Nothing like waiting to the last minute, as a lot of people do. I have to pay every year anyway. Did mine last weekend with Turbotax, as I've been doing for years.
Thanks to a change in SC law a few years ago, I get almost everything withheld back. I file as early as possible now. Back in the day, it was April 15th for me, plus every quarter.
Every year I run the numbers on both turbotax and 1040now.net. 1040now comes out with better numbers every year. It's $40. TurboTax would be a buck fifty or more?
Both of us are retired but I have a gas drilling investment that just today provided the last K1 form I needed. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a TurboTax, TaxAct, TaxCut or H&R Block that can self-file the K1 with a value in one of the boxes. They all have instructions that this requires an in-person consult. It pays really well or I'd divest of these investments. Plus, I get a tax write-off for depletion every year. So, got to make an appointment now to get my taxes done and/or file an extension.
Partnerships and the K1 forms have always been a pita! Glad I got out of those investments. I have one in my Roth which doesn't require annual filing (I hope). Maybe you could move yours there. 2023 was my first full year of retirement. No federal or local taxes due, but have to pay some PA state tax. Can't win.
My tax guy charged me $950 and I was happy with that. It was super complicated with the sale of the business. The more taxes you pay hopefully the more money you made. I try not to complain too much. Would I like to pay less? Of course! Cliff
...when wife was incorporated, we had a CPA. Like John said, "best money we ever spent." Otherwise, I do 'em, and use printout to e-file. In retirement, I've been able to keep withholding within a couple hundred either way...
Life would be so much better if we collectively didn't have to suffer through this crap. A flat consumption tax would eliminate so much wasted time and be so much more fair. A drug dealer pays 10 percent federal tax on a used car just like you do. A waitress pays 10 percent tax on shoes just like your wife does. No hiding! It would encouage people to work overtime and to save too. If more revenue is needed go ahead and up some tariffs or some other way we all end up paying. Anything but this God awful "gotcha" mess we have now! "For starters, taxpayers spend $104 billion a year on out-of-pocket expenses associated with preparing and submitting tax forms. Some entail basic costs such as making copies of financial statements, receipts, or forms. But that is just a drop in the bucket compared to other related expenses. The complexity of the tax laws, a lack of clarity in instructions and regulatory guidance, the inability to get basic questions answered by IRS agents, the worry of missing out on a credit or deduction, and the fear of making an audit-triggering mistake mean that more and more taxpayers turn to software or professional tax preparers every year. In addition to monetary expenses, Americans also spend an estimated 6.55 billion hours complying with the tax laws. Taxpayers must gather the necessary receipts, statements, and records, and try to make sense of and fill out the IRS’s tax forms. This imposes a huge opportunity cost on individuals, businesses, and the economy because time is money. And with inflation, people’s time has become more valuable. We can calculate the value of this burden using average private sector labor costs – which rose by 5.6 percent since a year ago – as a $260 billion per year time drain. Altogether, this year’s tax complexity burden is $364 billion – $25 billion (7.4 percent) more than a year ago. This estimate is likely an understatement because the IRS has not been able to estimate expenses associated with many of its forms even though they are legally required to do so. This estimate also does not attempt to put a dollar value on the confusion, headaches, and stress that tax filing burdens impose on millions of people each year." Individually: "According to the IRS, the average taxpayer spends 13 hours preparing their return. This includes record keeping, tax planning, form submission, and other related activities. And this number can vary widely depending on how complex your taxes are." Approximately 62 days of our lives WASTED
I'm all in except that it would not be a 10% flat tax (6% was thought to be the correct tax for proponents of this system for many decades) or it would be engorged into oblivion in short order
We should be able to deduct the lost productivity required to file taxes from our taxes. You are right, real PITA! Flat tax all the way based purely on consumption with a carve out for non-prepared food. That way the poor pay less in taxes and taxes on cigarettes, alcohol would be the same as every other taxed item. No more sin tax or tax breaks for government-picked winners and losers. Let the market decide what wins and what doesn't.
As to my previous post - my income taxes run about 40 pages. It's not that I make a ton of money, but I have always been a small-scale investor, and I get small amounts of money from lots of different sources. If I sell any of my stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, as well as my IRA, I'll get clobbered by the capital gains tax.
That would last a week…. We don’t have the discipline as a society not to tweak… And it’s not one party or group…it’s everyone.
I think a flat tax is considered a flat percentage of income as opposed a percentage on purchases. I believe what you described is a sales tax. The biggest oppositions to a sales tax are most likely that it, 1. burdens the poor more than it does the wealthy, and 2. it hurts the economy by discouraging spending.
OK, sales tax. If the "poor" can afford a $1,000 iPhone, they aren't as poor as the Ethiopian kid using flattened 2-liter bottles for sandals. The poor in America would be considered rich in any third world country. You mean like much of the nation being so in-debt they can't handle a $2,000 emergency? Maybe they need to stop buying $7 coffee and $100K trucks to flex. Just saying, plenty of people already spend money they don't have on stuff they don't need.
