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No. She didn’t double her income. Maybe $20k more.
This is what you said. Sure looks like you’re claiming her income doubled. . .
Quote:
Originally Posted by trusso11783
My wife has two employers. Actually, three last year. One or two withheld nothing because they were both only about 30k. But this year, both were over $60k. But even looking at my withheld, it is under 10%. It never was that way before and I never changed a W4.
I used to think like you and mine were even more simple - single, house, no kids. TurboTax said I owed $15K. Went to a CPA and I ended up getting a refund. My CPA is fairly priced (I'd spend that much going out on a weekend) and the cost is deductible the following year. Plus, what might take me a couple of hours, takes her 30 minutes. My time is definitely worth her cost.
Again, I don’t know how involved you are with W4s but after I filled out any paperwork for a new job, I never addressed it again. I never updated W4s ever at any job I ever had and it was never a problem. I don’t know anyone who touches their W4 at work. I asked a bunch of co work supers today and they don’t give it a second thought.
I am not wondering why we owe money. My wife severely underpaid because of of her employers withheld nearly nothing. But I also noticed that I am under 10%. What % does an employer hold? I certainly never gave a % amount for them to hold so they had to use some formula. I will pay it. I have the money. I asked in this forum because friends said I am crazy to pay $14k and that their guy can easily get it down to much less. I was thinking maybe I am missing something and a cpa or accountant knows the inside info.
Forget I asked. I must have been crazy to think I would get any helpful info. There is always someone like you that has to chime in and try to berate someone for a question. Personally, I don’t give a crap because you are nothing to me but if it makes you feel smart or important, knock yourself out.
I checked and modified (if necessary) my W4 every single year after finding out what my taxes were. As did most of my co-workers. It's really quite normal to be aware of your tax withholdings - at least in my world I guess.
I don't think it makes much sense to complain about your withholding and resulting tax liability when you clearly ignored the entire issue all year.
I used to think like you and mine were even more simple - single, house, no kids. TurboTax said I owed $15K. Went to a CPA and I ended up getting a refund. My CPA is fairly priced (I'd spend that much going out on a weekend) and the cost is deductible the following year. Plus, what might take me a couple of hours, takes her 30 minutes. My time is definitely worth her cost.
That's impossible unless it was not that simple and you used the long form. Even then if you took all
the deductions the results would be the same.
We used a trusted tax CPA for many years and he eventually retired and closed his business.
I only found 2-3 minor mistakes in all of those years, which I believe is pretty good.
We’ve been using TurboTax since 2011/2012 with solid results, so far. Our tax situation is pretty basic.
Serious question. We are married with two kids. Our return is fairly simple. We have a house with a mortgage, both have W2s, bank interest, student loan interest nothing else. So, W2s and interest are income. Property taxes, property taxes and mortgage interest along with child credits are deductions.
I bought H & R Block tax software. We owe about $14k since one of her two W2s withheld little to no taxes and my job took about 10%. So, we underpaid and for the first time ever, got hit with a $400 penalty for underpayment throughout the year. What could a CPA do that HR Block software can’t do? It’s pretty cut and dry. My friend said I should use his guy that charges $650. That seems crazy to me. My accountant never charged more than $150 and that was for our joint return and my old side business return but got sick and is no longer in business. So, why hire a CPA if the software does the same thing? Thanks for any replies.
Sounds like you just need to adjust withholdings with your employers or pay 650 bucks to have a CPA tell you to adjust your withholdings.
Again, I don’t know how involved you are with W4s but after I filled out any paperwork for a new job, I never addressed it again. I never updated W4s ever at any job I ever had and it was never a problem. I don’t know anyone who touches their W4 at work. I asked a bunch of co work supers today and they don’t give it a second thought.
I am not wondering why we owe money. My wife severely underpaid because of of her employers withheld nearly nothing. But I also noticed that I am under 10%. What % does an employer hold? I certainly never gave a % amount for them to hold so they had to use some formula. I will pay it. I have the money. I asked in this forum because friends said I am crazy to pay $14k and that their guy can easily get it down to much less. I was thinking maybe I am missing something and a cpa or accountant knows the inside info.
I'm not a CPA, but I work for CPAs. Go to your respective employers and ask if they calculated the withholding amounts correctly--mention that you owe underpayment penalties to the IRS.
Then write a letter to the IRS (the address is on the notice) and let them know that the withholding amounts were calculated by your employers, that you've never had an underpayment penalty. Send copies of pay stubs showing the withholding and your W4s as originally filled out. Ask if they can forgive the penalty.
If this letter were sent by a CPA firm, it would help make that penalty go away.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Superhornet
It's funny how people are convinced that there's magic/alechemy involved in doing a simple 1040 with standard deductions.
So much of it is proper withholding by the employee.
and some of us have not had an 'employer' (or tax preparer) for 50+ yrs of income and taxes.
We get by
it really pays to KNOW the details.
They are very easy to figure out and software is quite robust. (But you still want to have an idea of what the software is doing. )
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