Thumbs Up for FreeTaxUSA

[audreyh1]

For those of you looking for a free tax return, let me put in a plug for the AARP Tax Foundation. Trained and tested volunteers will prepare your federal, state, and local (at some sites) returns at no cost to you.

The program is geared toward senior citizens and low- to moderate-income taxpayers, but we do not turn anyone away unless their return is out of scope. For example, we can’t do rental properties, businesses that carry inventory, or businesses that have a net loss. We routinely handle itemized deductions, capital gains, Schedule C income, and ACA calculations.

How about those not so mobile senior citizens in assisted living?

 

[Souschef]

How about those not so mobile senior citizens in assisted living?

As a generalization, if you are in assisted living, you do not have enough income to file.
YMMV

 

[audreyh1]

As a generalization, if you are in assisted living, you do not have enough income to file.
YMMV

Excuse me? How does that work? Assisted living has nothing to do with income.

My Dad still has SS and Pension income, income from renting farm land and income from investments.

He can't drive anymore and moved to assisted living. At this moment my brother comes down a couple of times in April and ferries stuff over to Dad's accountant and I think last time signed the return for him.

 

[Golden sunsets]

I'm glad this topic came up as my Mom moved into an assisted living facility this year. She has paid very little in income taxes since my Dad died(I prepare her return). I have been assuming that for 2018, I would not need to file for her as the cost of her Assisted Living would become part of her medical expense deduction, wiping out her income and any tax liability. Am I mistaken? If I'm wrong, I'll need to file. The liability would be diminimus, but I wouldn't want to make a mistake by not filing.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum

 

[Free To Canoe]

Question
How much do you have to make to file taxes — What is the minimum income to file taxes?
Answer
The minimum income amount depends on your filing status and age. In 2017, for example, the minimum for single filing status if under age 65 is $10,400. If your income is below that threshold, you generally do not need to file a federal tax return. Review the full list below for other filing statuses and ages.

Single filing status:
$10,400 if under age 65
$11,950 if age 65 or older
Married filing jointly:
$20,800 if both spouses under age 65
$22,050 if one spouse under age 65 and one age 65 or older
$23,300 if both spouses age 65 or older
Married filing separately — $4,050 for all ages
Head of household:
$13,400 if under age 65
$14,950 if age 65 or older
Qualifying widow(er) with dependent child:
$16,750 if under age 65
$18,000 if age 65 or older
You might also be required to file for other reasons, such as if you’re self-employed or paid on a 1099-MISC form, or bought health insurance from a state or federal marketplace. If you can be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s return, separate filing thresholds apply. Please see IRS Publication 501 for additional information.

Do I Have to File Taxes? — Additional Considerations

If you need deductions to wipe out taxable income, then you will need to file.
Other requirement also apply, like if you have capital gains.

 

[Golden sunsets]

If you need deductions to wipe out taxable income, then you will need to file.
Other requirement also apply, like if you have capital gains.

It looks like some of the medical portion of her monthly expenses will be deductible if they are over 7.5% of her income. There seems to be a reference also to dementia patients, qualifying for more than just the medical part of the monthly fee. And as the previous poster mentioned I'll still need to file. Now my question is - how does one go about finding out the amounts that do qualify as medical, or custodial in the case of dementia. I've got some digging to do, but I suspect these costs will eliminate the small tax liability that she has.

 

[Philliefan33]

How about those not so mobile senior citizens in assisted living?

That will vary by location. Local coordinators set up sites to serve the community. Our main location is the local senior center so we get a lot of clients who routinely visit there. Others come specifically for their taxes. Some clients are brought in by caregivers (family or paid).

We also do a few “one day” sites, for example at a large rent-subsidized apartment building. Most residents there do not have enough income to be required to file federally, but having a 1040 makes it easier to meet the requirements for some social programs in PA. So we set up in the common room and help the residents fill out their 1040 and the PA rent rebate forms.

I know some LC’s in the county have one-day sites in assisted living facilities, with evening hours to make it more convenient for a family member to attend and help the taxpayer.

 

[audreyh1]

That will vary by location. Local coordinators set up sites to serve the community. Our main location is the local senior center so we get a lot of clients who routinely visit there. Others come specifically for their taxes. Some clients are brought in by caregivers (family or paid).

We also do a few “one day” sites, for example at a large rent-subsidized apartment building. Most residents there do not have enough income to be required to file federally, but having a 1040 makes it easier to meet the requirements for some social programs in PA. So we set up in the common room and help the residents fill out their 1040 and the PA rent rebate forms.

I know some LC’s in the county have one-day sites in assisted living facilities, with evening hours to make it more convenient for a family member to attend and help the taxpayer.

Thanks.

At least half of the residents in Dad's assisted living are reasonably able bodied and of reasonably sound mind, they are just past the point where they can live on their own and generally don't go out or drive somewhere by themselves. But with meals and housekeeping are otherwise mostly able to care for themselves. It's not a Medicare type facility - the residents must be reasonably well off, so I expect all of them have to file taxes. In my Dad's case, he is still sharp, but he is frail, has difficulty walking, and even his hands don't work that well anymore so writing is getting to be a chore.

It's gotten to a point where Dad really doesn't want to go anywhere. Getting into and out of a car is an ordeal. Since he has a long-time tax preparer we've been able to manage it - my brother who lives 2 hours away deals with taking docs to the preparer, it's really a bit much for Dad to mail them, and I who manage most of his expenses (but I do not receive his tax statements) am able to clarify most things by email.

I've wondered for myself in the future. At some point I may need to deal with a tax preparer to either come to me or I'll need to get them the docs somehow. Heck, maybe I can hire a courier or something.

 

[deserat]

I am a brute-force, do-it-myself and file through the mail person. I use the pdf fillable forms, print them out and then if I owe, mail on 15 April, if they owe, mail on 1 Jan. I've done this for years now and have had some fairly complex filing situations (living overseas, pension income, dividends, interest, self-employed, moving, etc).

It helps me see the shenanigans of the IRS and the form builders; I also see some of the special giveaways and how they play games with math. Most of the time, I'm pretty close on my estimates and during the year I try to work it so I'm in a situation at the end of the year where I owe them as I'm not a fan of giving my governments interest-free loans.

The other issue I've found is the tax preparation software handles the average cases but any situations that are a bit odd, they crap-out and I would end up having to do it myself anyway.

YMMV - it depends on the person and their tolerance for this type of activity.

 

[Souschef]

I am a brute-force, do-it-myself and file through the mail person. I use the pdf fillable forms, print them out and then if I owe, mail on 15 April, if they owe, mail on 1 Jan. I've done this for years now and have had some fairly complex filing situations (living overseas, pension income, dividends, interest, self-employed, moving, etc).

It helps me see the shenanigans of the IRS and the form builders; I also see some of the special giveaways and how they play games with math. Most of the time, I'm pretty close on my estimates and during the year I try to work it so I'm in a situation at the end of the year where I owe them as I'm not a fan of giving my governments interest-free loans.

The other issue I've found is the tax preparation software handles the average cases but any situations that are a bit odd, they crap-out and I would end up having to do it myself anyway.

YMMV - it depends on the person and their tolerance for this type of activity.

You are correct about that. i have been using tax software at home and with the AARP tax help program. I am good at math, but looking at the Social Security worksheet makes my eyes cross

 

[Earl E Retyre]

I just tried using FreeTaxUSA for the 1st time and also give it a thumbs up.

I would say that the interface in FreeTax is probably a bit easier to use and it is free to file Federal taxes. It yielded the same results as Turbo Tax.

I have been using Turbo Tax for years, but now I am not sure why. I believe TT handles the circular reference for ACA better, but I could manually do it in FreeTaxUSA. Will probably save the $60 per year from now on and use this.

 

[donheff]

I just tried using FreeTaxUSA for the 1st time and also give it a thumbs up.
.

I just ran into it the other day when I had to reconstruct DS’s 2014 return. It does seem easy and effective. I’m trying it on my own along side TT this year. We have to file a bit of self employment income in two states so it will be interesting to see how it compares.

 

[dtbach]

Get TT for free as have enough in Fidelity. Have no desire to change after using it for at least 30 years.

 

[bushpilot]

I have been using TaxAct for a number of years, but last year the price was significantly higher (it used to be pretty close to free). Last year I used Free Tax USA, and was pleased. I will use it again this year.

 

[retired1]

Just efiled with FreeTaxUSA.com for the second year in a row (online).

Nice interface, and because they had last year's return, lots of things were ready to fill in, with the values for last year displayed for comparison.

Recommended.

Do you know if Business return can be done on FreeTaxUSA for $0 ?

 

[frank]

is freetax free for both state and federal? is it online or do you download the software to your laptop?

 

[wmc1000]

FreeTaxUSA is an online produt I used in 2016. I switched to OLT.com, (OnLine Tax), last year as both fed and state were free but FreeTaxUSA was only free for federal in my case.

 

[donheff]

This thread got me interested in these online low cost apps so I have been trying them out to compare with Turbo Tax which I have already bought for this year. I loaded up my data in TaxFreeUSA and OLT. Our basic tax situation is very simple and either app would do fine. But DW gets about $30K of self employed income on a partnership K-1 (without doing a lick of work). She has to pay SEP taxes for social security, has to file returns in DC and California, has ten other states paid through a composite return that gets deducted from DC, and will have qualified business income this year. So I was eager to see what these systems would do.

DW's K-1 and state composite info won't arrive until late March so I entered last year's numbers to get a look at how things will likely work out (actual numbers will be almost the same). FreeTax popped open a QBI worksheet that properly removed the deductible half of the SEP tax from the earnings used for the QBI calculation and appears to have properly calculated the QBI deduction. OLT did not (yet) take me through a QBI worksheet and initially made no adjustment for it. Looking under the hood I learned that there is a new entry and code in box 20 of this year's K-1 that lists QBI income. FreeTax questioned me about it. OLT didn't. I went back into OLT and entered data for box 20 and OLT then added a QBI deduction on my 1040 but it appeared to be about twice as large as it should be.

I found a link to send a question to OLT so I posted a description of what happened and asked whether it was a software error or whether I might have done something wrong. They got back to me in a couple of hours explaining that the QBI instructions were late and they haven't yet worked it out in the software. I was very impressed with the quick response but don't like that they didn't have a caution on QBI in the meantime.

I will watch OLT to see if they fix the QBI problem. So far I would say both systems are pretty darn good. It will be interesting to see how TT compares. I am not putting any K-1 info in there until I get the real thing in late March.

The best thing about these online systems is that you can run the Federal numbers in both for free. It is an excellent way to cross check your return to make sure you don't have glaring errors.