What does turbo tax updates mean? I though it was their program for 2021 taxes but is it something else?
TT has frequent updates, every time you open a program.
I usually pay what I owe in April, file extension and turn my tax in Oct. I get no stress when it comes to tax time.
What is the advantage of an extension if you already know and paid what is due? Are you waiting for K1âs? or other statements?
Recently ran across my dads income tax return from 1945,
How much did you make? How much do you owe? How much have we already withheld? Whatâs the difference? Thatâs pretty much it.
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Just for interest, I went to TT thru fidelity. To actually talk or file, they want over $100. My accountant has been $900. So , it is not yet 5:00 pm, and I poured a drink. According to TT, I owe twice what I usually pay. Granted, I sold a lot to help my son buy a house in the Bay Area. I didnât see a place to add in an insurance payment for damage in my home. Nor did I see a place to put in medical expenses.
So, if my accountant can run the numbers far better, than it is worth every penny. Iâve given her all the info weeks ago. As this was a different year, with all the sales, I just wish Iâd get some news soon.
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I have time to double check everything, plus in case some papers do come late, I donât have to file amended tax return like 1040-X, trust me one year we did have to adjust something, mostly for the state basis, we owed zero tax on the Federal, they claimed we did, and if you wait long enough they tack on penalties after penalties. We finally gave up, itâs not worth the headache, and just paid them. This despite calling the tax advocate center twice, but the IRS lost our 1040-X anyway, they have no record, even though we didnât send through regular mail. In general, I think they donât have to deal with amended tax returns, just the regular return is what the IRS has to deal with.
Plus if I owe money, I really donât have an incentive to file right away, even though I have to pay up to April date. The only hitch is you have 3 year from the time you file extension for the audit, not from April.
TurboTax is constantly updated during the tax season. Sometimes there are forms that are not available when the program is first released (Nov/Dec I think). Sometimes they find errors in the software. If you use the online version, they update that when updates are available. If you use the downloaded version (which I do) it asked you each time you start the program if you want to check for updates. Sometimes there are no updates. Other times there are some (which are downloaded and the software updated).
Vast majority of my income isnât known to me until early January. Need to make estimated tax payment for it by mid-January. At one point, I used the prior year TurboTax (plugging in current year income amounts) to create an estimated final payment that was close enough. Then at some point, that starting to produce very unreliable estimates. So I started buying the program in mid-December. There are typically a number of updates that are relevant before I file in April.
Sometimes I donât file a return in April even though I pretty much know the amount that is owed. Usually its just that I am looking to gather docs that will reduce tax liability. Rather than paying that amount and a separate estimated payment for the first quarter of the new year, I pay both amounts as payment of prior year taxes (excess will be applied as estimated payment for the new year). Hedge against the prior yearâs liability being higher than I estimated/expected.
The IRS doesnât care much about timing in terms of when you file if you are owed a refund. At some point you will get a letter from them telling you that you will lose the right to claim it if you do not file a return though. And any audit period is extended.
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Deleting as the CC site has tagged the wrong person, and I have no idea how to correct that.
I use Free tax USA for mine. Itâs very easy.
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Updated 1099 forms may be due to updates in the reporting of the underlying investments, rather than any changes at the brokerage firm where the investments are being held.
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In general if you receive updated versions- how do you then enter them in turbo tax? Do you have to remove the first one or does turbo tax figure it out what needs changed?
DH owns his own commercial real estate firm, and his business is similarly complicated, so it requires a professional. You make a good point that an expert tax preparer can save you money if they know what they are doing and are well worth the expense in that case. And ditto on everything being on the up and up. Thatâs critical.
DH also usually has several sessions per year with a master tax attorney just to make sure we are making the best returns possible while following the law without question.
It probably depends on how extensive the changes are. As in, I assume that you could reimport the documents, but I just manually corrected the info in TT after comparing the original & corrected 1099s. I was temporarily stumped when I saw a figure on life 2f (Section 897 Capital Gains) and no corresponding box on TT. Fortunately, some helpful person had figured it out and posted the answer online.
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I have not dealt with homeownersâ insurance payments so cannot answer that one, but TT absolutely allows for itemization of medical expenses, assuming that you plan to itemize and not take the standard deduction.
If you are taking the std deduction, then you cannot claim medical expenses. You enter the info under the Federal tax, under Deductions & Credits, and then choose Medical Expenses under the Medical section. TT will calculate the amount in excess of 7.5% of your AGI and then carry that figure over from the worksheet to Schedule A.
Re: $100 via Fidelity? I believe Fidelity offers free access to TT at certain account thresholds, but if Fidelity is not offering that to you, I cannot see a reason to buy TT via Fidelity. Regardless of where you buy the program, you can still download your Fidelity transactions into TT.
The Medical section is also where you would claim contributions to an HSA that will reduce your taxable income.
Some people who use accountants but want to try filing their own taxes will run their taxes on TT to see if they can produce the same bottom line as the accountant. If so, no need to hire the accountant the following year.
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Insurance claim, you might read this
You donât need to pay any taxes on your home insurance payout if no portion of your payment was âincome.â If the payment was less than or equal to the amount of damage, you are simply âmade whole.â Or so. 
This is how I read this.
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Well, H and I got all our tax paperwork organized and will drop it off with CPA soon so their office can deal with it. It was a pain to get it all organized but glad to have it off the dining room table.
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Yes. And if you have any investments that provide K-1s, there is no guarantee you will get them in time for an April 15 filing.
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Everyone here had been very helpful in getting me started.
K1âs came in and I just finished turbo tax and e-filed fed and state. Whew! quite the learning curve! But, next time should be a lot easier. Only had to call them twice- once was unnecessary as I just need to go through the steps some more. The second one I had to figure out how to eliminate a form that was duplicate information.
Used the desktop Mac with premier version.
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Our accountant this year informed us that they no longer accept paper, and do not give you a handout at the end. They want you to download all the info on their special website and refer to that if you need the info later. I figured if I was going to do that I might as well do my own. The cost was $2500 + and said they were raising their prices!
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