Got my taxes done yesterday

[CountAllVotes]

I went into the local town to the senior resource center.

They have volunteers that are preparing/filing taxes there.

I had never been there before but they had everything filed for me when I left.

The tax return is what I had expected to get (abt. $200) and it matched the results I got with this easy to use calculator from the AARP here: https://www.aarp.org/money/taxes/1040-tax-calculator/
It works for everyone, senior citizen or not.

They asked me to be a volunteer there being I had the same results that they came up with. I am considering doing this.

They had a form to be filled out on it and one of the questions was "Did you rent out a room in your house this past year?". I was shocked to see this question. Is renting out a room to someone in your house a taxable event? If so I never knew it. I guess it is considered income (?). Any ideas on this are appreciated very much.

Besides this income tax thing, I also noticed that the price of gasoline here went from $5.03 a gallon to $5.59 a gallon in the past week. This is over a 10%+ increase in a few days!

What did the orange freak to to cause such a dramatic increase in such a short time?

All in all, it was a successful day other than the price of gasoline jumping so much.

I'm off to see my health care provider at the local Open Door Clinic where I go for care today and yes, its one of the Federally funded clinics that every one wants to go to here. They are full of customers and aren't taking any more. I consider myself fortunate to have managed to get in there as the physician I was going to retired a couple of years ago and finding a new person/place to go is a tremendous challenge where I live.

In fact it is such a big problem that many have to move away from here as there is an extreme shortage of not only doctors, but also dentists. This is in rural NW California.

Good night everyone and have a good day!

CountAllVotes

[GreenWave]

1. Good points. I got jobbed by Turbo tax.

They waited until I was almost done ( 1 hour) to tell me it wouldn't be a freebie anymore. I was supposed to get 20% off their fees but they don't know how to even do that.

I got a stipend for on the job training but Turbo pretended it was a deduction. (A nice lady from the state capital returned my call in 15 minutes and explained it was only for businesses, so $750 lost!)

And Turbo doubled up my minuscule CD interest which meant I paid taxes on it twice.

Next time I am getting the same forms and doing it myself, but I will also check the senior resource center if and when I feel I have to,

[CountAllVotes]

2. I did it myself last year

I used the calculator above and filled out the 1040-SR with the info. I got from it.

The results were apparently off by $3.00 and the IRS needed more information from me to send me the refund I was to receive. It took a long time to get it and I was worried, but I did finally get it around July if I remember right.

I'd recommend using the calculator posted above it is correct for a fairly simple return like mine.

I paid $600.00+ in Federal taxes last year. The taxes were on my social security. Nice, thanks for nothing Ronald Raygun!

I'm all for the do it yourself method. Its easy for me to put a postage stamp on an envelope and off it goes to the IRS for processing. Free and fairly simple if you have a simple return.

Best of luck with it!

[CountAllVotes]

3. P.S.

I agree with you. TurboTax sucks!

The last time I used it I bought a CD of it from Amazon. It would not install nor work properly.

It was too late to return it for a refund so I was out $50 on that "deal".

I'm really trying my best to stay away from amazon.com.

What a rip-off they are indeed!

[catbyte]

5. TurboTax is a ripoff. I've been using FreeTaxUSA for a few years and I like it.

Filing your federal return is free and state is $14.99. You can buy extra add-ons like audit defense for about $20 but it's still way cheaper than TurboTax. I'm just wondering how long it's gonna take to get my refund what with the fuckery going on with the "tech bros."

Wow, that was a big jump for gas. It was $2.91 where I live, down from $3.03 a few days ago.

Edit: Whoopsie. I just got an alert that my refund has been deposited in my bank account. I e-filed my taxes on February 1. Not bad, lol.

[AllyCat]

6. They burned us last year too.

Ended up doing them on paper and will do the same thing this year.

[Old Crank]

4. Renting a room.

Yes it is income.
It also opens up a whole new can or worms when you rent out part of your house.
On one hand it allows you to claim a portion of your house as a business expense. That means that you can deduct expenses related to that and you might have to depreciate that part of the house also. So you mgiht actually lose money on paper while renting out the room. This can be a problem when/if you sell the home as the profit from the sale of the depreciated asset would be taxable.... Fun stuff to deal with for say 20% of your house.
I wouldn't declare the income if it was a low amount. The cost v benefit is too much if you do all the corerect accounting.

As for helping others do taxes, in CA if you get paid you need to be registered with the IRS and the state tax people. As a volunteer you may not need to do so where ever you live. But make sure that the volunteer group has insurance that will cover you if a mistake is made and someone wants to claim damages.

I did my own for many years and got the federal certification.

These days I pay ein Steuerberater für meinen Einkommen.

The biggest rule to follow is: RTF or RTFF. Read the (f'ing) form. and FtD, follow the directions.
Back when I did it, Publication 19 was your friend. That covers virtually all an idividual needs and a lot more.
I think it is only on line now.

Best of luck.

[Callie1979]

7. $5 a gallon? WOW where ARE you? I paid $2.71 last week But trump is fixing that

Yesterday I saw $3.05
And yes, renting a room is considered income. But would anyone ever know you WERE?

[DFW]

8. Gasoline is down to $6.90 per gallon here

But no one expects it to last. $7 to $7.75 is the norm.

[Callie1979]

9. But I KNOW where YOU are! I'm surprised its not even higher!

[DFW]

10. The dollar is currently high against the euro

There is a 10% foreign exchange cushion built in that probably won’t last.