2025 tax filing thread

[dust]

I need to find one or two more receipts and tally up some other expenses, but my CPA has all my other forms.

I am not looking forward to this tax bill. My brother and I inherited the family business last year when our dad passed and it basically doubled our incomes overnight. Neither of us paid any quarterlies because we had no idea what we were going to owe. I've been setting aside a third of every distribution but realized that may not be enough.

At least I have expenses and capital losses I can claim.

 

[ProphetM]

Maybe the game is lowest return without going under 0. Like modified “Price is Right” rules.

I think for the purposes of this lighthearted and totally inconsequential contest, closest to zero should be good enough, whether over or under.

One of the first years I filed taxes (as a young teen) I owed $0.25. It felt very silly.

Will they even let you pay/receive in less than whole dollars these days? At 50 cents you owe a dollar; at 49 cents you owe nothing.

 

[poochyena]

A friend paid me $50 to help her with her tax return since she didn't know how to and business income/expenses can be complicated. Its 90% done, gonna finish up tomorrow. Gonna likely be about 3 hours of work total.
Guess I can add "tax professional" to my resume now.
Next I need to help her with her 2023 tax return
From what I understand, the IRS is happy as long as they eventually get their taxes. She'll maybe owe a fine or something maybe? But probably nothing too extreme? She'll likely owe under $3k, maybe under $2k.

 

[Vince-RA]

From what I understand, the IRS is happy as long as they eventually get their taxes. She'll maybe owe a fine or something maybe? But probably nothing too extreme? She'll likely owe under $3k, maybe under $2k.

There are penalties both for failing to file and failing to pay taxes due - https://www.forbes.com/advisor/taxes/penalty-for-late-filing/

Sounds like you can request an abatement if this is the first time, but given the rolling shitshow that is the federal government right now, I'd probably not get too excited about this possibility.

 

[SectorS9]

If personal returns are late and no tax is due - IRS does not care. I filed a 2010 - 2019 batch of returns for a gentlemen a few years back and since his withholding covered his tax each year, there was no penalty.

If personal returns are late and tax is due, the penalties and interest compound quickly, especially for larger balances due. The IRS will waive the penalties under first time abatement but the interest due on late taxes is statutory and will not be waived.

 

[Vince-RA]

Got everything together except for the one stupid 1099-INT for ~$100 worth of CD interest that has been pushed back for a third time. I know exactly how much interest they paid me, how bad an idea is it to file my taxes without an official 1099? I don't really care about my side, but don't particularly want to run into any issues on the IRS side since they won't have that data either and may flag a mismatch, even if not in my favor.

 

[drogin]

Owed the fed about a grand, state owes me a little over three grand. So net around two grand back.

 

[ProphetM]

My federal refund showed up today. I wasn't expecting it to appear on a Saturday, but there it was.

 

[SectorS9]

Got everything together except for the one stupid 1099-INT for ~$100 worth of CD interest that has been pushed back for a third time. I know exactly how much interest they paid me, how bad an idea is it to file my taxes without an official 1099? I don't really care about my side, but don't particularly want to run into any issues on the IRS side since they won't have that data either and may flag a mismatch, even if not in my favor.

Go ahead and file. As long as you report the interest amount or higher, you are good. When we have clients missing a 1099-INT from a prior year, we will often suggest they just take prior year amount plus 10% or whatever if they tell us they didn't make any changes to account.

 

[Diabolical]

Filed. Refund was a bit more substantial this year. Had a lot of repairs done to the rental property.
Next year, though, is going to be a bit of a mess.

 

[SunRaven01]

Refunds received from both feds and state and recorded in YNAB. My adventures in tax returns are concluded ... for now.

 

[Diabolical]

My adventures in tax returns are concluded ... for now.

Certainly better than getting to the end of the tax process and running into this:

 

[SunRaven01]

I just don't want to tempt fate and say "Okay I'm done," and then the universe comes back with, "It's adorable you think that."

 

[thrillgore]

Everything is in HRB for me to file but there's one problem: The CO State Tax system is (or was) offline due to issues. UGH. I am actually getting a bit back from CO. TN has no income tax.

I am still wondering if there's a point in filing any taxes and supporting any government going to shit like this. I felt the same during the bank crisis two decades ago but I had to file (and it was mostly a gigantic 1099).

 

[Backstop]

Did mine yesterday and owe several thousand. But I knew that was coming because when I took the death-stribution of my dad's retirement account I didn't have them withhold any taxes.

I'm sure this year will also be rough because we're selling his house in the next couple of months and I would guess that's taxable income too.

I also was thinking, hey screw this, the whole time because of how the government is going. Made me think of the early aughts when people would figure out the share of their taxes going to Operation Enduring Freedom and deduct it from their return.

 

[Vince-RA]

Go ahead and file. As long as you report the interest amount or higher, you are good. When we have clients missing a 1099-INT from a prior year, we will often suggest they just take prior year amount plus 10% or whatever if they tell us they didn't make any changes to account.

Checked one last time before filing and lo, the 1099 was there! So I'm done, woohoo. Small refunds from both state and feds this year.

 

[SectorS9]

Did mine yesterday and owe several thousand. But I knew that was coming because when I took the death-stribution of my dad's retirement account I didn't have them withhold any taxes.

I'm sure this year will also be rough because we're selling his house in the next couple of months and I would guess that's taxable income too.

I also was thinking, hey screw this, the whole time because of how the government is going. Made me think of the early aughts when people would figure out the share of their taxes going to Operation Enduring Freedom and deduct it from their return.

If you are in the U.S., make sure you report the sale using stepped-up basis.

Example:
Grandpa buys house in 1965 for $10,000.
Grandpa dies in 2015, house is worth $250,000.
When Grandpa dies, his estate includes current value of $250k but pays no estate tax due to 12M lifetime exemption.
When Kid A inherits house, they get basis as fair market value of death, NOT the original cost basis. So if sold for 275k less commisions of 5k, you make 20k and pay 20% on that smaller profit.

 

[Backstop]

Yes I think next year we might enlist a CPA to walk us through this rather than hope TurbTax does it right.

 

[Jeff J]

I filed 26 days ago.
State refund was deposited 14 days ago.
Federal refund was deposited today.
State plus federal refunds come to 24% of last year's total income.

 

[Colm]

Owed north of a thou to fed, less than 20 back from the state.

 

[abernat]

Submitted to the CPA! I had a bunch of gains on RSUs, time to see if the donations will offset it.

 

[KT421]

Just got done filing here; returns accepted by the fed and two states. Between the three, expecting a refund of around $1k.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Nailed it. Delta from what I paid to what I owed was < $750. This year one change I'm making is to hold ESPP for > 1yr to turn the gains from ST to LT. Even if the share price goes down the tax offset by ST->LT is significant. This year ESPP gains don't seem to be a problem

 

[Shavano]

Well shoot. I missed a whole 1099 form on my 2023 taxes and have to pay taxes on the difference, plus interest. It took them a whole year to find the mistakes and notify me so 12 months of interest.

Damn it.

 

[Shavano]

I don't mind paying the taxes I owed. Those are for money I definitely received in 2023. I'm mad at myself about the mistake and the interest on the tax debt. And that it took a year to find the error. If they 'd done it quicker it would have cost me less.

 

[KT421]

Daaamn I only filed last week and the two state refunds are already pending trax in my bank account.

 

[Diabolical]

State refund came in last week. Federal refund is pending.
All told, about $2k back. As I previously mentioned, it was a rough year for dealing with my rental. Those expenses played merry hell with my adjusted gross.

 

[StarSeeker]

I used to use Turbotax for free, switched to an actual person and my return went up 50%. Yikes.

 

[leet]

I used to use Turbotax for free, switched to an actual person and my return went up 50%. Yikes.

There is no way I would accept something like that without seeing what the changes were and reading the tax code myself. It's a royal PITA though.

 

[StarSeeker]

There is no way I would accept something like that without seeing what the changes were and reading the tax code myself. It's a royal PITA though.

I had it double checked by a different firm, and they got the same result.

 

[Shavano]

I had it double checked by a different firm, and they got the same result.

What did TurboTax miss?

 

[leet]

I had it double checked by a different firm, and they got the same result.

Out of curiosity, if you don't mind, what part of the return was the difference in? Our taxes are pretty simple right now, but it's always good to know what to watch for.

Ninja'd by Shavano!

 

[StarSeeker]

I should have been doing itemized, and Turbo was not suggesting to me that I should not just accept the standard deduction.

 

[Diabolical]

I should have been doing itemized, and Turbo was not suggesting to me that I should not just accept the standard deduction.

Do you mean return, or refund?

 

[Ulf]

I should have been doing itemized, and Turbo was not suggesting to me that I should not just accept the standard deduction.

You need to know and keep track of what can be itemized. It’s only worth it if you can get more back than the standard deduction.

I never have anything to itemize and my withholding isn’t enough so I always owe money to the fed. The only time I got an actual refund was when I could claim insurance from student loans.

(I owe $1700 this year. Meh.)

 

[KT421]

I itemized for quite a few years even though it came to less than the standard deduction.

The reason was SALT deduction cap and living in a state with very high income taxes. By itemizing, my federal refund went down by several hundred, but my state refund increased by a thousand or so. In Maryland, you must make the same election of itemized/standard for the state that you made for the fed.

FreeTaxUSA made it very easy to toggle back and forth and make comparisons.

 

[leet]

I should have been doing itemized, and Turbo was not suggesting to me that I should not just accept the standard deduction.

Wow, that's a big miss. I always check, but since the change in tax laws about 10 years ago (higher standard deduction, cap on state/local/property tax deduction) I've never had to itemize. It's still useful for me because of state tax laws that allow some deductions that the feds don't.

edit: and this obviously varies by state! I'm allowed to submit a Schedule A to the state just for state tax purposes even though I take the standard deduction.

 

[SectorS9]

Pre-2017 TCJA (one of the worst pieces of tax legislation ever written), most people itemized. Uncapped state income tax, local income tax, property tax, ad valorem tax deductions, deductions for accountant fees, deduction for investment fees, other misc itemized deductions, plus the higher allowances for mortgage interest expense and the same charitable deduction limits.

After tax reform bill in 2017, you really had to have a large mortgage interest expense or large charitable donations to itemize after the state and local tax cap at 10k and the removal of all miscellanous itemized (accountant, investment, other).

People are still sending me ad valorem tag taxes after being told 7 years in a row to save their time.

 

[timstorey1]

I filed this morning. Care home expenses and itemized deductions means that I will get large federal and state refunds. It works out to almost 2 months of care home fees.

 

[StarSeeker]

Do you mean return, or refund?

The amount of money the IRS is giving me back because I overpaid during the year.