taxes and tax planning

LAA · Feb 3, 2015

I have been finishing up my taxes today and then I will start back on my oldest Sons taxes, one thing I already noticed is how much more effort he put in to tax planning and record keeping in 2014 than in past years. I guess writing those big checks to the federal and state treasuries with nothing to show for it has gotten his attention. Dad used to say it was better to pay taxes than to live off of them and I still believe that but it is still a dreaded chore.

rrlund · Feb 3, 2015

I've got everything printed off and have to drop it off at the tax lady's house tomorrow. This ain't gonne be pretty. Cattle prices were high and I got a good sized oil lease check. I've got a feeling the gubmint's gonna have most or all of that check when it's all over with.

Dell (WA) · Feb 3, 2015

LAA.......went to the library yesterday to gitt my 1040A manual and forms. Library said gotta ORDER direct from IRS, otherwize just use on-line forms. I gotta problem with yellow highlite on my computer screen. (frown) ........taxable Dell

Zachary Hoyt · Feb 3, 2015

I filled out my forms last Saturday, now I am waiting to go to the library and photocopy them before mailing them in. Not my favorite thing to do.
Zach

Dave H (MI) · Feb 3, 2015

I have to tell you that I am always amazed at how many people still mail in tax forms. Back when electronic filing first became available it was somewhat difficult to do and we charged a fee for doing it. We are not a huge office but we handle several hundred tax returns each year and pretty much every kind of tax form there is. Out of all of them that first year I think we only had 3-4 that opted for electronic filing. Then it became easier to do so we dropped the fee and made it a free service. Folks signed up for it right and left after that but we were still having a hard time with direct deposit of refunds. Got to where I had only two dyed in the wool, "never gonna e-file in this lifetime", mail-it-in fanatics. Then the IRS came out with a form you had to sign if you mailed in your tax return. An affidavit of sorts explaining why you did not want to e-file your forms. Those last two holdouts did NOT want to sign that form. After a good bit of wrangling I got them both to agree to e-file and they have been doing it ever since. Still not gonna sign up for that direct deposit nonsense, though! " I don't want the gubbermint knowing where I bank." May possibly be one of the most foolish remarks I have ever heard a person make.....Dave H, CPA

sms · Feb 3, 2015

Yeah, I feel the american dream is dead, if I work my butt off to make as much as possible I just pay more taxes end up in the 40%+ bracket. We had a slow year after 2008 crash, grossed about 25% less then normal payed a LOT less taxes and brought home about the same. Why work so dang hard?

pete 23 · Feb 3, 2015

I have always filed my own taxes and still have records dating back to 1957. Never costs me a cent except one time I did ask a tax consultant about a particular item. Every time I look online to E-file, someone wants to sell me a down load. So, I will continue to go the paper way. Down load forms online. The only tax I have to pay is self employment tax since I retired. Hopefully next year I won't even have to do that as I am too darn old to go out and earn anything anymore. Wish I had to pay about 100 thou.

rustyacres sd · Feb 3, 2015

Waiting on my K1 form as I own a small part of the company I work for. Usually have my accountant do the work and e-file. Wife is bitchin about the cost of the accountant. So I suggest we will copy everything and have her daughter (my step daughter), (who has done her taxes for years and isn't an accountant) and compare how she comes up compared to my accountant. I said, will your (our) daughter take the blame if we get audited. I preferred somebody that is licensed. Also there is the stuff of having to deal with a home office as I work from home. Will be interesting to see the outcome.

rrlund · Feb 3, 2015

That's how it was milking cows. I worked 24/7,made so much that between state,federal and Social Security,I was paying 47%. I couldn't pay taxes and pay off debt too. Some years I paid more taxes than I paid on principle. I did better when I sold the dairy cows,paid 15% federal and 4% state in capital gains and paid off debt with what was left. I'm a whole lot better off all the way around working less with these beef cows and not having any debt.

Pair-a-dice farm · Feb 3, 2015

6 years ago I figured out that it was easier to make less and pay less taxes than it was to work 16 hour days and pay most of my earnings to the government. Now I have everything paid off and make enough to get by and pay fewer taxes. There isn't as much incentive to prosper as there once was.

Mark - IN. · Feb 3, 2015

Decades ago I was comparing my check book to bank statements, and they just didn't jive but I couldn't figure it out. I always enter my checks, subtract, balance and just couldn't figure it out. For some reason the bank statement said that I had a few hundred more than I showed, and it went on for several months. I couldn't figure it out, so finally gave in and credited myself the few hundred...and then used it. A month or two later I got an overdrawn notice from my bank, and by the time I got the statement, they ran the check through for the second time. My overdraw fees were $50, and worst of all? The few hundred that didn't balance was a check to the IRS for underpayment at tax time and believe it or not they took their sweet time cashing it. Holy cow. I bounced a check to of all people, the IRS. I was out a $100 for back to back overdrafts, I owed a penalty to the IRS for underpayment and then late payment because they demanded a certified or bankers check because I became untrustworthy.

If you balance you check book and know that you're correct, you probably are. And if you're going to screw around and bounce a check, accidentally, of all people, not the IRS. Do NOT bounce a check to the IRS.

Mark

Jim in rush co · Feb 3, 2015

You had just as well give them all of that check, the banks ain't going to give you much intrest any way. Took mine to tax lady last Friday, finally got all 1099s

farmerjohn · Feb 3, 2015

Use this form to eliminate the hassle since we pretty much do it anyway.

Form 1040 EZ 2 DO

J.Wondergem · Feb 3, 2015

We're still waiting on a 1099, everything else is done.

Pete in MD · Feb 3, 2015

Dave,
What's the # of the IRS form you have to sign/submit if you mail your return in?

Royse · Feb 3, 2015

"I feel the american dream is dead...Why work so dang hard?"

I know this wasn't your meaning, but that is what many people think.
We need to keep working to support them.

I try to keep my taxes balanced. I'm not giving the feds a free
loan, but I don't want to pay them at the end of the year either.

Mine have already been filed. All electronic statements and forms.
No paper received or sent even for investments.

I did print a copy. I need to go get it off the printer and file it.
Just in case I'm ever audited. Probably a good time to clean out
the filing cabinet too. No need for 20+ year old tax forms.

LAA · Feb 3, 2015

I remember thinking that 35 years ago before the Reagan tax cuts. The company I worked for at the time required you to go to wherever they were short handed for however long, so you may end up driving 800 miles for 2 days pay and that was at overtime to your normal salary so when the Jimma Carter tax rates kicked in you lost money both ways, wound up clearing less on your pay-check plus you were out the travel expense.

Bret4207 · Feb 4, 2015

In my opinion it's crazy that the tax laws are so convoluted that we even need to hire "tax people". Better would be giving 5% of your gross to the Feds and 3% to the State. Let them work within a budget just like the rest of us.

Mike M · Feb 4, 2015

Worked on mine last night. Was a sleepless night ! I owe them money ! Both my kids are now too old to claim. And then the darn school now has a 1.25% of income tax in addition to what they get from property taxes. Wife could not get her work to get it figured out so as to take some from each check now we also owe that in one lump !
Will need propane for heat soon too. Car insurance due in April along with all these taxes !
3 hots and a cot is looking better all the time ! No wonder there is so much crime.

JML755 · Feb 4, 2015

I've always done my own taxes, even when I had my own business. Wife puts all tax related stuff into a box and I take last year's worksheet with all the categories of info (banks, property taxes, mortgage, etc) and copy onto a new sheet, fill in the new info. Transfer those to the 1040 and I'm done in about 3 hours. That includes a bunch of schedules as well. State taxes take about a half hour, city taxes for wife's income takes 15 mins. All paper filed.

Texasmark1 · Feb 4, 2015

I agree with you. Once you retire and start collecting SS the
incentive is to not work. Just wonder if that's the government's
way to get you off the workforce and make way for the younger
generation.

Course some people don't care about the double taxation. They
work to have something to do. Well there is a point to that.

Nice to be happy and live within your means. Worth it to me to
not have to get up and go to work in the morning. I really like
that especially when the weather is raunchy.

Mark

LAA · Feb 4, 2015

When I retire, lord willing, I will sell calves in my Grandchildrens names up to the amount of income they are allowed to earn tax free and give them the money, I will work them around the place some but mostly want them to have a head start and hopefully be interestd in agriculture.

Mike (WA) · Feb 4, 2015

I've always done my own, and it was a little complicated with both a Schedule C business and a farm. What I've noticed is that it's gotten almost impossible to do it without tax prep software. They have all these little "worksheets" that you have to do before you know what schedules to file, and they all seem to depend on other information that in turn requires other worksheets. And to top it off, they don't send the hard-copy instructions (with the worksheets in them) anymore- you have to find them online, and use a ream of paper to print them out.

I used Turbo-tax last year, for the first time, and was very happy with it.

ss55 · Feb 4, 2015

Gross or net? The big corporations would be up in arms if they had to pay 5 percent of their gross revenue in taxes.

Bret4207 · Feb 5, 2015

I'd say gross for regular income tax. It's be a lot less than I pay now. Corporate taxes, if you did away with all the loopholes, could probably run under 5% and they'd do better if the SPENDING was brought under control.

taxes and tax planning

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