Filing your taxes Single, Married Jointly, Married Separately? 1040EZ, 1040A, 1040? How do you do it? Advantage / disadvantage to going with tax professional? Any recommendations to maximize your return?!
Become a soulless monster that votes to destroy the social safety net and simultaneously blow up the annual deficits in exponential fashion, all to put a fig leaf on the unneeded and inadvisable but ceaseless procession of tax cuts.
I’m tempted to do that. I don’t pay taxes because I have kids and the thousand-dollar tax credit is more than enough to help raise them, since I never feed them or buy them any clothing. Serious answer...H&R Block has decent software you can use. Cheaper than going to an accountant. I’ve never itemized, but apparently per the new tax laws, you might be better off taking the standard deduction now even if you itemized in the past.
The new tax law cuts my SALT deduction in half. Since I live in a high-tax area, the lower federal rate is a wash for me. I use an accountant, and a good one, too.
On a bit of a different note - being a US citizen abroad doesn't exempt you from filing US tax forms. However we get an automatic two month extension as a lot of the information we need doesn't arrive from the US til March. I don't even start doing mine til after Easter. US and the UK have a tax treaty so normally I just have to file and the standard deduction takes care of anything I might owe to the US. One thing we have to do that most folks living in the US don't have to do is report on our bank and other accounts that are outside the US. FBAR. This one is due by April 15 but is done electronically.
Yeah, my parents complain about what a pain the FBAR is. I do mine online with Taxslayer. Usually takes an hour or two.
It's not too bad if you have all your last year's account information together and a copy of the previous year's FBAR. A lot of it is then copying information (such as addresses and account numbers) from the previous one and plugging the numbers in. Of course I only have the UK accounts so I'm just dealing with pounds to dollars.
Every year when these threads are started I can't help but think that maybe more people in the US would be happier to pay higher taxes if it wasn't so complicated. Last year it took me a full 2 minutes to finish my taxes, this year it will probably take a couple of minutes more since I've switched bank and need to fill in my new account number to get my deductions back.
Lucky you. US forms are the most complicated for me. Most of the time I don't even need to fill out a UK form but when I did they were pretty easy.
I'd be happier if so much of my taxes didn't go to corporate handouts (e.g., agricultural subsidies, fossil fuel subsidies, welfare and food stamps and Medicaid enabling low wages) and dealing death at home and abroad (prison, law enforcement, military-- also corporate handouts), and if I were confident that the Medicare and Social Security systems that I'm paying into will still be intact when I need them.
I've had free tax advice for my entire life (yay Jewish stereotypes!), but generally I tend to understand most of the basic facets of it except W-4 withholding forms. I file single, and itemize. I think I'm still better off itemizing this year given the SALT changes and mortgage deduction changes.
myfreetaxes.com is how I do it (it's H&R Block, but teaming up with United Way if you make less than $56,000/year so it's free)
Okay I'll bite...from what I gather, you are predominantly on the left side of politics, so why are you against government subsidizing ag?
Thanks, I attempted to use TaxAct and H&R Block's software, and both have limitations and want to charge me to file my 1040. I've used the 1040EZ in the past, but now that I'm married and filing jointly, I guess it requires the 1040. I guess the software is fine and helpful; only thing I have to do now is print and mail it in instead of doing it eletronically which kind of stinks. I was wondering what everyone else uses. Thanks for the suggestion, but since it's both my wife and I on the tax form, we're not under that amount. Also H&R makes you upgrade if you're over $99,999 so that isn't an option either. So like I said above, I'm going to have to file via paper.
FATCA and FBAR are an incredible nuisance, but not to bad, really just have to plug in new numbers in every year. When I lived in the states, I used Turbo Tax, was pretty satisfied.
Yes, we know, because only one nation of titanic ********s are firstly stupid enough to not create a condition for "non-residency for tax purposes", availing itself of the web of international tax treaties to ensure people are paying tax somewhere; and then secondly enough, to be big enough four-letter c-words to make other countries responsible for doing tax compliance for them via FATCA. Piece of **** country, frankly.
Depends on your situation. I work as an expat so for me It's Married filing separately, 673 Form to go with the paper return-of course that only gets you up to the point where you earn over the cap; and advantage of going with a tax professional? If he/she bungles your return they usually have coverage for that to off set potential penalties and helps defer your risk/liability. When choosing a tax professional:
Yeah I did the math and (1) married, jointly vs (2) married, separately is a difference of $4.00 in the total amount of the return. And if we both filed (3) single, the amount of our return added together equals right around the married amount, so it all made sense when I did all the scenarios. As for tax professionals, I do it myself. Just finished my locals and the wife should be mailing them out today.
