Tax return....

"Dear Mr Shocknawe,

The Eternal Revenue Service, on behalf of the President, The Vice President, and all the money grubbing members of the Senate and the House (not to mention some 20,000,000 illegal aliens and other miscellaneous deadbeats), would like to thank you for your generous contribution of $2,200 to be placed in the pockets of the above mentioned groups. Your generosity is exceeded only by your bad judgement in placing this amount of free money in our hands.

Sincerely,
The ERS Team

PS: This "contribution", in accordance with ERS regulations, is NOT eligible to be included as a Charitable Contribution on your next tax return. This is because, in return, you have been the recipient of a good "servicing" (AKA "effing over") by your grateful Gubmint."
 
not sure what they changed, but curious to hear if anyone else is surprised with their tax return this year. i used that W4 calculator that is supposedly smart enough to tell you what you should select based off of what you've already paid mid-year.

Last year we owed $200 or so. I changed jobs and updated my W4 with their calculator. somewhere somehow, we underpaid by a lot and now owe $9K. not to self, don't trust the IRS calculators. funny thing is the tax guy 2 years ago said it was good, which it seemed to get us close to zero. they definitely changed something. we both select 0 and add extra per paycheck and still got boned.

My wife sold some stock at a long term capital gains should have been in the $2500 range for taxes. we received, but held onto the advance child tax credit of $2500 or so. so not sure where the other 4K came from.

shame on us for being successful i suppose.
 
I severely over-estimated my tax liability and have a larger return than I wanted to plan on.

It is very difficult to comment on situation without knowing more information than we have the right to know.

[SARCASM]

I suppose that you could take some solace in the fact that you are contributing to the best (sic) government that money can buy.

[/SARCASM]
 
My office prepares about 275 individual tax returns and we're about 75% through the pile. A rough review of the results show that refunds have been up in 2021 over 2020 and prior years. A lot of that is due to the child tax credit, stimulus and a few other more minor factors. For fairly straightforward returns with 2 W-2 incomes being the primary income source, significant underpayments have generally been due to either a withholding error or bonuses/stock options being a wrench in the works.

And it used to be fairly easy to guesstimate the W-4 withholdings based on a quick review of a tax return, but no more. Believe it or not, the IRS withholding estimator is now the best way to dial in to your refund number. At the same time, everything has to be in sync on your return with no surprises for this to be effective. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a consistent year for most people in a while.
 
daddysuperfly said:
Last year we owed $200 or so. I changed jobs and updated my W4 with their calculator. somewhere somehow, we underpaid by a lot and now owe $9K. not to self, don't trust the IRS calculators.
Click to expand...
Ideally, you computed something wrong and don't really owe a lot.
Not exactly referring to actual math errors.
Compare all the fields to last year's return to check for an accidentally omitted deduction.
(Well, or a bad digit; I've seen that, too).

Failing that, hopefully you fall under one of the exceptions which mean
you don't owe penalties for underpayment. That saved our bacon at least once.
Not playing chicken with withholding - just some unexpected income
that we didn't notice in time to file a payment in advance.

I'm no pro, and I'm not criticizing; just sharing a couple of real life proofreading tips.
 
TrackDayRdr said:
My office prepares about 275 individual tax returns and we're about 75% through the pile. A rough review of the results show that refunds have been up in 2021 over 2020 and prior years. A lot of that is due to the child tax credit, stimulus and a few other more minor factors. For fairly straightforward returns with 2 W-2 incomes being the primary income source, significant underpayments have generally been due to either a withholding error or bonuses/stock options being a wrench in the works.

And it used to be fairly easy to guesstimate the W-4 withholdings based on a quick review of a tax return, but no more. Believe it or not, the IRS withholding estimator is now the best way to dial in to your refund number. At the same time, everything has to be in sync on your return with no surprises for this to be effective. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a consistent year for most people in a while.
Click to expand...

interesting. thank you for the input.
 
AHM said:
Ideally, you computed something wrong and don't really owe a lot.
Not exactly referring to actual math errors.
Compare all the fields to last year's return to check for an accidentally omitted deduction.
(Well, or a bad digit; I've seen that, too).

Failing that, hopefully you fall under one of the exceptions which mean
you don't owe penalties for underpayment. That saved our bacon at least once.
Not playing chicken with withholding - just some unexpected income
that we didn't notice in time to file a payment in advance.

I'm no pro, and I'm not criticizing; just sharing a couple of real life proofreading tips.
Click to expand...
unfortunately, i think if there was any fat fingering going on, it was on a W4 somewhere. I also pay a guy with software, so I'd hope it would call out something way off.

Alas, I compared last years return to this years return. If I add up all the income and withholdings, we somehow withheld the same as last year even thought I took a job making quite a bit more in Sept. We'll just chalk this up as a learning opportunity.
 
Last edited:
daddysuperfly said:
not sure what they changed, but curious to hear if anyone else is surprised with their tax return this year. i used that W4 calculator that is supposedly smart enough to tell you what you should select based off of what you've already paid mid-year.

Last year we owed $200 or so. I changed jobs and updated my W4 with their calculator. somewhere somehow, we underpaid by a lot and now owe $9K. not to self, don't trust the IRS calculators. funny thing is the tax guy 2 years ago said it was good, which it seemed to get us close to zero. they definitely changed something. we both select 0 and add extra per paycheck and still got boned.

My wife sold some stock at a long term capital gains should have been in the $2500 range for taxes. we received, but held onto the advance child tax credit of $2500 or so. so not sure where the other 4K came from.

shame on us for being successful i suppose.
Click to expand...

Similar situation. However last year we didn't add extra money to the paycheck to the Federal. We did this year and STILL owe ~$4k.

Can't remember how much stock I sold, but I get a few $k in dividends too that wind up being taxed as income.
 
Getting an $1800 refund. Second year in a row we're getting money back......went decades owing $2k to $3k due to national guard income......we never bitched about writing the check we have always been voracious savers and knew it was coming every year. We're getting the refund right now because our only son is in college and we get that college credit.....our accountant has told us in 2 years when he graduates and gets married (then we loose that dependant) that well have to make some big changes to withholdings or our current setup will have us owing $7k. Boy does it change things when the kids grow up.
 
whacko said:
Getting an $1800 refund. Second year in a row we're getting money back......went decades owing $2k to $3k due to national guard income......we never bitched about writing the check we have always been voracious savers and knew it was coming every year. We're getting the refund right now because our only son is in college and we get that college credit.....our accountant has told us in 2 years when he graduates and gets married (then we loose that dependant) that well have to make some big changes to withholdings or our current setup will have us owing $7k. Boy does it change things when the kids grow up.
Click to expand...
Technically you lost him as a dependent at 17. Basically the college writeoff makes up for it.

I owe 500 to the feds and got paid 200 back by state. This was the last year I'll have a tax writeoff for my son's college at WPI. I have no mortgage and no major tax writeoffs, so we've been using additions to 401K, and health savings accounts to alter our income.

For the coming year, we have to put at least 20% in 401K, otherwise we will owe bigger. Problem is that buries that money for another 5 years for me. So I chose to put 50% of it into stable value, and gamble the market with the rest. Its not that big a deal, we have a large savings account, but we are at the point we may have to purchase a second home as a rental income so we can actual write something off, and rather than bury the money in a 401K. I may do that instead.

It makes more sense, and I'd like to diversify a little bit and if I get one down where my daughter is, I can write off the travel. Probably should have done this a while ago, but want to make sure the kids were 100 percent all set and out of college, before I started to take on any debt. I'm glad to let the bank own most of this and just use it as cash flow/tax writeoff.

I guess not having to write checks for college and him already having a good job before he graduates, and out of the house in PA, and off my payroll.......even if I have to pay in a little bit more for taxes I will still be way ahead.
 
Got my commiewealth check Saturday. Under 3 weeks from sending in the return. Should check my online banking to see if the Feds cashed their hunk of skin to give away to some freeloading illegals.
 
Mark from MA said:
Technically you lost him as a dependent at 17. Basically the college writeoff makes up for it.

I owe 500 to the feds and got paid 200 back by state. This was the last year I'll have a tax writeoff for my son's college at WPI. I have no mortgage and no major tax writeoffs, so we've been using additions to 401K, and health savings accounts to alter our income.

For the coming year, we have to put at least 20% in 401K, otherwise we will owe bigger. Problem is that buries that money for another 5 years for me. So I chose to put 50% of it into stable value, and gamble the market with the rest. Its not that big a deal, we have a large savings account, but we are at the point we may have to purchase a second home as a rental income so we can actual write something off, and rather than bury the money in a 401K. I may do that instead.

It makes more sense, and I'd like to diversify a little bit and if I get one down where my daughter is, I can write off the travel. Probably should have done this a while ago, but want to make sure the kids were 100 percent all set and out of college, before I started to take on any debt. I'm glad to let the bank own most of this and just use it as cash flow/tax writeoff.

I guess not having to write checks for college and him already having a good job before he graduates, and out of the house in PA, and off my payroll.......even if I have to pay in a little bit more for taxes I will still be way ahead.
Click to expand...
Oh trust me I'm not bitchin really. We also own our house, have a solid 401k built and knew the day was coming we would lose the child deductions. Well have to do lime your doing and beef the 401k input or buy a house to rent.....or.....just up the 401k a bit and end up paying "the man". Is what it is. I'm 50 this year and have a solid plan in place to retire when I'm 58 and a half......that's when I can start collecting my military pension.....and I can use va medical for my coverage until I Qual for Medicare and all that. If it works out I'll find a part time Jon when I retire to stay busy lol. I won't retire a rich man but I'll be able to keep up with my lifestyle I'm living now.
 
daddysuperfly said:
not sure what they changed, but curious to hear if anyone else is surprised with their tax return this year. i used that W4 calculator that is supposedly smart enough to tell you what you should select based off of what you've already paid mid-year.

Last year we owed $200 or so. I changed jobs and updated my W4 with their calculator. somewhere somehow, we underpaid by a lot and now owe $9K. not to self, don't trust the IRS calculators. funny thing is the tax guy 2 years ago said it was good, which it seemed to get us close to zero. they definitely changed something. we both select 0 and add extra per paycheck and still got boned.

My wife sold some stock at a long term capital gains should have been in the $2500 range for taxes. we received, but held onto the advance child tax credit of $2500 or so. so not sure where the other 4K came from.

shame on us for being successful i suppose.
Click to expand...
I'm in a similar situation. Followed the calculator and I seem to owe a similar amount of money. Nothing special happened for me though. No capital gains. No payback of child tax money. My return is a simple standard deduction. I'll be looking at this very carefully.
 
Poxbox said:
I'm in a similar situation. Followed the calculator and I seem to owe a similar amount of money. Nothing special happened for me though. No capital gains. No payback of child tax money. My return is a simple standard deduction. I'll be looking at this very carefully.
Click to expand...

If your compensation arrangement includes bonuses, all bets are off. Unscheduled lumps of income, even though they are reported in your W-2 are the tide that raises all ships and result in balances due.
 
whacko said:
Oh trust me I'm not bitchin really. We also own our house, have a solid 401k built and knew the day was coming we would lose the child deductions. Well have to do lime your doing and beef the 401k input or buy a house to rent.....or.....just up the 401k a bit and end up paying "the man". Is what it is. I'm 50 this year and have a solid plan in place to retire when I'm 58 and a half......that's when I can start collecting my military pension.....and I can use va medical for my coverage until I Qual for Medicare and all that. If it works out I'll find a part time Jon when I retire to stay busy lol. I won't retire a rich man but I'll be able to keep up with my lifestyle I'm living now.
Click to expand...
Yup......my tax guy said to have a little more taken out for taxes......and......I'm like...I will.....into my 401K....not into the governments pockets. Sux its tied up though....but why pay .gov when you can pay yourself.

Technically.....I could retire tomorrow at 53 and if the wife keeps working we'd be plenty fine. We just wouldn't take on the debt for real estate....or maybe we would and it would give me something to do, as long as its positive cash flow who cares, i could start property management as I'm fairly handy and have all the tools.

But right now....things are good, no ones bothering me at work, 15 min country commute..... and its all gravy. A good place to be.
 
TrackDayRdr said:
If your compensation arrangement includes bonuses, all bets are off. Unscheduled lumps of income, even though they are reported in your W-2 are the tide that raises all ships and result in balances due.
Click to expand...
This kind of amazes me......they take a crap ton of taxes out of bonuses. At least the ones my wife and I get.
 
TrackDayRdr said:
If your compensation arrangement includes bonuses, all bets are off. Unscheduled lumps of income, even though they are reported in your W-2 are the tide that raises all ships and result in balances due.
Click to expand...
Nothing like that. Very vanilla situation. You are right though. I had a buddy that got a large commission at the beginning of the year and it screwed things up for him totally.
 
My wife and I filed electronically this year. Payed the same way.
1 confirmation of payment
2 notice from turbo tax that filings were rejected…..reason, they don’t have records of 2020 filing!
so, I just printed out paper copies to mail in.
 
Just got off the phone with a lovely lady from the IRS. My amended return from 2020 was received mid September. Hasn't even been touched or assigned to anyone. But please go ahead and file your 2021?!

I just changed my pay so hopefully I don't have to chase the government for my money.
 
Last edited:
bejay said:
My wife and I filed electronically this year. Payed the same way.
1 confirmation of payment
2 notice from turbo tax that filings were rejected…..reason, they don’t have records of 2020 filing!
so, I just printed out paper copies to mail in.
Click to expand...

Did you file electronically last year? If so, did you get acknowledgements?
 
FPrice said:
Did you file electronically last year? If so, did you get acknowledgements?
Click to expand...
No, we did not.
we already had to send a copy of the Fed 2020 returns again, since they showed us with a credit for that year.
They cash the checks quick enough!
My daughter is a tax accountant and she was telling us her clients have been getting penalty notices for non-payment of 2019 and 2020 taxes. These aren’t small net worth clients either.
The IRS is totally screwed up.
 
bejay said:
... we already had to send a copy of the Fed 2020 returns again, since they showed us with a credit for that year.
They cash the checks quick enough!
Click to expand...
(I wonder if anyone has trolled the IRS by including a nominal check in their return
as a rich-man's form of "return receipt"?)

Hmmm, maybe my memory is hazy, but it looks like
the IRS is rolling out Yet Another Frigging User Account System this year.
 
Mark from MA said:
This kind of amazes me......they take a crap ton of taxes out of bonuses. At least the ones my wife and I get.
Click to expand...

Right, except the crap ton of withholdings are for that event only. It's back to the standard payroll run immediately afterwards but the bonuses increase your overall run rate and in turn, your tax bracket. Each W-2 is withholding for itself so the spouse ends up being at least marginally withheld but more than likely significantly underwithheld when combined to file a joint return. MFS is no relief for this situation.
 
TrackDayRdr said:
Payments are sent to a different address than paper filed returns.
Click to expand...
Pre-online filing, even if we owed taxes, the check went in the return's envelope.
Received is received.
If they get a check and can't figure out how it relates to a filing,
I wonder if they cash it anyhow.

TrackDayRdr said:
The rich-bois are eFiling their returns so this wouldn't be an option for them.
Click to expand...
Of course, there's now online tracking for all returns, right?
 

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