2016 Income Tax Status

RobbieB said:
I'm never in a hurry, I wait until April even if I have a refund coming. I don't want any surprises in the way of "corrected forms"

My broker stuff doesn't even arrive until March and even then they say "don't file early, corrected forms may be issued"

With interest rates less than 1%, a couple of months worth don't even pay for a nice supper.
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Got the email today letting me know that they're sending out a corrected 1098 for my mortgage in 4 days, so I'll have the corrected form before I even get my consolidated 1099 from TD Ameritrade so that I can file.

I'm not really concerned about fraudulent returns being filed either as the latest studies shown that only about 0.1% of returns are fraudulent. To me that means that the odds of having a problem by waiting a few weeks to file don't seem high enough to risk having to to do amended returns every time I estimate something wrong or get a corrected form.
 
Taxes are done. E-filed the federal and printed the state forms all bundled up and will be mailed tomorrow when we're out.

New this year at least for the federal return was TT asked for driver's license numbers and issue and expiration dates for each driver's license. I don't remember having to do that last year. I suppose it's a check for forged returns, or at least will be next year.
 
Last year I wanted to file on Feb 1st since I had records from our broker transactions but DW insisted on waiting till late Feb when official broker tax statement was available. I also pointed out on possible frauds yet waited till the statement. There was a difference between my records and the stement, my mistake. I was glad we did not file prematurely.
 
Back in the early 2000s when I was filing two state income tax forms, I would file the non-resident one first and wait a few weeks until filing the home state one. I did this in case there was a problem with the non-resident one which was linked to the home state one due to the resident credit. I didn't want to be in a situation where a mistake on the non-resident one would cause me to file an amended form on the home state one because I filed the resident one too soon.


Thankfully, in the 8 years I filed two state returns, that never happened.
 
Just_Steve said:
Do I need to wait for a 1095 before I file?
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The 1095 provides data I need to determine the ACA subsidy, data I estimated beforehand but didn't know for sure until I received it. I don't need it to prepare my state income tax form, though.
 
REWahoo said:
As I've mentioned previously, I file in early February because I don't want any surprises in the way of "identity theft." The longer you wait to file the more opportunity some slimeball will fake a return for a big refund. Filing an occasional amended return is a minor inconvenience compared to dealing with stolen identity. :nonono:
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This year they asked for further proof of my identity . I had the option of adding in my driver,s license .You did not have to do this but it was recommended. My return was sent last week and my refund is scheduled to be deposited tomorrow.
 
RobbieB said:
I'm never in a hurry, I wait until April even if I have a refund coming. I don't want any surprises in the way of "corrected forms"

My broker stuff doesn't even arrive until March and even then they say "don't file early, corrected forms may be issued"

With interest rates less than 1%, a couple of months worth don't even pay for a nice supper.
Click to expand...

You live in California right? I always file early if I'm expecting a refund after the "I O U's" the state issued a while back for refunds... I had already received my (cashable) refund when they switched to IOUs. Since it looks like I'm due about $1k from Cali... I'll be filing as soon as I have my last 1099... so in a few weeks.
 
I trust the State of California, I buy their paper.
 
The IRS continues to improve security that should reduce the number of fraudulent returns filed, meaning fewer victims. https://www.irs.gov/uac/as-holidays-approach-irs-reminds-taxpayers-of-refund-delays-in-2017

The IRS and its partners saw a marked improvement in the battle against identity theft in 2016. This is highlighted by the number of new people reporting stolen identities on federal tax returns falling by more than 50 percent, with nearly 275,000 fewer victims compared to a year ago.

"These increased security screenings are invisible to most taxpayers," Koskinen said. "But we want people to be aware we are taking additional steps to protect taxpayers from identity theft, and that sometimes means the real taxpayers face a slight delay in their refunds.”
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More details here: https://www.irs.gov/uac/newsroom/ir...or-2017-filing-season-build-on-2016-successes
 
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Walt34 said:
New this year at least for the federal return was TT asked for driver's license numbers and issue and expiration dates for each driver's license. I don't remember having to do that last year. I suppose it's a check for forged returns, or at least will be next year.
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Same with Creditkarma. How should I know when I was issued my driver license? There's an expiration date; my birthday plus some years, but not an issue date. I just backed up the expiration date 4 years and called it close enough.
 
sengsational said:
Status change. The graphic is back, and it's hit step 2 of 3 (approved).



By the way, I wouldn't even be checking so often on this if it weren't for starting this thread. But I figured I'd continue to document the 'extreme' example of e-filing on the first possible day.

By the way, I'm going to need to do a 1040-X because the SLCSP came in different enough to generate an IRS bill if I don't fix the problem first. I knew that value was the one with the most possibility for being wrong, since I got it from the KFF calculator. I spent some time trying to get the exact number, but wasn't able to get it. This year, while shopping on the ACA site, I took a screen shot of the prices of the silver plans.
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I also recorded our SLCSP from last year and when I got the 2016 1095-A the amount is just a little lower than my notes say it should be. So I checked on the healthcare.gov website. They have a tool for finding your SLCSP - https://www.healthcare.gov/tax-tool/

The tool showed that the SLCSP amount is the same as my 1095-A, not what I noted. I think it's incorrect and it's costing us about $100 in missed subsidy. But I'm going to file with the 1095-A number because I don't think I'd get anywhere in dealing with HC.gov to get it corrected.

Last year when I filed taxes, we never got a 1095-A for 2015. I called in Feb 2016 and was told that we didn't have ACA insurance in 2015, that it was issued and then cancelled on 1-1-15. This was absolutely wrong and after many phonecalls, escalations and yada, yada we were issued the correct 1095-A in mid May, 2016. I had gone ahead and filed using the info that I knew would eventually be on our forms. The return was accepted but then our refund was held up because the IRS had no insurance info on us. Finally, I received a letter from the IRS asking for our 1095-A and by that time I had the forms and could fulfill the requirement. I mailed in the form and we got our refund.
 
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Sue J said:
I also recorded our SLCSP from last year and when I got the 2016 1095-A the amount is just a little lower than my notes say it should be. So I checked on the healthcare.gov website. They have a tool for finding your SLCSP - https://www.healthcare.gov/tax-tool/
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I checked that out just now and I see that it works. But, if I'm recalling correctly, I tried to use that late last year but the option for 2016 wasn't available at that time.

With respect to the SLCSP you saw when shopping for a plan versus what they say it is now, yeah, not worth fighting that battle.
 
sengsational said:
I checked that out just now and I see that it works. But, if I'm recalling correctly, I tried to use that late last year but the option for 2016 wasn't available at that time.

With respect to the SLCSP you saw when shopping for a plan versus what they say it is now, yeah, not worth fighting that battle.
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For 2016 our SLCSP was the same plan as the lowest cost one, except for an additional amount (I think it was $77/mo) for dental and vision. Since those components don't count our subsidy was based on the lowest silver cost. Personally, I think they should have benchmarked the 3rd lowest cost silver plan since the SLCSP sort of didn't count! But they are a big government machine and I'm just a consumer in Ohio. I think it probably affected my whole region and I may have been the only one who noticed.
 
DW and I filed a week ago today using TurboTax and our refund was in our bank account today! By far the fastest we've gotten it- maybe we beat the "rush"...
 
Fidelity 1099s won't be available until the middle of February and I expect the K-1 data won't be available to import from the clearing hours until March so I'm in no hurry.

In the past I tried to work on the return as I received the data but decided that led to more confusion than it was worth.
 
skipro33 said:
Same with Creditkarma. How should I know when I was issued my driver license? There's an expiration date; my birthday plus some years, but not an issue date. I just backed up the expiration date 4 years and called it close enough.
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With TT there was a drop-down option for "I don't know the issue date" and a couple of other options. In WV the issue date is shown on the license.
 
CA also.

I remember last time I efiled with TT I entered my driver license number.

Cool, I hate fraudsters.
 
e-filed.....FYI, ran into issue when submitting for transmission. Nag popped up telling me there were updates that needed to be applied. Run auto update and then do the e-file. Going to online update, TT told be I was 'current'. So, endless loop.

Got around it my going to TT and downloading updates to manually apply them. Had to restart machine (? TT did it) and the e-file worked fine. Just in case you folks run into the same situation.
 
My Fidelity 1099s just came out last night. I own only a few Fidelity mutual funds. My friend's 1099s won't be available for a few weeks. He has a more diverse set of investments with them including individual stocks and bonds, Fidelity mutual funds, and non-Fidelity mutual funds (from his large 2012 inheritance). I can see why Fidelity would need more time to get his done than mine.
 
Thanks for the tip, FireBug.

I have all the necessary paperwork, and my copy of TT, and now I am just waiting for a time that feels right, when I feel sharp and won't be interrupted. The nice thing about being retired (and also about the stupidly low interest rates these days), is that it doesn't really matter to me if I get it done this weekend or next.
 
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