Money Money Money

jenna8984

luckya23 said:

jenna8984 said:

@lyndausvi I know. The friends' who taxes I do don't understand much about them. They never understand the standard or itemized deduction. They try giving me a $50 donation receipt and I'm like I don't need that- you are SD and they totally don't get it. So I'm like fine, give it to me and then I just don't enter it anywhere lol. 

My friend made me double check hers last year because she just could not understand why she wasn't getting a refund. She's like I paid $xx in taxes! I'm like yea....you're single, no kids, in the highest bracket...it's not a mistake- that really is your taxes for the year. 

Ugh my friend insists she can't do her own taxes at 33 years old, single, no property, no loans.  She has her uncle do them still.  She had me take a bunch of stuff to Goodwill for her this summer, and of course I got the receipt in my name since she doesn't itemize.  Now this year her uncle tells her that he's going to claim a $2000 charitable deduction, and don't worry they won't need a receipt.  I'm like... wut??

LOL I believe the cutoff for having a receipt is $250

ashley8918

OH MY GOD YOU GUYS. I am not an idiot. I know how taxes work. I promise.

You are taking my "monies for poor people! Hooray!" comment wayyyyy too seriously.

chibiyui

My industry pretty much relies on people overpaying their taxes throughout the year and getting their refund and being like "FREE MONEY."

I feel like such a pariah. 

paperpusher

Most years I get a refund for both state and federal.  Last year was the exception.  I owed for both because I was working 2 jobs for part of the year and didn't up my withholdings.
IDK what we are doing this year.  We will probably use Turbo Tax.

For those of you who have filed jointly before what do you do with your refunds if you get one?

H and I were thinking of splitting it in thirds and he gets part, I get part, then the rest will go in our vacation fund for our honeymoon later this year.
Or we will put the whole thing in the joint account.  But that isn't as fun...

theartistformerlyknownas

H figured out that if we file jointly, he'll lose his refund - he itemizes for things like mortgage interest, but I take the standard deduction. If we file jointly I don't have enough deductions to itemize. Whether we do standard or itemized one of us would lose money as a whole, so we have to file separately.

emmaaa

I owed $750 last year because I was a waitress and even though I had taxes taken out , I never got a pay check because I made $2.17/hr.

I should get some back this year since I work for the local government and have a shit ton of taxes taken out.

paperpusher

emmaaa said:

I owed $750 last year because I was a waitress and even though I had taxes taken out , I never got a pay check because I made $2.17/hr. I should get some back this year since I work for the local government and have a shit ton of taxes taken out.

Waht? This is a thing?  How can they get away with paying you that little?

huskypuppy14

lolo883 said:

H figured out that if we file jointly, he'll lose his refund - he itemizes for things like mortgage interest, but I take the standard deduction. If we file jointly I don't have enough deductions to itemize. Whether we do standard or itemized one of us would lose money as a whole, so we have to file separately.

So I could be wrong on this, but I think if you file separately, if one itemizes the other has to take 0 has the deduction  itemize as well. Therefore you would still owe.

Think about it, I could itemize and get all our mortgage interest, medical payments etc. But if my husband takes the standard deduction it's like getting extra deductions. Look at #4 in this link: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Six-Facts-about-Choosing-the-Standard-or-Itemized-Deductions

ShesSoCold

I prefer to overpay throughout the year and get a refund. Like Ashley, it's easier for me to be smart with $1,200 at once than it is with $100 a month. I'm hoping that if we file jointly, my low income will bump H down into my lower tax bracket. My boss is a tax guy so I'll have him run them both ways to see what's better for us.

LadyMillil

paperpusher said:

Most years I get a refund for both state and federal.  Last year was the exception.  I owed for both because I was working 2 jobs for part of the year and didn't up my withholdings.
IDK what we are doing this year.  We will probably use Turbo Tax.

For those of you who have filed jointly before what do you do with your refunds if you get one?

H and I were thinking of splitting it in thirds and he gets part, I get part, then the rest will go in our vacation fund for our honeymoon later this year.
Or we will put the whole thing in the joint account.  But that isn't as fun...

We've been filling jointly for a few years because we were common law. DH usually owes/gets $100. When he claims me as a dependent (full-time student, no taxable income, tons of tuition credits) his refund jumps significantly. We usually divide in fifths - 1/5 for fun money for me, 1/5 for fun money for DH, 1/5 specific savings (last year wedding, this year starting a family), 1/5 to the car loan and 1/5 into general savings.

theartistformerlyknownas

huskypuppy14 said:

lolo883 said:

H figured out that if we file jointly, he'll lose his refund - he itemizes for things like mortgage interest, but I take the standard deduction. If we file jointly I don't have enough deductions to itemize. Whether we do standard or itemized one of us would lose money as a whole, so we have to file separately.

So I could be wrong on this, but I think if you file separately, if one itemizes the other has to take 0 has the deduction  itemize as well. Therefore you would still owe.

Think about it, I could itemize and get all our mortgage interest, medical payments etc. But if my husband takes the standard deduction it's like getting extra deductions. Look at #4 in this link: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Six-Facts-about-Choosing-the-Standard-or-Itemized-Deductions

Well fuck a duck. Why is "married filling separately" even an option if I can't still take the standard deduction? The house is solely in his name; I have no interest to deduct. Boo hiss.

huskypuppy14

lolo883 said:

lolo883 said:

H figured out that if we file jointly, he'll lose his refund - he itemizes for things like mortgage interest, but I take the standard deduction. If we file jointly I don't have enough deductions to itemize. Whether we do standard or itemized one of us would lose money as a whole, so we have to file separately.

So I could be wrong on this, but I think if you file separately, if one itemizes the other has to take 0 has the deduction  itemize as well. Therefore you would still owe.

Think about it, I could itemize and get all our mortgage interest, medical payments etc. But if my husband takes the standard deduction it's like getting extra deductions. Look at #4 in this link: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Six-Facts-about-Choosing-the-Standard-or-Itemized-Deductions

Well fuck a duck. Why is "married filling separately" even an option if I can't still take the standard deduction? The house is solely in his name; I have no interest to deduct. Boo hiss.

But you're married, so think of it as all your money (even if you keep your money separate). If your itemized deductions are more than your married filing jointly standard deduction (12,400) than you should still itemize. If it's less, than you guys should just do the standard. I know this is simplified, but in the past, your husband was filing as single, so his itemized deductions were probably more than the single standard deduction. 

theartistformerlyknownas

@huskypuppy14‌ I know it's all SEEN as "our money" but it's not that black and white. Especially since we got married late in the year. I'm getting double fucked by losing my deduction AND getting bumped into the next tax bracket.

lyndausvi

lolo883 said:

@huskypuppy14‌ I know it's all SEEN as "our money" but it's not that black and white. Especially since we got married late in the year. I'm getting double fucked by losing my deduction AND getting bumped into the next tax bracket.

Being your first year, I would run 3 tax returned (do not file, just run the numbers).  1 joint, 1 each MFS.  See which has the least amount of tax liability.   Filing separately isn't going to give your DH the same results as past years anyway.  Better to find out what you are really looking out.

I would also be pissed if DH expected me to absorb most of the liability.   I would think the more fair thing would be split your liability by each of your percentage to your combined household. for example if you bring in 30% of the total household income, then you should pay 30% of the total tax liability.

DH makes more than me, we for the most part have separate finances (have a joint account for rent and savings.)  We file jointly.  Because he makes more we have him take out more throughout the year (ETA - percentage wise I mean, of course he is paying more due to his higher salary).  Anything owed comes out of our joint savings.

Good luck.

huskypuppy14

lyndausvi said:

lolo883 said:

@huskypuppy14‌ I know it's all SEEN as "our money" but it's not that black and white. Especially since we got married late in the year. I'm getting double fucked by losing my deduction AND getting bumped into the next tax bracket.

Being your first year, I would run 3 tax returned (do not file, just run the numbers).  1 joint, 1 each MFS.  See which has the least amount of tax liability.   Filing separately isn't going to give your DH the same results as past years anyway.  Better to find out what you are really looking out.

I would also be pissed if DH expected me to absorb most of the liability.   I would think the more fair thing would be split your liability by each of your percentage to your combined household. for example if you bring in 30% of the total household income, then you should pay 30% of the total tax liability.

DH makes more than me, we for the most part have separate finances (have a joint account for rent and savings.)  We file jointly.  Because he makes more we have him take out more throughout the year (ETA - percentage wise I mean, of course he is paying more due to his higher salary).  Anything owed comes out of our joint savings.

Good luck.

Yes, I agree. I'm curious what lolo means by she's getting double fucked. I think you'll just have to accept you won't be getting a refund (if that's the case). But if you owe, you should do what Lynda said above.

This will be my first year being married also, and we didn't change our withholdings. I also sold a bunch of stock (to buy our house and to replenish our savings) as did my husband. His stock got taxes taken out, and mine didn't. I'm taking care of the tax payments. But sorry honey, you're not getting a refund.

ETA: We also keep our money relatively separate, just because it's easier for us to continue paying our separate bills as normal (car payments, student loans, cell phones etc). He pays the cable/internet, I pay the electric and gas bill, and we split the mortgage. Any other bill that comes in one of us pays it, but it doesn't really matter. We are both on each other's accounts, but we don't use each other's accounts normally.

rcher912

Anyone know what we're supposed to do if we bought the house together, pay the mortgage together, but aren't married yet?

I saw someone mention one of taking the mortgage interest and the other taking $0...is that right?

huskypuppy14

rcher912 said:

Anyone know what we're supposed to do if we bought the house together, pay the mortgage together, but aren't married yet?

I saw someone mention one of taking the mortgage interest and the other taking $0...is that right?

If you're not married and jointly on the house, one of you can claim the interest and itemize, and the other can do the normal deduction (I think). Lolo is married, so she can't do that. @jenna8984 is a tax professional and can probably answer better than I can.

theartistformerlyknownas

It's just my own determination on feeling double fucked because if viewed separately, my return is affected by two things (itemizing and the tax bracket) while "his" stays the same. We'll run it all possible ways though to maximize our deduction, same as we always have/will.

I'm just being dramatic because this is all stupid.

lyndausvi

rcher912 said:

Anyone know what we're supposed to do if we bought the house together, pay the mortgage together, but aren't married yet?

I saw someone mention one of taking the mortgage interest and the other taking $0...is that right?

I'm not a tax person, but I think you can each can take out the amount you actually pay.   So if you pay 50/50 then you each can take 1/2 the interest.  If you only pay 40% then you can only claim 40% of the interest paid.

Now the question is 1/2 enough to be able to claim?  It might be better for one to take the entire deduction.  Who that is and what the other one gets in return is another question.   

jenna8984

huskypuppy14 said:

rcher912 said:

Anyone know what we're supposed to do if we bought the house together, pay the mortgage together, but aren't married yet?

I saw someone mention one of taking the mortgage interest and the other taking $0...is that right?

If you're not married and jointly on the house, one of you can claim the interest and itemize, and the other can do the normal deduction (I think). Lolo is married, so she can't do that. @jenna8984 is a tax professional and can probably answer better than I can.

Exactly what Lynda said. One of you (in the higher bracket) can claim it, or you can split it and claim a percentage each. As long as it's only accounted for once. Like she said though, splitting it may not be enough if it's $7,000 for example, split in half wouldn't be enough for each person to itemize (would be less than standard deduction) but the total would be beneficial for one person to take the whole thing and itemize (would be more than standard deduction). 

Lolo, we have a house and our itemizations are still less than half the joint standard deduction (so also less for individual) so we're just taking the SD. I know you will run them both ways to make sure, but I really doubt separately will be much of a difference. 

dolewhipper

Knowing that a little extra money wouldn't hurt around our wedding date (3/7), we purposefully overpaid our taxes by claiming 0 AND having them hold $15 a paycheck. However Fi and I will do a SD and just the 1040A since we only have our w-4 and no other kind of claims or deductions.

I am happy with that decision 

rcher912

I actually love that. As another poster said, I'm a pretty bad saver, and getting a refund always helps me really happy - and I do tend to split it between splurging and paying down debt. I might take your plan @dolewhipper!

lovesclimbing

lolo883 said:

Refund? What's that?

With me in school, we ended up getting pretty big refunds the past couple years.  Now, H is going back to school, but he's not taking a full load of classes (not yet), so in theory, we'll still keep getting a somewhat decent refund and it'll increase once he goes full time.

As for what we do with the refund, I believe we've put in savings each year.  All of our money is joint.

dolewhipper

rcher912 said:

I actually love that. As another poster said, I'm a pretty bad saver, and getting a refund always helps me really happy - and I do tend to split it between splurging and paying down debt. I might take your plan @dolewhipper!

It's easy and I didn't miss the money! We both owed last year after me being a bartender and him being stupid taking out some of his 401k. This seemed like a no brainer, and I should be getting my refund by the middle of Feb which is right in time for the honeymoon and any last minute hiccups with the wedding.