Hmm - maybe I should rejoin the 21st century with tax software

[Ralphie ★]

This whole form 8889 thing for HSA deductions is befuddling me.  It appears that if you don;t contribute the family max of $6750 then you can deduct the difference between that and what you did contribute.  Makes no sense, but that is how I am interpreting the directions after a couple of reads.  I guess I'll run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes it.  If so, I need to go back and amend the last few years' returns.

(I do my taxes on paper and have just sort of glossed over this form the last few years.)

[Road Runner]

I still do paper returns.  Mainly because the IRS and the State want me to do them electronically.  I am a rebel.   

[Ralphie ★]

26 minutes ago, Road Runner said:

I still do paper returns.  Mainly because the IRS and the State want me to do them electronically.  I am a rebel.   

I think I have been doing the HSA part wrong and missing the deduction completely!  What an idiot! And I can probably only amend the last two years, probably too late for 3 years ago.  

[Road Runner]

1 minute ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

I think I have been doing the HSA part wrong and missing the deduction completely!  What an idiot! And I can probably only amend the last two years, probably too late for 3 years ago.  

I don't even know what that is.  I don't itemize.  I take the standard deduction.  Please explain. 

[Ralphie ★]

11 minutes ago, Road Runner said:

I don't even know what that is.  I don't itemize.  I take the standard deduction.  Please explain. 

A Health Savings Account is where you can contribute up to $6750 before tax for medical expenses.  I always figured the amount was subtracted from gross income in box 1, but now I don't think that it is and the complete adjustment must be done in line 25.  So I always looked at form 8889 as just a nuisance and didn;t transfer anything to line 25, and due to the confusion between what is an employee and employer contribution I think I have been doing it wrong in a way that totally causes me to miss the deduction.  (The employer contributed like $750 or so in the first year or two to entice people into the plan.)

If this is correct I should be able to recover back to two years ago via amended returns.  I think I have had the HSA for 3-4 years or so.

So according to Rummy, to me this was an unknown unknown, or IOW, I have been a complete idiot.

[Longjohn ★]

Paper long forms drove me up a wall. When TurdboTax came out I embraced it as my best friend. Last year when I owed $4,000 I did the TurdboTax but didn’t submit it instead I took it to a longtime friend who has a large accounting and tax business. He came out to the penny what I came out with. I went back to turbo this year. Next year I should be able to use the short form.

[maddmaxx ★]

I too use turbo tax. I too have found it more profitable the last couple of years to use the standard deduction. There are advantages though when piecing together SS, a pension, part time jobs and contract jobs all with different withholding.  Once I'm in the system it prompts me for paperwork, remembers employers numbers and does a lot of the housekeeping so I don't have to type or write everything over again each year.  Electronic filing is nice too.  This year my state tax returns were in the bank in less than a week from filing and the Feds took a whopping 2 weeks.

[Tizeye]

While I use to do taxes the long way on paper, switched to tax software quite a few years ago. Primarily use TurboTax, but at times H&R Block. Last year I returned H&R Block as wouldn't open prior year's return and got TurboTax which did. This year intended to use TurboTax but BestBuy discontinued the line???? with no versions offered, and where I could find it, the version I required for self-employed business and noted on Amazon negative reviews with Windows 10. Encountered the same problem with this year's H&R Block, unable to find prior year. Knowing exactly where it was, tried to manually direct it then realized was only searching for their .T16 file and would not allow other tax file extensions. Closed out their "Tax Wizard" and went to "File" "New Return" thinking I would have to start from scratch. Luckily, when using that approach it searched for all file formats, located the TurboTax return and imported it. Really quirky poor software design.

[Tizeye]

1 hour ago, maddmaxx said:

I too use turbo tax. I too have found it more profitable the last couple of years to use the standard deduction. 

Yes, when President Bush jacked up the Standard Deduction it wiped out my itemizing, particularly with my mortgage well amortized reducing the interest payment. Have since paid off the house so there is not a chance of itemizing. What I have found profitable is owning a business, which wile profitable, doesn't have to be that profitable. I can take deductions that are not allowed to most, like mileage, business interest, equipment, and larger retirement contributions, all of which are outside the itemize/standard deduction decision.

[Ralphie ★]

Well now I am totally confuzled.  I tried Turbo Tax as far as you can go for free, but it won;t seem to accept my state income tax as a deduction so I think it is showing me owing way too much tax.  Screw it, I am just going to fill out the 8889 as near as I can decipher so it gives me the HSA tax break.  I already sent in an amended 2014 return, but I am worried that since the deadline for it was April 15, 2015, I am probably screwed since it won't be postmarked until April 16.

I don;t understand why it is being so obstinate.  

[Ralphie ★]

9 minutes ago, Tizeye said:

Yes, when President Bush jacked up the Standard Deduction it wiped out my itemizing, particularly with my mortgage well amortized reducing the interest payment. Have since paid off the house so there is not a chance of itemizing. What I have found profitable is owning a business, which wile profitable, doesn't have to be that profitable. I can take deductions that are not allowed to most, like mileage, business interest, equipment, and larger retirement contributions, all of which are outside the itemize/standard deduction decision.

I have been able to itemize after paying off the mortgage just based on Jersey property and income tax and charitable contributions.

[Tizeye]

30 minutes ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

I have been able to itemize after paying off the mortgage just based on Jersey property and income tax and charitable contributions.

My property tax was only $1600...and FL doesn't have a State income tax. That leaves a lot of ground to make up to reach $12,000 standard deduction.

[Ralphie ★]

5 hours ago, Tizeye said:

My property tax was only $1600...and FL doesn't have a State income tax. That leaves a lot of ground to make up to reach $12,000 standard deduction.

A big reason why there are so many FloridaYankees!

[Ralphie ★]

RR, notice I did not say ONE big reason... - Your welcome!

Although, here it would have been somewhat apropos since there are many reasons.  But I managed to stifle myself, something Eedit could never manage to do.

 

[maddmaxx ★]

2 hours ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

A big reason why there are so many FloridaYankees!

It certainly beats 4k plus on a small house and two cars with and additional income tax, sales tax and high gasoline taxes.  Meanwhile the state searches for other sources of income like tolls.  CT is beginning to look unattractive.

Unfortunately I'm the only one in my family that feels this way.

[Longjohn ★]

8 hours ago, Tizeye said:

My property tax was only $1600...and FL doesn't have a State income tax. That leaves a lot of ground to make up to reach $12,000 standard deduction.

And next year it doubles to $24,000 standard deduction. I don’t suppose it will save me money but it will be nice to not have to keep track of all those receipts, ect.

[BuffJim]

Thanks for the reminder. Now I remember what I'm doing tonight. I'll take a look at that HSA deduction, cause I didn't do anything with it last year.  Will you testify on my behalf if I get busted for improperly using the Ralph Waldo Mooseworth Loophole?

[12string]

You're all getting busted.  You can't deduct something you didn't pay.  If you didn't contribute the full $6750 the IRS doesn't care.  The amount you DID contribute comes out of your check pre-tax, and that's already been deducted on your W2. You don't get any additional deductions or credits.  You DO have to show that any money you took out of that account was used only for qualified medical expenses.  Or you get taxed on it.

I switched to Tax ACT a couple years back when TurboTax tried that sneaky price increase.  It sucked, almost cost me hundreds in missed deductions.  So I'm back to TT.

[Kzoo]

I like TT.  I've used it for about 4 years now.  I do the on-line version.  My taxes are pretty simple so any half-baked software should work but I started with TT and I'll stay with them until they give me reason to move.

 

[Ralphie ★]

4 hours ago, 12string said:

You're all getting busted.  You can't deduct something you didn't pay.  If you didn't contribute the full $6750 the IRS doesn't care.  The amount you DID contribute comes out of your check pre-tax, and that's already been deducted on your W2. You don't get any additional deductions or credits.  You DO have to show that any money you took out of that account was used only for qualified medical expenses.  Or you get taxed on it.

I switched to Tax ACT a couple years back when TurboTax tried that sneaky price increase.  It sucked, almost cost me hundreds in missed deductions.  So I'm back to TT.

My first post was not right.  I was confusing the small employer contribution with my large pretax contribution and basically zeroing them out with each other on the 8889, but once I correctly fill out the 8889 I get a big deduction for what I did contribute. 

I wish they would itemize the damn W-2!  The difference between my state and federal income is a couple thousand less than the 401k contribution, and both are higher than the addition of all the paychecks.   I don;t think they deducted the HSA amount in there because it and the 401k would definitely make a bigger difference.

So isn;t anyone else here doing their taxes early like me and BuffJim?

 

 

[Further]

 

Hmm - maybe I should rejoin the 21st century with tax software

There are better choices than software....

 

 

 

 

[Scrapr ★]

3 hours ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

So isn;t anyone else here doing their taxes early like me and BuffJim?

I took a couple hours doing a City return for the business. Took me way longer than it should have. I was struggling with my Chromebook too. The City of Portland has a section where you report compensation then remove it later down the form. It took the addition ok. But later on down the form it would not let you remove the amount. After fooling with it I just put compensation as zero and moved on. I'll write a note. It's about 50/50 if they call me on it. 

[maddmaxx ★]

10 hours ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

My first post was not right.  I was confusing the small employer contribution with my large pretax contribution and basically zeroing them out with each other on the 8889, but once I correctly fill out the 8889 I get a big deduction for what I did contribute. 

I wish they would itemize the damn W-2!  The difference between my state and federal income is a couple thousand less than the 401k contribution, and both are higher than the addition of all the paychecks.   I don;t think they deducted the HSA amount in there because it and the 401k would definitely make a bigger difference.

So isn;t anyone else here doing their taxes early like me and BuffJim?

 

 

Sorry, I've already forgotten about this years taxes.  

[Longjohn ★]

11 hours ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

 

So isn;t anyone else here doing their taxes early like me and BuffJim?

I did my Federal and state a week or so ago. My local is what gives me fits. It is the easiest one but their software is retarded. We were always able to fill out a simple page turn income earned, taxes paid, amount owed 0. Attach W2 and hand it to or mail to the township tax collector four miles down the road. In 2013 the state wanted to make it easier for everyone so now some big company handles the local tax for the whole state. Berkshire I think is the name. You can file online but they ask so many stinking questions that couldn’t possibly have anything to do with your taxes. They also ask for some kind of secret number for your school district. If you don’t know that number you can look it up on a state website. I have never been able to find ours there. I type in the name of our school district and try to submit. It kicks it back.

i give up and print out a paper tax form. Do the whole thing over again on paper and leave the secret number space blank. Drop it in the mailbox and they accept it.

This year when I got to the secret number part of the form they had already filled it in for me.