Tax Preperation Tips from the Experts

Sorry i dont have any tips. But i know there is a vast amount of folks on the forum that can help us out with our taxes this year..So whoever owns your own business, or has been doing taxes for some time and has some loopholes or ways to get extra dough....chime in and maybe you can help the next person with the purchase of that next set of wheels:shrug:

See if you can claim your car registration, i think it's the licensing fees, it has to be a certain amount or it won't do anything. mine was like 143 or something like that, and i got some money back from it. 

School books, make less money, claim dependents, HoH, stuff like that. If you file and still live in the house, see if you can claim the house instead of your parents, see who gets more of a return, and split the return, something like that.

hey i like this idea.

Claim some kids in Puerto Rico.

Claim some kids in Puerto Rico





yes indeed

Must be a NY thing, we have all the scheme's

Get paid in cash :biggthumpup:







i should take my own advice:sad:

[QUOTE=Caoboy;121149]
School books, [B]make less money,[/B] claim dependents, HoH, stuff like that.[/QUOTE]

:innoutrofl2:

Yeah, it's true. 

I put in my first w2, and i got a decent amount listed for my return.

Put in my second w2, and it went down 10 dollars. Fuckers. 

I'm still waiting for my other w2's...see how much LESS I get back. You would think they tax you a certain amount, and give you a certain amount back, that it would stay that way, not the more you make the more we tax. 

HOW do they come up with these figures anyways? How is it that they give me less money back because I made more? It's like they are more greedy with those who made more money. 

I mean yeah, it's only 10 dollars right now, but it's the point that i didn't get any more of a refund for making more money, i actually got less. Which means how much did they really take out THEN?

Talk about stealing from the rich and giving (back) to the poor.

Another thing I don't understand, is how, if i made more, and they take more, then how do they not take ENOUGH when you make so much that you have to pay?

Maybe this is why we have such a bad debt and deficit in america.

[QUOTE=Caoboy;121551]Yeah, it's true. 

I put in my first w2, and i got a decent amount listed for my return.

Put in my second w2, and it went down 10 dollars. Fuckers. 

I'm still waiting for my other w2's...see how much LESS I get back. You would think they tax you a certain amount, and give you a certain amount back, that it would stay that way, not the more you make the more we tax. 

HOW do they come up with these figures anyways? How is it that they give me less money back because I made more? It's like they are more greedy with those who made more money. 

I mean yeah, it's only 10 dollars right now, but it's the point that i didn't get any more of a refund for making more money, i actually got less. Which means how much did they really take out THEN?

Talk about stealing from the rich and giving (back) to the poor.

Another thing I don't understand, is how, if i made more, and they take more, then how do they not take ENOUGH when you make so much that you have to pay?

Maybe this is why we have such a bad debt and deficit in america.[/QUOTE]

Wait.. I'm not sure I follow... are you lamenting the fact that the rich are taxed more heavily than the poor?

[quote=firelizard;121571]Wait.. I'm not sure I follow... are you lamenting the fact that the rich are taxed more heavily than the poor?[/quote]

if that is the case, then yes, America's tax system is levied that way.  Think of it this way....

Say Person A, who makes 40,000 a year paid 400dollars in tax.  That's 1% of Person A's income right?  

Person B makes 100,000 a year and paid the same 400 dollars. That's only 0.4% of Person B's income.  

So we need to levy people in different economic situation differently to be fair, and hence the proportional tax instead of a flat tax...at least thats my understanding of the US tax system so far.

If that were the case, everybody would pay a certain amount, not 'hey, you made under 10k, we don't tax you. here's your tax money back.'

and to the person who made 150k 'hey, you owe us 4k more than we taxed you. give us more.'

Like I said, I don't understand how this fully works. How they can give the money back to the 'poor' (it's not a bad thing, i AM getting a refund, but then again...) and how they can tax the 'rich' even more when it comes to tax time. 

I guess people are claiming too much, and they made too much money, that the govt 'didnt know about' and needed to be taxed even more. 

I don't understand why they can't just tax everybody a certain percent. That way nobody can complain, like we're doing here.  

Like I said the gov't seems to be greedy when it comes to taxing. If you make more money, they take more money. I'll find out when I'm done with school, I wonder how much i'll have to pay then.

Rich people can afford to give more in taxes, that's all. It's a good thing that poor people don't get taxed as much, but the government has the opportunity to make money off the rich people who don't need it.

That's how it works here too, the percentage you get taxed goes up depending what income bracket you're in.

[QUOTE=firelizard;121658]Rich people can afford to give more in taxes, that's all. It's a good thing that poor people don't get taxed as much, but the government has the opportunity to make money off the rich people who don't need it.[/QUOTE]

but do the rich people use the roads more? do they send more kids though the public schools than the "poor"? do they use more food stamps and other wellfare programs?

I think its crazy to tax the "rich" a higher percentage than the "poor". I think that it should be a flat percentage... ie 25% of your income. Then the rich are still paying more but at least its linear rather that jumping based on your bracket.


to the OP... the only advice I can give is, turbo tax. Thats what I use and I'm please with it.

i think gov doesn't tax the poor as much because the gov wants everyone to have enough money so the economy can function. so therefore gov decided to take more from the rich (because the gov can) and allow poor to get taxed less (so they dont have to be SUPER poor).  just a thought. 

as for ways to get more out of your tax return. Make sure you report your Stock trades.  the irs only sees the money you sell so you need to let them know you bought it for blah blah and sold it for blah blah.  if you LOST money through out the year in Stocks you can write off up to $3000 from what i remember.  but to get the best tax return info talk to the person that does your taxes.

Regarding taxes, I started using a tax preparer a few years ago 
and I've never looked back. If you itemize you can write-off car 
registration, work-related mileage, etc. I classify myself as "sales,"
so I even write-off my maintenance and modifications to my "demo car."

My tax guy charges me about $220 for this service, but I get an 
additional $3000 back (between both state and federal) so it's
well worth it!

[quote=Brokenbc;121913]but do the rich people use the roads more? do they send more kids though the public schools than the "poor"? do they use more food stamps and other wellfare programs?

I think its crazy to tax the "rich" a higher percentage than the "poor". I think that it should be a flat percentage... ie 25% of your income. Then the rich are still paying more but at least its linear rather that jumping based on your bracket.
[/quote]

It may look disproportionate on the surface, but rich folks have soooo many different shelters to get that money back, it's not even funny. The average joe doesnt necessarily have access to these.

Well if you are gettin a tax refund then you really shouldnt be happy.  You have just given the government your own money to use for a year with no interest.  Basically, they took out a loan from you and didnt pay you shit interest back.  Iam an entrprenuer and its always better to have to pay uncle sam at the end of the year than to get a so called "refund".

[quote=RaCinStylez;123064]Well if you are gettin a tax refund then you really shouldnt be happy.  You have just given the government your own money to use for a year with no interest.  Basically, they took out a loan from you and didnt pay you shit interest back.  Iam an entrprenuer and its always better to have to pay uncle sam at the end of the year than to get a so called "refund".[/quote]

This point of view implies that you would have had that tax money put to the side all year in escrow and earning interest to begin with. WITHOUT touching it.

 For many people , that is hard to do. Better for me if I never see the money and it comes straight out of my check.

[QUOTE=ebruce2;123073]This point of view implies that you would have had that tax money put to the side all year in escrow and earning interest to begin with. WITHOUT touching it.

 For many people , that is hard to do. Better for me if I never see the money and it comes straight out of my check.[/QUOTE]

Yes, thats the proper way to do things.  Even if you didnt put the tax money to the side you still get to use your money NOW rather than LATER.  Its all about learning the proper deductions to put on your W-4.  You must know exactly what deductions you can claim.  As for me, I know which deductions I can use.  I make the IRS take out less than they would normally.  That way at the end of the year, I dont have to take much money out of my pocket to pay uncle sam.  Even if at the end of the year I qualify for some more deductions its better that they took less money out and I get a smaller refund than the other way around.  It just doesnt make sense that you have to pay taxes and interest on everything.  While the govt is shafting you using your hard earned money and then giving it back without any intrest.  On top of that, not many people think in the mind set that I have, and actually believe they are getting a "REFUND".  Its really messed up how the govt has brainwashed some americans to think they get "free" money...lol... Its quite funny...=)

It's amazing how people don't understand that there is a reason it's called a 'return' not a 'refund'.