clifp
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2006
- Messages
- 7,733
I learned an expensive lesson this week. Always read the fine print of any special tax break you get before the end of the year not after. I cheated myself out of $2,000 -$3,000
I always file an extension, because I generally don't get reports from the small companies I'm invested with before May or June. I generally make preliminary estimate in Dec, using last years tax program. Start doing1/2 of the work in April, than finish up in late summer.
This year with the $7,500 tax credit I bought for the Tesla (which is available for most EV and smaller one for hybrids) I figured I'd owe minimal taxes. In 2012 I paid just under $9,000 in Federal.
I figured this year I'd owe about the same since, I didn't sell much appreciate stocks, sold any position with a loss, but my rental properties were pretty much rent all year.
Well I was wrong I actually I owe only between $4,000-$5,000 since I end up with $3,300 capital gains loss. No big deal I figure the $7,500 car tax credit will wipe out any tax liability and i can roll whats left into this year.
BOY WAS I WRONG. It turns out the unlike virtually any other tax credit (e.g. installing a PV system, the Earn Income Tax credit, etc), the one for EV is a use it or lose it. Not only is not refundable but if your tax liability is less than $7,500 use simply don't get the credit..
If I had known this (I had googled the damn thing last year and nobody mentioned the limitations of the credit, just turbotax and the IRS regs) I would sold some stocks with gains, done a Roth conversions and moved my last donations from Dec 31, to this year..
If anybody has creative ideas how I can pump my 2013 income, by $10,000 or so, I'd love to hear them. I'm depreciating 3 rentals can I not take depreciate this year, or even not tax the EV tax credit this year?
I always file an extension, because I generally don't get reports from the small companies I'm invested with before May or June. I generally make preliminary estimate in Dec, using last years tax program. Start doing1/2 of the work in April, than finish up in late summer.
This year with the $7,500 tax credit I bought for the Tesla (which is available for most EV and smaller one for hybrids) I figured I'd owe minimal taxes. In 2012 I paid just under $9,000 in Federal.
I figured this year I'd owe about the same since, I didn't sell much appreciate stocks, sold any position with a loss, but my rental properties were pretty much rent all year.
Well I was wrong I actually I owe only between $4,000-$5,000 since I end up with $3,300 capital gains loss. No big deal I figure the $7,500 car tax credit will wipe out any tax liability and i can roll whats left into this year.
BOY WAS I WRONG. It turns out the unlike virtually any other tax credit (e.g. installing a PV system, the Earn Income Tax credit, etc), the one for EV is a use it or lose it. Not only is not refundable but if your tax liability is less than $7,500 use simply don't get the credit..
If I had known this (I had googled the damn thing last year and nobody mentioned the limitations of the credit, just turbotax and the IRS regs) I would sold some stocks with gains, done a Roth conversions and moved my last donations from Dec 31, to this year..
If anybody has creative ideas how I can pump my 2013 income, by $10,000 or so, I'd love to hear them. I'm depreciating 3 rentals can I not take depreciate this year, or even not tax the EV tax credit this year?