CSS Profile Income Tax?

Paying for College
1

<p>On my CSS Profile application, in two places (help codes PI-140D and PP-105A, if it matters), it asks for
"Estimate the income tax your parents will pay for 2009 using their 2008 IRS Form 1040, line 56 and 2009 pay stubs and other financial documents."
and
"Enter the income tax your parents paid for 2008 from their 2008 IRS Form 1040, line 56."</p>

<p>Both cases pretty much rely completely on the 2008 tax return to find the answer, as I believe my case to be, since my parents are self-employed and it's near impossible to guess the changes between 2009 and 2008.</p>

<p>That said, I have our 2008 IRS Form 1040 with me, and for those two questions, when I refer to line 56, on the 1040 Form, it has a 0 recorded there.
Now, my parents had their taxes done by a professional tax preparer person (don't know official name), so I don't think the numbers on the form are necessarily wrong, but it's just weird to me that my parents would have no income tax to pay...</p>

<p>Now, looking carefully at the instructions for line 56, it says to subtract line 55 from 46.
Checking back on those two lines, essentially, line 56 comes down to line 44 plus line 45 minus line 55. Those three lines would be "tax + alternative minimum tax - total credits". We have no alternative minimum tax, so it's basically "tax - total credits", which ends up being 0, as line 56 says for us.</p>

<p>However, we KNOW that we pay taxes to the IRS because I also have with me some 1040-ES vouchers representing quarter-year amounts we're supposed to pay, which definitely AREN'T 0.</p>

<p>My parents say that perhaps we should be adding these four vouchers together to represent our income tax payment, but I am not so sure, as that would be blatantly ignoring the line 56 that the questions pointed us towards...</p>

<p>Help?</p>

2

<p>Look at your parents’ line 43. Do they have taxable income on that line? If so, they should have something on line 44 or line 45 (or maybe both?). You then subtract the total of any tax credits (lines 47 to 54) which is line 55 to get to line 56. But your line 43 is the key to whether your parents would have any taxes assessed.</p>

3

<p>Forgot to add: the vouchers are prepayments but not necessarily the amount of their tax liability. Also, line 56 is before any self-employment tax; it’s only income tax.</p>

4

<p>Although the taxes aren’t done yet, I can estimate fairly well from the W2’s. My question regarding PI-140D that asks for estimating how much fed taxes parents will pay is this…how much I have actually paid…or how much I will have paid after I figure in my refund?</p>

5

<p>i am in a situation almost identical to yours. how did you end up solving it? anymore inputs? i’m quite lost right now and my earliest deadline is friday, so i told my mom to ask the professional who does our taxes and he said that i am to write “0” for those two parts of the css…</p>

6

<p>I’m in the same situation as sinedd and x501, and while I’m struggling over the PROFILE right now, I’ve figured out why line 56 is the way it is, so if you need help/want to work it out together message me!</p>

7

<p>I am in the same situation but am seeing more confusion here due to elimination of a line in this year’s form. Line 49 in years 2007 and 2008 on form 1040 - credit for elderly is not there in form 1040 for 2009. This moves the lines up. Hence what used to be line 56 is now line 55 in 2009 (in my case also zero) The next line 56 is now the self employment tax. So is there a confusion on the lines here? Should it be line 55 now and not 56? Thanks</p>