IRS & Income Tax Advice

[RVR II]

I'm hearing this more and more about places that will do your tax returns for free and I'm getting sick of it! 
We had 1 customer last week come in after we did a great job for him back last year come in this year wanting his done for next to nothing because he could go somewhere else and get it done for free.. I did a free estimate and I discovered that he didn't have near enough taken out for Federal withholding, plus part of his income he got paid cash with $0 withheld for Federal on a 1099MISC and he even made a 401k withdrawal yet despite all that he thought he was getting a bunch of money back but in reality it was only a couple hundred. He left and didn't return
Just today another past customer came in wanting an estimate; Family of 4, 5 W-2's, 2 states, and e-File.. I give him a fair price and then he tells us he could go somewhere else and get it done for free ...
These 'volunteers' are not trained like we are and if/when they screw up their taxes, it's a bigger and more expensive mess to fix!

[k1]

We are going to work on ours this Friday. Can't wait to see what we owe this year. Shouldn't be as bad as last year since I made about 25% less than last year, but my wife made about 25% more.  (I don't have taxes come out of my check since I'm just a contract worker & not hourly/salaried.)

Also it looks like I will FINALLY be getting my check for the work I did in December this week! 

[RVR II]

We are going to work on ours this Friday. Can't wait to see what we owe this year. Shouldn't be as bad as last year since I made about 25% less than last year, but my wife made about 25% more.  (I don't have taxes come out of my check since I'm just a contract worker & not hourly/salaried.)

Also it looks like I will FINALLY be getting my check for the work I did in December this week! 

Have you experimented with the W-4 worksheet? It might be beneficial to have at least some taxes withheld for the year so you won't get hammered come tax season

[k1]

We are going to work on ours this Friday. Can't wait to see what we owe this year. Shouldn't be as bad as last year since I made about 25% less than last year, but my wife made about 25% more.  (I don't have taxes come out of my check since I'm just a contract worker & not hourly/salaried.)

Also it looks like I will FINALLY be getting my check for the work I did in December this week! 

Have you experimented with the W-4 worksheet? It might be beneficial to have at least some taxes withheld for the year so you won't get hammered come tax season

Yes and no. I never know how much I will get paid (or when). Case in point being that I'm just now receiving payment for work I did in December. Typically they are supposed to pay within 30 days but there are several times a year where I don't receive anything for 2 months.

[RVR II]

We are going to work on ours this Friday. Can't wait to see what we owe this year. Shouldn't be as bad as last year since I made about 25% less than last year, but my wife made about 25% more.  (I don't have taxes come out of my check since I'm just a contract worker & not hourly/salaried.)

Also it looks like I will FINALLY be getting my check for the work I did in December this week! 

Have you experimented with the W-4 worksheet? It might be beneficial to have at least some taxes withheld for the year so you won't get hammered come tax season

Yes and no. I never know how much I will get paid (or when). Case in point being that I'm just now receiving payment for work I did in December. Typically they are supposed to pay within 30 days but there are several times a year where I don't receive anything for 2 months.

There may be some labor law violations going on cause that shouldn't be allowed..
By law, you should have all your income for the prior tax year paid in full by Dec. 31 (or so I thought) because you're getting stiffed for that prior year pay.

[k1]

Yeah I would have to see the way the contract is worded that my boss has with the city. It's a matter of me submitting an invoice, then my boss putting through his invoice to the city. Then the city reviews the work and the invoices and passes it through whatever departments need to approve it and process it and blah blah blah. The city has contractors protesting the length of time it takes to get paid quite frequently.

[RVR II]

Yeah I would have to see the way the contract is worded that my boss has with the city. It's a matter of me submitting an invoice, then my boss putting through his invoice to the city. Then the city reviews the work and the invoices and passes it through whatever departments need to approve it and process it and blah blah blah. The city has contractors protesting the length of time it takes to get paid quite frequently.

Might be worth a call to the Department of Labor to see if there's some violations going on (and it sounds to me like there is).. The Labor board don't take too kindly to slack city employers.
Might be some reimbursements due to you and other contractors 

[RVR II]

Well this is different..
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/taxes/pay-taxes-buy-slurpee-irs-now-accepts-taxes-7-eleven-n552971?cid=sm_fb

[RVR II]

Um.. I've been on this issue for years..
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/276086-irs-mulling-how-to-address-illegal-immigrants-using-others-identities

[RVR II]

HA! BUSTED!
https://www.treasury.gov/tigta/press/press_tigta-2016-15.htm

Got one of these phone scams just 1 month ago
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/SKK7OF0RFic" target="_blank" class="new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/SKK7OF0RFic</a>

[RVR II]

Haven't posted anything tax related this year as I've been trying to keep my business going by myself for the most part since losing my wife to cancer over 3 months ago now, and I've had a new girl I hired just to contact clients that still have outstanding balances from years past and most either don't call back or don't have working numbers anymore..
Total amount outstanding is estimated to be under $11000 dollars that I'll probably never be able to collect.
My wife, as energetic as she was to catch clients, ran things her way doing favors for many clients where we'd do their taxes with some money down and they would supposedly pay us the rest when they got their refund checks and of course many did not pay.. She continued operating like this despite my objections because she felt she could collect the money..
A lot of good that does me now ...

This years tax season has been horrible anyway. The clients that called find out she's no longer with us and some still come because they trust me and the service we've provided over the years but a lot of others did not.
Tax season is officially over on April 18 this year and I'm sure I'll still have a few stragglers as well as amended returns from clients for the next couple of months but for the most part, my Spanish services business is probably over.
I'll keep my business license active for years to come I'm sure, if just to write off a lot of my monthly expenses on taxes but it's now time to find a full time job in another line of work.
It was a good 16 year run but all things eventually come to an end 

[MartyS (Gromit)]

Just looked at the redesigned 1040 form that replaces the 1040A and 1040EZ, it's a bit odd, they could have simply redesigned the 1040EZ form into this new one and had everything on one side of one sheet of paper, but nope, they went with smoke and mirrors, both sides of a half sheet of paper is obviously easier, right?

The layout at least makes sense, all the income and tax stuff is on the back, all the personal info is on the front.  Seems like you would fill in the back first and then flip it over to fill in your name, address, and then sign it. 

Did a quick look to see if HR withheld enough last year and looks like they did, probably get 100 bucks back.

[RVR II]

Just looked at the redesigned 1040 form that replaces the 1040A and 1040EZ, it's a bit odd, they could have simply redesigned the 1040EZ form into this new one and had everything on one side of one sheet of paper, but nope, they went with smoke and mirrors, both sides of a half sheet of paper is obviously easier, right?

The layout at least makes sense, all the income and tax stuff is on the back, all the personal info is on the front.  Seems like you would fill in the back first and then flip it over to fill in your name, address, and then sign it. 

Did a quick look to see if HR withheld enough last year and looks like they did, probably get 100 bucks back.

Yeah there's a bunch more questions I have to answer now when doing any tax returns to verify everything I enter is correct..
I'll be curious to see what I get back this year with 2 W-2's (Target & USPS)

[wihogfan]

Haven't looked at new tax form yet, but have 2 W2s and a 1099 (thanks to claiming unemployment for 6 months), so expecting a more complicated filing this year and that I'll likely be sending a check instead of getting a refund.