What I dislike is that the federal taxes are so incredibly complicated. Each line of each form is there because someone sometime asked to have this feature added to the tax code. I feel like my brains are going to explode when I do our taxes. This year there are four draft versions waiting for pending information (yes, we already filed for extensions) because my grad tuition can be a deduction or a lifetime learning credit, and we still don’t know if Happykid is a dependent for 2014 or not.
Not to mention of course that Happykid works in theater tech/design and has W2s from seven different venues and a weak-to-nonexistent paper trail for a whole bunch of self-employment income that never reached the amount requiring a 1099 for any one contract. I’ve been through her bank statements three times trying to figure out how much money she made (is that $50 deposit a graduation present or a deposit for an up-coming cash gig?), and how much of her expenses can be attributed to work and how much applies to the QEE for the last year that the AOC can be claimed for her (is that Amazon order a textbook, is it a piece of gear she needs for her toolbox?). When I do sit down with her receipts next month I will need to have a double mocha something or other with lots of whipped cream, and maybe a box of Girl Scout cookies to get me through them. Honestly, there isn’t an accountant on the planet who would take over this job for what she can afford to pay at this point in her career.
But I did learn that she can claim a reasonable number of theater/event tickets as “research” expenses for the self-employment part of her business. She’s thrilled.
In my next life, I will not teach ESL. I will study bookkeeping or accounting instead.
My tax complaint is an old one. One year, H and I got married and bought a house. During that year, H lived in 3 states and I lived in 2. H worked in two different cities that each charged local income taxes, We had to fill out resident and non-resident forms for each of these states and cities. And none of the figures transferred directly, so everything had to be reworked for each form. We might even have had to fill out married and single forms for some of them, too. All I know is that with two people, each of whom had only a salary for income, we had to fill out 28 separate forms. I remember literally pounding my head on the table.
OP- your D has a significant net GAIN under the system. She has a job to help occupy her time, which is more important than just the money aspect of it. She is ahead financially compared to not working. There is logic to being taxed when receiving government funds- same sort of thing happens to those on Social Security for being old.
I agree that I HATE doing the tax forms- even just collecting the data needed for our tax preparer. If I enjoyed it I would have chosen that profession.
I do NOT mind PAYING taxes. Feel lucky enough to be paying taxes, and a lot more in taxes than some earn (including relatives). No system can be perfect so there will always be those that fall into the margins that don’t seem fair. The tax code is complex enough as it is to accommodate so many different situations. Wish I had spent more and borrowed more as a student. btw- spent a lot more years and hours in any given year studying than most do (medicine) so higher earnings were actually earned- unlike those who make investments to get their wealth or become overpaid executives. Wish the middle class incomes would benefit more than those with enough funds to make hugely profitable investments. Raise my taxes, close loopholes and I still will have enough (of course having frugal habits that won’t disappear helps).
Life isn’t fair. Everyone should be able bodied, smart and have everything everyone else has (can’t call it an advantage as the term doesn’t allow for equality). One can make a case for so many inequalities. Why does society subsidize families over those with no children? Why are some jobs paid more than others? Why do we support those who can’t work because they have a disability? There is so much more than just money. Our current society has the luxury of redistributing wealth through the government. Imperfect, but so much better than past centuries.
Okay, here’s mine–as many of you know, my S went back to school last year. He’s independent by age, but his Profile school still used our info (their money; their choice). So he got a lot of aid, but not everything. After seeing him finish so successfully, we paid the loan off, so he’s free and clear. However, the tuition 1098 came in his name, not ours, so I need him to fill out his taxes, using this form, and then figure out what amount of credit is due to the tuition credit, and pay that to us. Neither of us have done our taxes yet, so --eek!
Done with both taxes, ours and kiddo’s. I am in a foul mood, to say the least. 3 hours of my time wasted… The &%$#@ TurboTax changed their format - again!! Why do I have to go through the idiotic exercise of entering every minor detail about each NQSO to get to the adjusted basis?! I used to be able to just enter it manually. Sigh…
Bunsen, I’m sure you know this, but in the tax code, there is a section that declares on the day you do your taxes, you are entitled to drink as much wine and eat as much chocolate as you like (though it is required to be the good stuff). Everyone is required to leave you alone, not ask you to do anything for them, and you are allowed to indulge in whatever guilty pleasures make you less cranky for the rest of the day. And that’s the law, so you’d better do what the IRS tells you to!
garland, as my D aged out her last year of college due to her gap year and December BD, she got the refund that year as well. I was irritated, as I was paying the tuition money! I made her take me out to dinner in France, but that might have been it. Quite unfair.
We’re one the few countries on earth that imposes income tax on foreign earned income. I get a healthy looking W2, but see very little of the money in my bank acct, because I pay income taxes to 2 countries. My kids are OOS everywhere.
Then every June 30, I have to file a FBAR form to inform the IRS of my balances in foreign banks-- it’s like allowing some pervert to go thru your underwear drawer. Of course, these rules only really affect salaried wage slaves. The truly rich can hide their overseas money.
It happened that on the day I received a tax shortfall notice from the IRS, it was announced that OBL bought the farm. That was the only check to the IRS I had pleasure signing.
@great_lakes, yes there’s an exclusion. But pretty much every other nationality has, not a 100k exclusion but a 100 percent exclusion, because it’s recognized that income taxes in the host country are already imposed.
It’s easy to exceed the 100k threshold when u add the cost of english-language school fees for kids and plane tickets to go home once a year. Those job benefits get taxed by 2 countries.
Greatlakesmom–I’ll take dinner out in France, as long as he covers airfare, hotels and the rest of the trip, too.
But seriously, he is well aware that that isn’t his money, and is very, very appreciative of our support for him to go back to school, so I just want to make sure it’s figured right.
“[In] the tax code, there is a section that declares on the day you do your taxes, you are entitled to drink as much wine and eat as much chocolate as you like[.]”
LOL, thanks for the reminder! I am making the Raymond family of Napa very happy… their 2013 cab is pretty good, just make sure that you aerate it a bit to bring out the bouquet. As for the chocolate, not having any time to get access to anything better, I got a box of Godiva chocolates from Costco.
Let’s just say the Bunsens were a very profitable family for the US Treasury this year.
Not only are the first about $100K excluded when working overseas, but you then get a tax credit for the taxes that you pay to the foreign country. It is NOT taxed twice. Now if you choose to live in a country that does not tax it’s foreign workers, like Saudi Arabia, and you exclude your income to the US, as long as you don’t make more than that $100K you don’t pay tax to any country. Try it
Sorry, but I like taxes. It’s like a huge puzzle and so satisfying to solve. I guess somebody has to like it. I’d hate being a doctor, or a dentist, or a lawyer or lots of other jobs some of you seem to enjoy.
But fair? Nope. Definitely not fair. But as others have said, whatever system you come up with will be more fair to some than others. And if you think we hate our system, you should see how much other citizens hate theirs. I do taxes for Europeans working here and they LOVE our system. So much more reasonable than theirs.
What I don’t understand is why the ones who hate doing their taxes so much don’t just let somebody do it for them. I hate mowing my lawn so I have someone else do it. Many of you have someone clean your house. Why spend hours and hours doing something that makes you bang your head? Isn’t the cost of a professional who knows what they are doing worth not having to do it? What is your time worth? Not to mention that it would be done right. Messing up my lawn is one thing, but my taxes? No thanks.
My complaint is that singles get screwed on all the college financial benefits. AOTC is eliminated at half that of a couple, but tuition isn’t half, costs aren’t half. It doesn’t matter if you have one kid or six in college, the maximum income for qualification stays the same, but if you have 6 in college and make $90k, you get no AOTC. FAFSA amount for the asset exemption is about 25% of what mine would be if I were married, so the EFC is higher even though I did the right thing and saved for college.
“Not only are the first about $100K excluded when working overseas, but you then get a tax credit for the taxes that you pay to the foreign country. It is NOT taxed twice. Now if you choose to live in a country that does not tax it’s foreign workers, like Saudi Arabia, and you exclude your income to the US, as long as you don’t make more than that $100K you don’t pay tax to any country.”
Eh, I don’t know that you’re right about that. @GMTplus7 has worked overseas for a very long time, and I’m pretty dang certain that she and her husband have looked into every avenue.
Also, we have some people at my company that are based overseas that are affected by the international tax issue. The union has negotiated that the company must make up the difference to make them whole, as if they had only filed in the US. Perhaps part of the difference is that there are some countries that may charge you a far higher tax rate to live there.
As for the chocolate, not having any time to get access to anything better, I got a box of Godiva chocolates from Costco.