Oklahoma Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Holy AMT...
I thought this year that we would be close to owing $0 for when we file federal taxes.
I checked using the withholding calculator on the IRS website and it said we owed $3K. I did an estimate in TaxAct and it said I owed $3500+. How can we be that off? I was pretty bummed that we owed so much. I then read that TaxAct hit me with alternative minimum tax. I went through those screens and it reduced it to $850. That's better, but AMT is still there. It they pass the ATM relief, I only owe $60, no AMT.
I'm not rich.
Where is stripes?
Re: Holy AMT...
One thing we've done in the past is go ahead and put money in an IRA at the end of the year if we'd owe. Is that an option?
You probably know I'm Ms. "We Should All Pay Our Share!" but the dollar amounts at which the AMT kicks in are way too low and definitely need to be adjusted (again!)
I'm lost. And obviously no help. Maybe I need to do some research...obviously.
All I know is we've paid in more this year than we did last year and we haven't even made our fourth quarter payment yet. I'm going to die if we owe in April. DIE. Maybe our energy credits will help? Ha.
Likely, Congress will pass something to 'fix' AMT for a year or two.
http://www.boston.com/business/taxes/articles/2010/11/10/lawmakers_vow_fix_for_alternative_tax/
I never put information into TaxAct so early before but last year we withheld too little and I didn't want that to happen again and pay penalties.
Yup, if the patch isn't passed, we will owe AMT as well. I have our taxes (fed and state) calculated to exactly zero. If the patch isn't passed, we are screwed.
I went to a tax update training the week before last and they are confident it will be passed.
Like I have said all along - the amounts that determine AMT NEED to be raised. The amounts for AMT were determined in the 80s and have barely been touched since then. Its ridiculous.
BTW boymom - things like your itemized deductions, personal exemptions and tax energy credits are NOT CONSIDERED when calculating AMT. I agree with AMT - its the government's way of ensuring the "rich" pay taxes - however, people at my income level don't generally have any "funny business" going on - it is STUPID.
I am confused. Is your husband self employed? Why are you making estimated quarterly tax payments?!?
I can't quite remember - but I think any amounts contributed to an IRA are "taken out" when calculating AMT as well.
Basically, anything that would benefit "the rich" are excluded when calculated AMT. An IRA is a rich people thing. Sorry.
Yes.
We don't have taxes taken out of our checks, so we do them ourselves. We're incorporated, so that helps, but it's still hard to estimate how much we're going to owe since our income varies month to month.
Speaking of having to pay in your own taxes...
One of H's co-workers hasn't paid in all year. (He always has in the past). He plans to just pay it all in in April. Not only is he going to be penalized for not making his estimated payments, he's going to owe a crap load of money all at once. I just don't get his thinking. Why not spread it out over the year? He also doesn't have it in the bank...he's quite the spender. He isn't sure what he's going to do. YIKES.
Another one of his ex co-workers owes the IRS hundreds of thousands. He's on a payment plan to pay it because he obviously got caught...I can't believe some people actually think they'll just overlook you. He did do it for years and years without getting caught, though.
My confession is that I found out how much AMT we will owe on Friday afternoon.
I bawled about it the rest of the day. Not little cries but hicupping, Farrah-ugly crying. My boss busted me.