Taxes

[Ladybug]

*sob*
WGW, I can't believe you're getting a return.

[weeniegeniewife]

*sob*
WGW, I can't believe you're getting a return.

Me neither, to be honest. It's mostly because I was out of work unexpectedly for the last two months of 2011, but had already paid self-employment taxes.

[spotty_dog]

Yeah, I'm not sure why we got one either except maybe for the HSA eligible expenses we had that reduced our taxable income.

JDAZ11, if you lived with him all year as a member of the household, your gross income was less than $3700, and he provided more than half your support, you're a qualifying relative for tax purposes and count for a dependent exemption. http://www.irs.gov/publications/p501/ar02.html

[JDAZ11]

JDAZ11, if you lived with him all year as a member of the household, your gross income was less than $3700, and he provided more than half your support, you're a qualifying relative for tax purposes and count for a dependent exemption. http://www.irs.gov/publications/p501/ar02.html

Everything checks out, but I'd say whether he really provided half of my "support" is a pretty close call. I guess it probably works out that he did since we have been here for slightly more than half of the year. (we didn't actually pay rent or utilities for our first 4 mo here, but he did buy my food) I guess it works - as long as support is just housing, utilities, and food. I'll look that up first

[spotty_dog]

Everything checks out, but I'd say whether he really provided half of my "support" is a pretty close call. I guess it probably works out that he did since we have been here for slightly more than half of the year. (we didn't actually pay rent or utilities for our first 4 mo here, but he did buy my food) I guess it works - as long as support is just housing, utilities, and food. I'll look that up first

There's a worksheet in the IRS page I linked for determining support.

[houseelf]

I'm sending my stuff into the accountant. Hoping that there is some silver lining to carrying two houses for 14 months.

[ides]

Ugh feeling stuck with nm tax form. Not sure how to separate the income. There is no damn way we are paying both nm & nys tax on the nys income. Time to make a call to the tax folks.

[Tenacious_D]

Just finished ours this morning. We used TurboTax and have done so for the past 5 years which makes it a lot easier to transfer information. Thank goodness for having the two kids and me being a SAHM...last year I worked part of the year and we got hit.

[spotty_dog]

Ugh feeling stuck with nm tax form. Not sure how to separate the income. There is no damn way we are paying both nm & nys tax on the nys income. Time to make a call to the tax folks.

Don't you have separate W-2s from separate employers in the different places?

[alison]

We are using an accountant this year, although dh did ours on turbotax as well. If they yield the same result, we'll dump the accountant. Ours are easy, but it was helpful to have someone help us work out what deductions to take, so that we don't owe now...

[ides]

Don't you have separate W-2s from separate employers in the different places?

I do, but the form calls for info from our federal form that has them combined. Nys has a specific form for part year residents that asks from both the federal & state specific info.

[spotty_dog]

I do, but the form calls for info from our federal form that has them combined. Nys has a specific form for part year residents that asks from both the federal & state specific info.

Ahhhh. I remember the part-year resident forms. Weird that NM doesn't have them. Sorry!

[ladymoreta]

DH did ours last weekend with TurboTax. We get a refund! Not huge, but at this point, every little bit helps. We used to use H&R block, but TT is much cheaper and actually faster than having them do it.

[scarlett09]

We are in the minority, having used H&R Block again this year - been using them for years. They don't send us a free CD anymore, you have to download the software from their website.

Getting a refund, it helps that I didn't work and could claim half a year of Lifetime Learning Credit (even though my 1098 from grad school was all screwed up, saying that I didn't pay any $ in 2011 for tuition?!). Next year should be interesting if both of us are working for the first time EVER in our 9 years together.

BTW, we filed on 2/2 and had a refund in the bank by 2/14. Love doing our taxes early!

[MissCrabette]

Scarlett, I'd double check when you made your final tuition payment. I know of several US med students pissed off with their schools for making them pay tuition for their final semester in December, so they couldn't claim it on their taxes. It's messed up.