Done with your taxes yet?

[Niko]

Ok, sorry for the rude attention-grabber. I know no one has really done their taxes yet. But has anyone sat down with the forms and estimated what their 2007 returns will look like?

We had several big life events (that affect taxes) in 2007, so I was curious what our liability would look like. So the first thing I did in 2008 was figure my taxes. I don't have W-2s or 1099s yet, but it's pretty easy to figure what those amounts will be. After an hour or so of number crunching, I've come to the conclusion that 2008 is off to an excellent start.8)

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Well I ran them before the amt fix. We would have had to pay a small amount. Now I dont know possibly a small refund. Ill wait for all the stuff before I bother working it again

 

[JustCurious]

I haven't sat down with the forms, but I do have a spreadsheet which computes my estimated taxes for 2007.

 

[Twinkle Toes]

Crunched the numbers last month in order to determine how much to disburse from inherited IRAs. This is the first year I will have to pay state income tax and I wanted to minimize the state, as well as federal taxes. This year's tax bill is not too bad...next year will be worse.

I lived all of my working life in Texas (a no income tax state) and I'm not too thrilled about paying state income tax. Still have a farm in Texas...

 

[Spanky]

No, we normally get it done by the deadline.

 

[audreyh1]

No. Will be doing it soon however as we have to pay estimated taxes on Jan 15.

But grrrrrr I did calculate that our retirement fund paid out 6.7% in distributions. More than it went up in 2007. Arrrrrrgh!

Audrey

 

[Sue J]

I always do a guesstimate in mid October or early November. We get a tax credit for having a kid in college (Lifetime Learning Credit) but that will be partly offset by my part-time employer never deducting enough.

 

[Gotadimple]

Oh yeah, got nailed with capital gains in International Funds. Wasn't expecting that!

 

[Bikerdude]

I run the estimator on MSN.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I think i'm gonna wait until April 14th this year.

 

[SecondCor521]

I sat down with the forms and 2007 YTD numbers twice last year, last time was in October. At that point I was projecting about $800 in refunds between state and federal. It will be interesting to see how close I came.

I should be able to do them for real in February sometime after I get all the official forms and such. This year will be a very easy tax prep year for me.

2Cor521

 

[Animorph]

We had lots of very large fund distributions in December, so I've been calculating an estimated tax payment and planning what to sell to cover it before 1/15/08. I'm hoping calculating the taxes by quarters will avoid any penalties, but that's going to be no fun. I almost did that a few years ago but gave up because it looked too hard. I have a pretty good idea of the total via Quicken, which kindly forgot all my numbers today now that it's a new year!

Dan

 

[Martha]

I think i'm gonna wait until April 14th this year.

 

[Maurice]

Not yet. I started outsourcing it last year (which was a great idea, the guy saved me a bundle, and no I'm not a troll shilling for personal accountants ). Anyway, we'll get a good estimate by April, but won't be able to finalize it until the fall, as I have a private equity investment structured as a partnership that won't finalize its numbers until then.

 

[LOL!]

Lots of taxable distributions this year amounted to almost 30% of our AGI. We made sure we paid in 110% of last year's taxes in order to avoid any penalties. Didn't need to run a program to figure this out. Got turbotax and plugged in some numbers, but it was a waste since AMT patch not in. It did threaten me with $7000 in AMT that I expect to go to $0 when the software is updated.

We will file in October like we have done in recent years.

 

[mickeyd]

Yikes...I haven't even calculated my next estimated income tax payment due 1/15/08!

 

[LOL!]

... the guy saved me a bundle,

Since you threw that out here. I am curious, what specifically did the guy do to save you a bundle? Can you list one or two significant things that you (or that TurboTax) would not have done that this guy did for you?

I'm just curious if it was something esoteric like the tax break on beaver cheese R&D or something like that. Thanks!

 

[clifp]

I made an estimate in early Dec. Then frantically had to redo my end of the year tax selling, when the stupid Schwab Small Cap INDEX fund distributed 43K in Long and Short gains.

As for actually doing my taxes, I figure other than filing an extension in April I won't do anything until late May. Last year the last of my K-1 forms didn't arrive until April 22, no reason to suspect anything different this year.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I might need a few more of those on April 15. Bought and sold a house, turned over almost half the portfolio with a nice mix of short and long term gains, rolled over an IRA and a pension account. And then we did some serious wrangling... :

 

[Maurice]

Since you threw that out here. I am curious, what specifically did the guy do to save you a bundle? Can you list one or two significant things that you (or that TurboTax) would not have done that this guy did for you?

I'm just curious if it was something esoteric like the tax break on f*zzy b*nny R&D or something like that. Thanks!

I should qualify that, he saved me a few grand. It was mostly business-related expenses attributable to my wife's freelance gig. It was nothing that couldn't have been done through turbotax, I just was not aware of certain practices hence would have been more conservative. Now that I'm aware, I could do them myself this year and get the same savings but he's reasonably inexpensive so I'll let him do it again.

 

[Dawg52]

I won't get my final k-1 statement from my former company until around April first. I'll start rummaging through everything in March.

 

[LOL!]

Maurice, thanks for the response. That does clarify things quite a bit. I do a little consulting on the side, so I know that business-related expenses can be daunting/intimidating and that one can be aggressive or not.

 

[maddythebeagle]

I am also not going to file until April after having experience with updated 1099s on dividends about every year...I estimate in early Dec. to make sure to make some year end moves, though...

 

[Sandy]

I won't get my final k-1 statement from my former company until around April first. I'll start rummaging through everything in March.

I also have to wait for a late k-1 related to a small investment.

I pull everything together before then and am ready to go. I used to do my own taxes, but when I had to start messing with AMT, even though I never owe it, I threw in the towel and let my brother handle it - a CPA I trust completely.

 

[CCdaCE]

I started mine in TurboTax, but apparently they don't have the new AMT fix worked into their software yet. T. Tax software says to wait until Jan 15 or something until you can download the updated forms, and they can spit out the final numbers. Obviously, I don't have any W-2's, or 1099's or any of that, but I went off of paystubs and estimates based on last year. AMT says I owe 950, Turbo says I get a 1250 refund. So, if any of that is right, I hope the AMT thingy gets fixed "permanently". Pffft. Politicians.

This was after receiving a similar refund last year, and adjusting so I'd get closer to 0 refund. It's nice to know whether I can throw in an extra 3 day fishin' trip or something, though, when I wasn't expecting it.

-CC