Dietz, why would you feel compelled to bring up a totally unrelated racial-profiling type issue in this thread?
Ignoring a k-1 from a publicly traded partnership in the year of sale…haven’t seen any with what I’d call trivial amounts…the attached statements ususlly have adjustments to basis and breakout detail between capital and ordinary gain. Fun!
Funny. As if nobody EVER brings up something not related to the topic of the thread. Maybe I should add “topic Nazis” onto the thread expressing annoyance about the Grammar Nazis. Hadn’t heard about the hair searching thing, but I wouldn’t be happy with someone I didn’t know touching any part of my body. Especially those TSA guys. Creepy. 
So is there anybody out there still working furiously on their taxes? Or hasn’t started yet (who isn’t getting an extension)? Are you panicking?
I don’t like paying taxes, but I’d dislike not owing any even more. Extensions filed; checks for $Texas written; hip flask needed.
Just got my refund back today! I still have to do the whole family’s local returns, ours and two of my kids. Now I hate those pesky returns, federal is always a piece of cake, with taxfreeusa.
Personally, I love paying taxes because I like the services my tax money provides, not only to me and my family but everyone. That being said, H has been doing my mom’s taxes and there was a sale of a garage this year owned by my mom and her two sister - both who are deceased - so their share was considered part of the estate and they didn’t have to pay on it. The garage was in a state my mom doesn’t live in. H had to file for her in that state too. She owed exactly $1.00 to the State of Connecticut and it cost her $35 to file with Turbo Tax. So silly. H didn’t want to bother her with it so we paid the $1 and the $35 turbo tax charge.
Same thing happened to a friend of mine last week - his tried to efile and was rejected over and over. He then received a letter from the IRS saying that his refund - which he hadn’t even filed yet - could not be electronically deposited in his bank account because “several other” returns had already been deposited to the same account. Turns out his identity had been stolen by someone who claimed a $15,000 refund in his name.
In talking to the local PD about this, my firend found out that such ID thefts/tax return scams have skyrocketed over the past year, at least in our community. Safe filing, everyone!
I guess there is a small consolation for having to pay. No one would want to steal our identity because there is no way they would get a refund. I might even give a scammer a small reward if they could figure out how to get a refund from our tax return. 
Sorry to say this, deega123, but in the most common cases, they completely fake the tax return, creating non-existent refunds to claim.
Apparently, something like 75% of the filers do get refunds–just heard this by word of mouth, so it might not be true.
Time for one of my favorite quotes:
“I’m proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money.”
-Arthur Godfrey
There is a lot I will do for my kids, but not their tax forms. And I enjoy doing taxes. Really, it’s fun until you get to the part where it costs money. But there is nothing like doing your own taxes to get a good look at where your money is going, and how the tax laws affect you, so I’ve never offered and never will.
Okay so I guess I do have a tax rant. The number of fraudelently filed returns this year is ridiculous. We’ve probably run into a couple in the 25 years I’ve worked here. We’ve had at least a dozen this year. And sorry deega123, but QuantMech is correct. It has nothing to do with your real information. The crooks get a hold of your name and social security number and make up the rest. They get a refund and then you can’t file yours. We had one client that had his name used on a return with another male. He’s been married for almost 40 years. Had another where one of the kids, still in high school, file a return in his name. So that holds up both his, and his parents’ returns.
My rant is that the IRS should be doing something about this. With the technology available today, there should be no question that a refund in someone’s name can be put into an account without that name on it.
I have my accountant do my son’s form. They charge very little, and his is more complicated than mine. He gets the workbook, reviews, then sends the signature page. Perhaps when he is done with school, internships in different states, grants, wages, … He’ll shift.
@QuantMech @3bm103 Apparently sarcastic humor doesn’t go over well in a tax thread. Only a fool would wish for identity theft and I realize that 90% of the information they use to impersonate you is false.
@MomCat2. I brought it into the discussion to highlight the rude and inappropriate response to people lamenting their tax lot.
is a rude and dismissive attitude which can easily be applied to just about anything else anyone else feels is unjustified, irritating or unfair. Sometimes the only way to stop rudeness is to point it out and reflect it back upon the perpetrator. Otherwise it becomes accepted behavior.
Now…back to polite behavior.
D - the tax accountant in the making - has survived her first year crunch rather well.
deega123: To quote Saavik, from Star Trek II (or something like that): Humor. It is a difficult concept.
My tax return looks like a phone book. Do they even make phone books anymore? Maybe not the Manhattan phone book, but perhaps Tampa. Because I own a business everything goes through us personally as well. I can’t even take enough taxes out through payroll. We just file extensions and the accountant works all year long on them.
What frosts my cookies is the constant look back. We randomly get bills from previous years demanding more money. It never really ends. They assess and reassess multiple times and all we can do is pay. An ever increasing amount of time is now spent on regulation which is just an end game to get more revenue.
I have to wonder - how much is enough out of my pocket? Answer - never enough, because there are enough people out there who believe no one should make over x amount of money. I say if you use services you should pay, even a tiny amount.
I agree - The stories I have heard sound like such obvious fraud it seems ridiculous that the IRS doesn’t flag some of the fraudulent returns. Of course they get sent in on Jan 1, long before the actual taxpayer has the tax information he needs to file the legitimate return.
Do they get sent in on Jan 1? No one has all their forms by then so that should be a dead giveaway.
I heard about this a couple of years ago and organized crime had gotten involved. Forget about stealing cars and extortion, they were busy all day with false tax returns and they would request a cash card for their refund. The govt started issuing those so that people who didn’t have bank accounts wouldn’t be ripped off at check cashing places.
It’s a good idea from that POV but if the money is untraceable than that’s a problem. They need to make those little cards traceable.
“My tax return looks like a phone book. Do they even make phone books anymore? Maybe not the Manhattan phone book, but perhaps Tampa.”
TT asked if I wanted to print mine for our records. Are they kidding me? My printer does not have room for that much paper in it! Lol.