The form is a document that you will receive in the mail and it is sent out by January 31 of the New Year so that those who receive benefits can see how much they have earned and report any income that they may have earned in addition to their social security income.

The form comes in a large white envelope each year with the recipients name and social security number and earnings on the form.

If you received one hundred percent of your social security benefits and held any type of employment while receiving those benefits you may have to pay a penalty at tax time for not having a certain percentage of your benefits withheld. Make sure that if you have other income outside of your social security benefits that you report this income as soon as possible and have the appropriate amount of taxes taken out of your benefits.

For instance you may have 10, 15 or 25 percent taken out of your social security benefits to cover the wages that you earn in addition to those benefits.

The form SSA-1099 may be confused with the other 1099 series forms as some are for those who are self employed or independent contractors.

If you need help with filling out your form or filing the taxes on your social security benefits you can speak with a social security representative who may be able to help you understand the form, or you can speak with your local tax representative for further information about filing.

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Well isn’t that nice. Illinois is actually requiring me to pay taxes on my out of state purchases. Unfortunately this year I didn’t keep track of that, so I am assuming that I should say no. At this point I am not sure how enforced this new law will be. Am I going to get audited if I select no? Well I can’t prove that I did or did not buy anything from places like Amazon.com or Buy.com. But I might think twice during this year. I guess as more and more states are trying to get every penny they can, we may someday see the end of tax free shopping at Internet sites. For all you fellow Illinoisans, what are you answering for this question?

In related news, if you haven’t heard as well, Amazon.com and Overstock.com have dropped all Illinois affiliates, since our genius Governor has decided to ask for taxes from any companies that have affiliates in the state. It’s funny that when you bankrupt a state, you go after people’s livelihoods to make up for the fact that you can’t manage your own wallet, much less the tax payers. Hey people run government like a business! And if you suck at it, then you should get fired and replaced! I think it is time to start thinking about moving out of Illinois. Colorado, here I come!

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Since the economy is still a bit sluggish, the earnings limit for 2011 is the same as 2010. If you make under $106,800 then none of this really matters to you unfortunately, but it is nice to dream isnt it?

The table below gives you a little history as to how the limites have increased over the years, mainly due to a strong economy.

 

You should also keep in mind that if you made over the $106,800 at more than 1 job, you will most likely receive the excess money back at tax time. Since each employer keeps track of their payroll liabilites seperatly, if you made more than the limit chances are you have some money coming back to you in April. If you use a program such as TurboTax it will notify you of the excess amount as you enter your W-2′s.

Original post from Budgetcents.net

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When you log into your State Farm Account you will see the following link on the left side of the page:
 

Clicking on the link will take you directly to TurboTax’s homepage, however you will notice that the prices are either free or discounted based on the State Farm Promotion. Here is the breakdown of the prices for the Federal Tax Return preparation and filing:

• Basic – FREE
• Deluxe – FREE
• Premier – $20
• Home & Business – $30

All state preparation and filing is FREE with any of the above services. So if you are a typical person like me that owns a home and is married, you are probably going to be a Deluxe user which in that case everything is free. For state and federal, that is over a $66 savings on your taxes. Not too shabby!

I definitely think that State Farm offering something like this to their customers is a great idea. It probably only costs them 60-70 per person, but if it gets a bunch of people to open new accounts, then it is probably worth it, since attracting new customers is always an expensive process.

If you are not a State Farm Bank customer, you can still check out those same services at TurboTax.com

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There is currently a Turbo Tax promo going on where you can get a free download of TurboTax Basic to help you prepare and file your 2010 taxes. Note that Turbo Tax basic includes free prep and filing for up to 5 2010 federal tax returns. There is an additional cost $19.95 for filing state tax returns.

If you have a pretty simple tax return, then downloading the free turbotax basic is probably the most cost effective way to go.

However if your taxes can be more complicatated and you need a turbo tax version with a little more features, then check out the TurboTax product comparison page for more details.

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According to the IRS, they are “taking this step because of the continued growth in electronic filing and the availability of free options to taxpayers, as well as to help reduce costs.”

According to the news releasein early October the IRS will be mailing out a postcard to individuals and businesses that filed by paper last year and did not use an electronic tax preparer with instructions on how to get the necessary forms required to file their 2010 taxes.

Most likely those instructions are going to direct you to their online forms section of the IRS website.

This really makes sense, since the cost of mailing these out can be saved considering more and more people have access to the Internet to print these forms.

Anyone think the IRS will take these cost savings and reduce our taxes?????

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The government likes to in increase that number every year, below I have listed what the amounts were for the past 5 years and you can see that they stick to around a 3-5% annual increase. This is great when your salary increase by that much, but not if you are stuck at a certain salary and that level passes you by!

But you will notice that there was no increase from last year, which is interesting. It must be related to the sluggish economy as I don’t remember the last time we didn’t see an increase in the wage limit.

Also, don’t forget that if you switched jobs this year and will make over $106,800 between the 2 jobs, you will receive the excess SSN tax money back when you file your tax return, however if you have only 1 job this year, then your company’s payroll department should stop taking out the tax once you hit the $106,800 wage.

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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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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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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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