I get a publication at work entitled “Church Law & Tax Report“. I know, fun reading for me! In the most recent month’s publication they “highlighted” 59 tax developments that church leaders should know about. 59! Just for 2011 tax changes. Is that crazy or what? No wonder about 2 out of every 3 taxpayers just takes the standard deduction rather than itemize deductions on their return.

Another thing new from the IRS – a smartphone app. It’s called IRS2Go. It allows you to check on the status of your tax refund, and it supposedly gives helpful tax information and tips. So at least they are trying to be helpful .

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It’s now officially Tax Form Season. I know I have been receiving different forms – Local Tax Forms, Federal Mortgage Forms and Interest Forms, etc., just about every day! And yet I will not be getting around to do my taxes until sometime in February. So I make sure I have a place (File cabinet with folder marked Tax Forms) to put all this paperwork so I don’t forget it and I know where it is when I need it.

How do you organize for tax time? Or is it chaos at your place? Getting a bit more organized this year could be as simple as a manila folder or envelope where you can stuff everything. It’s hard enough to do taxes, so any little thing you can do to make it easier, like finding everything you need, is worth the little bit of time and effort.

 

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We excitedly received a little envelope from the IRS (how many people can ever say that!). We got our check for the adoption refundable tax credit!!! Wo-Hoo! Not only did we get the check, but they added interest to it. I know the IRS charges interest, but I didn’t know they ever paid interest. That was a nice little bonus.

We even made a special trip to the bank to get that check deposited. And then as soon as the check cleared I transferred the money into our on-line savings account so we could start earning a little more interest. Most of the money is going to our emergency fund and our car purchase fund. Not exciting but necessary. Part of it is going to help fund my wife’s trip to Spain next year for a wedding, so she was very excited to see that check.

I was really hoping to get the check before August since who knows what will happen between congress and the president over this debt ceiling issue. Now I can relax a little.

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We received a notice from the IRS (actually three letters!) that they have accepted our amended returns from 2007, 2008, and 2009 (taking advantage of the change in the adoption tax credit). Now we just have to wait for them to accept our 2010 amended return. There should not be a problem with 2010 because all we did was roll over the previous year’s adoption tax credit. So we are pretty confident that in four to six weeks (IRS estimate) we should get our $5,460 refund!

We will be using part of the money to send my wife to Spain for a wedding (relative), and the rest will go toward our emergency fund and our car savings fund. I can’t wait to deposit that check!

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Notice from the IRS! is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

I spent Saturday reviewing our adoption expenses, gathering the bills, and totaling each year’s expenses so I could see how much we could expect to get back because of the change in the adoption credit for 2010. It looks like we will get back $5,400!

On Sunday, I talked to a young lady that does taxes that is in the Adult Bible Fellowship class that I teach. She was very helpful and said she would call me on Monday with some info. She did, and she could squeeze me in on Wednesday to file the necessary tax returns. It’s nice to have friends who can help you out in a pinch! My returns have to be filed before April 18 or I lose a year to be able to file!

On Tuesday evening I pulled our tax returns for 2006 through 2010 and went through them, making sure all the necessary forms were there, w-2′s, and any other documentation that I thought might be needed. I also needed to pull our original adoption certificates and our legal guardian papers – the government requests copies for verification purposes.

On Wednesday at 8:30 am we began tackling the returns we needed to refile to get the credit: 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. It took two hours, and my friend still has a little more work, plus another person will review it for accuracy. I am soooooo glad I went with a tax preparer. It would have been a nightmare to try and do this all by myself, especially since I had used various ways of filing my taxes in the past: H&R block, Turbo Tax, and by hand the one year.

On Sunday my friend will bring me the paperwork to sign, then it gets mailed. It will probably take a few months until we see a check. For one, there is a threat of a government shut-down that will hold things up. Then there is them going through every return and verifying my paperwork and documentation – the government is being very particular with this area. Hopefully by June we will have $5400 in our bank account!

So now we sit back and wait. I hate waiting!

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I said I was done with my taxes – I have even received my Tax return check. But I need to refile – not just my 2010 return, but my returns for 2006 through 2010!  The reason? The federal government, through the Affordable Care Act, has changed the adoption tax credit. Unlike previous years, the new credit is refundable, meaning that eligible taxpayers can get it even if they do not owe tax for that year. The credit can also be rolled over from previous years. So…I am going to file amended tax forms for 2006-2010 so that I can claim the newly refundable credit! After a little digging on Saturday, I worked the numbers and we could be getting a $5400 check from Uncle Sam!

I will probably pay someone to help me refile. Over those years I used a tax preparer from Michigan, did it on paper by hand, and used two different software makers (H&R Block and TurboTax). I think it might be easier to use someone local and help me to mail it all in with the supporting documentation. I have a friend who works at an office that does taxes so i will probably go there.

I try not to get to excited, but boy, even if I have to pay a lot for multiple years, receiving an extra $5000 would be really sweet. I’ll keep you posted!

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Refiling My Federal Taxes is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

I just finished doing my taxes with Turbo Tax and I was very impressed with the ease of use of this software. It didn’t make doing taxes fun, but it did make it bearable.  Not counting pulling all my information together which I had already done (that took several hours in and of itself), it took me about two hours to do my taxes, then a little bit longer to print everything out.

I let the program guide me step by step of the way – that takes a little longer but it does make sure that you don’t miss anything. Now that I am a little more comfortable with the program I may not have to use that feature – I can just skip to what I need. I like that it does give you the choice. It handled my parsonage allowance correctly (tax break for ministers), which H&R Block did not do last year (and their software made me file by mail verses electronically).

Next year should be even quicker to do my taxes because Turbo Tax will pre-fill a lot of the information fields for me – that will save time and typing errors! I also used Turbo Tax to do my state Taxes (Pennsylvania), but I did not use the software to file them – Turbo Tax charges $20 (or so) to file them, so I just printed a hard copy and filed my state taxes for free using the state online e-file using the information off of my hard copy. it was a little duplication of effort, but I saved $20, and it was helpful to have the hard copy since the state e-filing program was not always clear (hard to believe that the state could be confusing!).

All it all, I was pleased with Turbo Tax. I like that it lets you do up to 5 returns, so if you want you can do like our family did and just purchase one copy and share it. I will definitely be using Turbo Tax again next year. Any other thoughts or opinions (or questions)?

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Turbo Tax Review is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

My meeting last night was canceled because of bad weather, so I had a free night. How sad that I would spend a free night starting my taxes! The last several years I had been using H&R Block’s software, but last year they really frustrated me – they kept making me fill out a form that I didn’t have to fill out, and they wouldn’t let me e-file because of it. So I tried using the free software I got from TurboTax, their basic.

Unfortunately,the Basic Turbo Tax already made one mistake on my taxes! It did not handle my Housing Allowance (a deduction from taxes for clergy) correctly. If I would have let the program go, it would have royally messed up my taxes! They were trying to tell me that I was going to get over $5000 back, when in reality it is probably going to be closer to $600 (the program did not take Social Security Tax off of my Housing Allowance which caused the discrepancy). I was a little frustrated to say the least.

As I mentioned awhile back, my Dad does taxes for a few other people and he uses the more advanced TurboTax software, and he has not run into that problem. So I will hold out final judgment on TurboTax until I can use the better / more advanced software.  I am basically using the free version to help me make sure that I have all the stuff I need before I drive 1-1/2 hours to use his software (and let him see the grand-kids!).

How sad that even the “professionals” who make txs software can’t get things right sometimes! I am just glad that I knew better and was able to manually get the software to do it right. Was a little scary though thinking that if you didn’t know, it could have really guided you wrong. If you are doing anything but the simplest tax preparation, you probably need to pay for the better software.

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It’s that time of the year again when I start collecting together all the information I will need to do my taxes in a few weeks. It’s bad enough that we have to pay taxes, and then knowing that they are wasting most of it! But then to have to waste my time to prepare my taxes because they have made it so complicated – ugh! Enough ranting.

Anyway, I spent about 90 minutes last night working on gathering stuff. Printing a few things from Quicken – how much I made, how much I gave to charity, etc. Pulling all my medical bills to see if I can deduct some of our medical expenses (complicated by the fact that some of the bills were paid through a flexible spending account and an HRA account so I can’t deduct those bills). I made a good dent in collecting what I need. Now I can just wait for the year end statements to arrive.

If you don’t have a filing system that makes it easy for you to do your taxes, this might be a good time to start working on it for next year!

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Gathering my Tax Information is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.

Doesn’t that title put you into the Christmas Spirit? And if you have been following the news Congress has even passed some changes that will affect our 2011 taxes. But before we worry about that their is still 2010 taxes to pay! And that means either doing it yourself with paper and pen, or hiring a professional, or using a tax software program. And right about now you should start seeing ads for those programs.

I am changing software this year. For the past three years I was using the software from H&R Block-formally called Taxcut then last year called H&R at Home. Whatever name they give it this year I will not be using it. Did not like it last year and it added steps and incorrectly made me file by paper instead of being able to do it online.

So this year I was going to try Turbotax. Well, I just got a call from my Dad (he’s a retired Certified Financial Planner). Anyway, he uses Turbotax for his return, but also to help out my brother on his return, and for a blind friend of his. It seems that you are allowed to do up to five different tax returns with Turbotax. So…I will be using Turbotax this year and will not even have to buy it!

The only drawback is that I will have to drive about an hour away to use it, but the grandkids will want to see their grandparents anyway (plus I will have free babysitting while I am calculating away!).

I love saving money! (Especially on doing taxes). I am almost excited!

Hi there - could you help spread the word about A Penny Saved? We rely on word of mouth to get new readers. If you would send someone a link, email, or even mention it to your friends, I would truly appreciate it. Tax Software is a post from: A Penny Saved, the best darn personal finance blog around.