I'm ready to do my taxes, everything is right there, and I take a cold, snowy Sunday and do them.

Oh, believe me, organization is generally not a problem in a household with two anal retentive types - I can tell you every gas station I've bought gas at, how much I purchased, and what the cost was going back to 2006; my wife could pull out her October 2002 at the drop of a hat if asked for them... The year that we had forgotten a couple of the 1099s was right around the same time we had closed on a house, done some renovations, and moved out of our cramped apartment and we didn't realize we had already begun a "2009 Taxes" folder before we started another one. If there is one thing we excel at in our household, it's paperwork and records keeping.

I learned this from my dad who meticulously filed every receipt (sales and purchases) and every tax document as soon as he received them. He has a hobby farm and was audited once a long time ago because he forgot to include some documentation for farm equipment depreciation and he became very obsessive about his records after that.

[Masswich]

I used TaxAct until a couple of years ago when I threw in the towel and got a CPA to do them for me. I missed a lot of forms but I have to say I more or less knew what I was doing. Most of the extra forms were ones that ended up not being applicable although you are probably supposed to fill them out anyway.

[Gedunker]

It's going to be complicated for me this year, so as soon as I have my stuff, I'll be getting started. Not looking forward to it, honestly.

[Richmond Jake]

Received the last bank interest statement today. Tax return has been electronically filed and should be deposited into the bank account in early March.

[kjel]

I am waiting on a misdirected 1099-G from the Dirty Jersey. My one week of family leave is taxable, the maternity leave was not....go figure. Looks to be about $3,500 from the feds and $100 from the state.

[NHPlanner]

Adjusted my withholding last year, so much smaller return this year. If not for child tax credits, I'd be getting back about $350...but instead I get $1000 per kid, so I'm looking at about $2350 this year (as opposed to more than $4K last year).

[btrage]

Stupid rental house is really putting a damper on my tax returns this year.

Sure, it's income to the IRS. But based on the mortgage payment, it sure in the hell isn't "income" to me.

[DetroitPlanner]

Stupid rental house is really putting a damper on my tax returns this year.

Sure, it's income to the IRS. But based on the mortgage payment, it sure in the hell isn't "income" to me.

See if the mortgage interest and taxes are deductible.

When I bought my cabin, I refied and the taxes are all deductible. Dunno what the rules are on rental homes though,