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When Do I Get My Tax Documents?

BudgetBoy — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:16:28 +0000

Now that tax time is upon us, people tend to get into a frenzy when they haven’t received their tax documents from their employer, bank, etc. Here are some details to let you know if and when you should be receiving them:

W2: Your employer should have sent you this form by February 1st. That is the mandated date by the government. If you have still not received one be sure to contact your HR department.

1099-INT: These documents are provided to you by financial institutions where you have received interest. Most people will receive these from banks where their accounts are provided. Note that you will not receive a 1099-INT from a bank where you did not accumulate more than $10 worth of interest. 1099-INT documents should arrive at your home by February 1st.

1099-DIV: This document is sent out by brokerages where you have bough and sold stock. These show the dividends/losses you incurred during the year. In just the past few years, they have extended the date when you are to receive a 1099-DIV by 15 days, so you should receive it by February 15th.

1099-R: If you took rolled over a tax free retirement account to an IRA, or took a disbursement of cash, you will be receiving a 1099-R. This should arrive by February 1st.

1099-MISC: If you did any side work or made any money from a job where taxes were not deducted, you will get a 1099-MISC from the employer that paid you. You only get one if the dollar amount was larger than $600 for the year. There is a lot of debate as to whether or not you need to claim amounts less then $600 since a 1099-MISC was not issued. My advice is to better be safe than sorry and do it! This should be received by February 1st.

Those are a list of the common tax forms that people will be receiving for the 2009 tax year. Before you meet with your accountant or sit down to do your taxes via TurboTax or any of the other online tax providers, make sure that you have accounted for all your forms for all of your accounts. This will just save you time and hassle later by having to file an ammended return.

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$7500 First Time Homebuyer Credit

BudgetBoy — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:58:39 +0000

Not many people are aware of the $7500 tax credit that that IRS is offering toward the purchase of a new home. The first-time homebuyer is a refundable credit of up to $7,500 that applies to home purchases after April 8, 2008 and before July 1, 2009. This means that the credit will be paid out to eligible home buyers, even if they owe no tax or the credit is more that the tax owed on your return.

This credit works like an interest free loan. If you qualify, you will receive the $7500 as part of your 2008 tax return. The repayment begins in the second year after you receive the money. So you would begin paying it back starting 2010. The repayment period is 15 years and the payment comes out of your yearly tax return. So if you receive the full $7500 you would pay back $500 out of your tax return for the next 15 years.

To qualify for the credit you must meet the following requirements:

You must purchase your home after April 8, 2008 and before July 1, 2009.
The home must be your main home, the one that you live in most of the time
To qualify as a home, it must include sleeping, cooking, and toilet facilities. A home can be a house, condominium, cooperative, mobile home, house trailer, boat, or similar property
Your adjusted gross income with a few changes (also known as your modified adjusted gross income) must be less than $95,000 if filing single or less than $170,000 if married filing jointly. You qualify for only part of the credit if your modified adjusted gross income is between $75,000 and $95,000 if filing single (or between $150,000 and $170,000 if filing jointly)

You can’t claim this credit if you:

Owned a main home at any time in the prior three years preceding your purchase
Purchased this home from a family member, including your grandparents, parents, spouse, children, or grandchildren.
Stopped using your home as your main home.
Sold your main home before the end of the year.
Are a nonresident alien.
If you ever took or were eligible to take the District of Columbia first-time homebuyer credit for any taxable year.
You financed your home from any source that uses tax-exempt mortgage revenue bonds.

I don’t qualify for the credit, however I wanted to see how this worked in TurboTax. I answered the questions like I was a first time homebuyer and sure enough my refund increased by $7500. Not a bad way to receive an interest free loan that you can payback over time. And the fact that the repayment is taken out of your tax returns makes this very hassle free.

I strongly recommend that if you bought a home since April 8 and you fit the qualifications you should definetly jump on this one.

See IRS Publication 530 for more detail.

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Free Turbotax For State Farm Customers – 2008 Tax Year

BudgetBoy — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 12:12:40 +0000

Once again State Farm is giving away Intuit’s Online TurboTax Free to its customers. They have done this for the last 2 years and it has been very successful. This year is a bit different however. This year you can only get access to the free Tubotax by having a State Farm Bank product added to your online account. Just having a State Farm insurance product isn’t good enough. State Farm bank offers products such as Credit Cards, Savings/Checking accounts and CD’s.

One easy way to get this is to sign up for a State Farm Credit Card. They have no annual fee and once you get your card you can setup access to get onto the State Farm Portal. Once you log in, you will see the following “File Your Taxes For Free” link.

Once you click through that link you will be directed to the TurboTax site with their online product listing and fees. Notice that only TurboTax Basic and Deluxe are Free, however the Premier and Home & Business versions are severely discounted.

Also note that it says “State Additional”. They said that last year too but there was no charge once you completed your taxes. As I get closer to filing my 2008 taxes, I will update this post to verify that the state filing fee is in fact free.

The online version of TurboTax does not require any software install on your part. Everything is kept online securely and is available to print out anytime even after you file your taxes. All your data from the previous years is carried forward to help reduce retyping all that data every year. I have used it for the past 3 years and have had no complaints. One advantage of the online version versus the desktop version is that you get immediate updates. No more waiting to download federal and state updates!

Also be sure to remember that if it takes you a few sessions to complete your taxes, be sure to get into TurboTax through the State Farm link each time. There have been reports that you only need to go through the State Farm link the final time before you file, but just to be safe I would always use the link each time you need to go back in.

If you don’t have any State Farm accounts, Turbo Tax has pretty decent rates to file your taxes (See the TurboTax site for details.) I have used quite a few online tax preparation sites and in my opinion Turbo Tax is definitely the best way to go.

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2008 Tax Rebate For Social Security Recipients

BudgetBoy — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 12:31:07 +0000

Update: See my latest posts on the Tax Rebate Payout Details in the 2008 Tax Rebate Category!

I have been getting a lot of questions from people asking if they will receive rebates if they are retired and receiving Social Security Benefits. The answer is yes. as long as the following items are true:

Individuals or families must have at least $3,000 in qualifying income, which can be income from or in combination with Social Security benefits, Veterans Affairs benefits, Railroad Retirement benefits and earned income
People must have valid Social Security Numbers.
People cannot be claimed as dependents or eligible to be claimed as dependents on another’s tax return.
People must file a 2007 tax form, i.e. Form 1040A.

If you have already filed a 2007 tax returns showing $3000 or greater in income then you are all set and will receive the rebate starting in May according to the recently posted Rebate Payout Schedule.

If you have already filed a 2007 return but did not include your Social Security benefits as income, you will need to file an amended return using the Form 1040X to qualify for the rebate.

If you are receiving Social Security but don’t usually file, check out this Resoruce Guide from the IRS on the easiest way for you to file to receive your rebate.

And remember, the quickest way to get your rebate will be to file that 2007 tax return with direct deposit, otherwise you will get a paper check paid out sometime between May and July based on your SSN number.

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2008 Tax Rebate Stimulus Plan Payout Schedule Posted

BudgetBoy — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:50:09 +0000

Update: Haven’t received your rebate yet? Use the Rebate Status Tool to find our when it is coming.

The IRS has posted the 2008 Tax Rebate Stimulus Plan Payout Schedule.

The date you receive your payment will depend on 2 things:

The last 2 digits of your Social Security Number
If you will receive it by direct deposit or by check

Payments for those receiving the rebate through direct deposit will start on May 2nd and be completed by May 16th. Payments that will be received by check will begin May 16th and be completed by July 11th.

If you elected direct deposit when you filed your 2007 tax return, you will receive your rebate through direct deposit as well. This will be the quickest way for you to receive the rebate. Especially for those whose last 2 digits of their SSN are closer to 100. Unforturnetly if you have all ready filed your 2007 taxes and did not elect direct deposit, there is no way to stop the rebate from coming as a check.

According to the IRS, “People who file a return after April 15 will receive their economic stimulus payment, but probably about two weeks later than the schedule shows. A return must be filed by October 15 in order to receive a stimulus payment this year”

So for all you late filers, don’t forget that October 15th is a hard date you must file by to receive the 2008 tax rebate. This is free money, so don’t pass it up. If you are still unclear how much rebate you will be getting, try out the IRS.com Tax Rebate Calculator

And don’t forget that Uncle Sam is expecting you to blow all this tax rebate money on useless items to jump-start the economy! So be smart with this money considering the current economic slowdown that is happening.

2008 stimulus rebate schedule

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2008 Retirement Contribution Limits

BudgetBoy — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 17:48:59 +0000

As we kick off 2008 now is a good time to make sure you are maxing out your 401k and ROTH IRA (if eligible). Remember that a 401k and ROTH might be the only thing you will have when you retire considering the current state of Social Security. So start maxing out today since the earlier you do it the greater it will grow before you need to use it!

Here are the contribution limits for 2008 for each retirement plan (401k, ROTH, 403b, and Simple IRA). I also included the 2007 limits as a comparison:

Note that for a ROTH IRA there are certain income limits that start to phase out how much you can contribute. If you are within the phase out range you can only make a partial contribution. If you are above that range then you are not eligible to make a contribution to a ROTH for that year. When you file your taxes it will tell you how much you can contribute based on your adjusted gross income (AGI). Personally, I usually wait to contribute to my ROTH the day before I file my taxes to make sure I haven’t over contributed based on my AGI.

Also don’t forget that you can still contribute to your ROTH IRA for 2007. Just make sure you do so prior to filing your 2007 taxes.

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2008 Tax Rebate Stimulus Plan Payout Update

BudgetBoy — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:35:30 +0000

Update: See my latest posts on the Tax Rebate Payout Details in the 2008 Tax Rebate Category!

The IRS has mailed out a Stimulus Payment Notice to everyone. You should be receiving yours shortly. I have provided mine here if you have not gotten yours yet. (click on image for larger pictures. You may need to save them to your PC as IE doesn’t render the images very well)

This letter is basically reminding you to file a 2007 tax return, even if you haven’t needed to in the past, to be able to be eligible for the tax rebate payout. On the front of the mailer it provides a quick description of what your rebate will be based on current income levels. This doesn’t cover all situations however, so be sure to visit the 2008 Tax Stimulus Rebate FAQ for more info.

Unfortunately the note does not give an update to the tax rebate payout schedule. From what I hear it is coming soon, but the IRS is not ready to release it yet. Keep checking back and I will provide the payout schedule as soon as I have it.

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2008 Tax Rebate Stimulus Plan Payout Update

BudgetBoy — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:46:17 +0000

Update: See my latest posts on the Tax Rebate Payout Details in the 2008 Tax Rebate Category!

I have been asked by a bunch of readers what the stimulus plan payout schedule is going to be for the 2008 Tax Rebate. Unfortunately they still have not released an updated payout schedule yet. My source inside the IRS says it should be coming in the next few weeks, so please keep checking back as I will post it as soon as it is public knowledge.

Another item that I have received a bunch of questions on is whether or not we will have to pay taxes on the rebates that we qualify for. The good news is no. Check out the IRS Frequently Asked Questions Site and at the bottom you will find this:

Q. Is my stimulus payment taxable?

A. No. You will not owe tax on your payment when you file your 2008 federal income tax return. But you should keep a copy of the IRS letter you receive later this year listing the amount of your payment. In the event you do not qualify for the full amount this year but you do next year, you will need to have the letter as a record of the amount you previously received.

Q. Will the payment I receive in 2008 reduce my 2008 refund or increase the amount I owe for 2008?

A. No, the stimulus payment will not reduce your refund or increase the amount you owe when you file your 2008 return.

This is definitely great news, because if I was going to have to pay taxes on it I was just going to save it, but now, that Xbox 360 is looking better and better.

Subscribe to my RSS Feed to get the latest updates. You can also see all my posts on the 2008 Tax Rebate Stimulus HERE!

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2008 Tax Rebate Stimulus Plan Update

BudgetBoy — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:50:12 +0000

Update: See my latest posts on the Tax Rebate Payout Details in the 2008 Tax Rebate Category!

Here is an update from the IRS Regarding the Tax Rebate Payout Plan:

The IRS will begin sending taxpayers their payments in early May after the current tax season concludes. Payments to more than 130 million taxpayers will continue over several weeks during the spring and summer. A payment schedule for taxpayers will be announced in the near future.Stimulus payments will be direct deposited for taxpayers selecting that option when filing their 2007 tax returns. Taxpayers who have already filed with direct deposit won’t need to do anything else to receive the stimulus payment. For taxpayers who haven’t filed their 2007 returns yet, the IRS reminds them that direct deposit is the fastest way to get both regular refunds and stimulus payments.

As soon as I get the stimulus plan payout schedule I will be sure to post it here, so keep checking back. Be sure to see my Other Posts for more detail on the Tax Rebates.

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2008 Tax Rebate Stimulus Plan Update

BudgetBoy — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 19:11:16 +0000

Update: See my latest posts on the Tax Rebate Payout Details in the 2008 Tax Rebate Category!

More information is emerging on the 2008 Tax Rebates.

Here is the payout information based on your SSN number: (Update as of 2/27/08 the IRS is now reporting that they may start sending out the rebate checkes as soon as May, so this table may shift up. I will post the new dates as soon as the IRS posts them)

3/18/08 – Update: The new stimulus plan payout schedule has been released. See it here

The rebate is going to be based off of your 2007 adjusted gross income, so be sure to get your tax return in by the April 15th deadline.

Here is a link to the FACT Sheet on the Tax Rebate put together by the Department of Treasury.

Also, be sure to check out the rebate FAQ put together by the IRS. This should most likely answer all your rebate questions.

Damn, mine is coming in September. But hey, better late then never. ~~And don’t forget that you will be paying taxes on the rebate amount you get on your 2008 Taxes next year, so spend wisely!!!~~

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