Tax planning worksheet

[tb001]

I know it’s hard for any sort of template spreadsheet to model every scenario, but I’m wondering if anyone has come across a decent tax planning sheet that might get me *most* of the way there.

I’ve tried running sample scenarios through turbo tax, but it becomes cumbersome to test different scenarios and I’m not sure I’m entering things correctly. Iorp doesn’t seem to have what I’m looking for either.

We have most of our assets in taxable accounts, but I’m trying to look at managing income for aca and better understand what SS and RMD will do to our tax rate. I feel like this is the one area that I don’t have a great handle on and could end up being a big dollar amount given our projected spend.

Any pointers in the right direction would be helpful.

 

[audreyh1]

I used to use TaxCaster online (also by intuit) it's up to date 2018. It seems pretty complete, but there may be some scenarios it doesn't handle.

I think the older version was very useful - I ran several scenarios through it a couple of years ago, but I don't think that is still available. I also used it as an app.

 

[kaneohe]

I like this one https://www.mortgagecalculator.org/calcs/1040-calculator.php

It gets the same answer as Taxcaster and the HR Block tax calculator but seems less cumbersome to do what-ifs since it is on a single page.

 

[braumeister]

That's the same calculator as the Dinkytown one, which I've always used.

 

[karen1972]

I like this one https://www.mortgagecalculator.org/calcs/1040-calculator.php

It gets the same answer as Taxcaster and the HR Block tax calculator but seems less cumbersome to do what-ifs since it is on a single page.

omg this is so much better and handles HSAs, rollovers, etc. yeh, THANKS

 

[Dtail]

Are you just interested in 2018 taxes or forecasting future years' taxes?

 

[tb001]

Mainly forecasting future taxes as income sources change. It’s relatively easy if withdrawing all from our taxable accounts, but trying to understand implications of different scenarios as SS and RMDs come in, as well as thinking about ways to manage income for aca.

Obviously a lot can change but would like to at least have a place to start. Most of our savings is outside of tax deferred accounts. My initial cut at estimating tax rate was shockingly low, but I know that will change as we start drawing down other accounts and SS kicks in.

 

[kgtest]

TurboTax 2018 is out now. I started running the MFJ + Standard Deduction scenario to see how it shakes out. 1098 and property tax deductions arent available until Jan1 though.



I use TaxCaster until they finally release TurboTax come November each year.



Losing that 4k/person exemption is not helping our situation. Once they finalize I should breakeven but for a second it said I had underpaid and owed a $9 penalty lol Then I added in child care expenses

 

[bingybear]

I was trying to figure out roth conversions for the next decade + and approximated the flow of Q-divy, LTCG, and ordinary income (STCG) based on growth and assumed reinvesting money that is not spent. Just wrote a macro based spreadsheet for the whole thing. But I left SS out as I don't expect to take SS until after the conversions are done.

I did leave out AMT since I can't use the simple form for it anyway.

I would not expect a spreadsheet should be easy to write unless you have really complicated stuff.

 

[sengsational]

Good Question

I've always maintained that you must plan for every year of the plan (aka until you kick the bucket), in order to get the most out of the financial chess moves. That's why I usually recommend i-orp, but I'll grant you that the tax calculation is bothersomely opaque and the resulting plan doesn't lend itself to pulling into a spreadsheet for tweaking. I do have a spreadsheet which replicates many, but not all, of the calculations.

Another failed attempt that I made was to try to simplify an existing, highly complete, single-year, multi-sheet federal income tax spreadsheet into a single page. The idea was that I'd stack up 30 pages (30 years), and then try to model all tax years at once. After a few hours I decided to go outside and catch a butterfly or something, but I'm sure someone with more dedication could do it. One of the annoyances was that the sheet was "protected", so I had to run it through some translations to unlock it, and that removed some functionality, which I needed to put back (super tedious).

Anyway, good question, I'd like to see a really good way to do more than one year at a time...in fact all years at once.

 

[Cobra9777]

I've always used spreadsheets that are highly customized (simplified) to our specific situation. This makes it easier to model multiple years, including strategies like Roth conversions and various withdrawal strategies, such as when to take SS. Trying to analyze the interrelationships of all these decisions over long periods of time is quite complex and thus well suited for spreadsheet modeling.

I use the dinkytown and turbotax tools just to validate my spreadsheet calculations for the current year. These tools are great for that, but they're still too detailed for efficient multi-year planning. I don't need lines for intangible drilling costs, alimony received, and child tax credits. So beyond the highly-customized tax calculation, you just have to index brackets and the standard deduction for inflation, but that's fairly straightforward.