Tax Day - April 15!! Tips and suggestions

Hi Arun - welcome to IL - I see that this is your first post here and we do welcome men and women in this forum. I will send you a private message because I need to get some facts before I can give you an answer - so check your messages later this evening.

Originally Posted by arunathisyear

Hi IL,

Inspite of me being a male, thanks for letting me to get into the forum. I have one question regarding tax filing. My daughter born here last year is right now in India. Can I include as my dependent when I do my taxes? My wife is workign too.

Thanks,
Arun.A

Originally Posted by ssubhasr

We are new to US...Jus came in the month of June'07. My husband works for a private concern in H1B. I joined my husband in the month of August'07. He got is W-2 form from his office. He said he need to file the IT returns. Though I am Commerce graduate with tax returns knowledge (only relating to India), I dont know anything abt US taxation. Can you pl let us know how we can file returns online ? Do we need to have consultation with any tax assistant ? Am a house wife in H4, so no income for me. And we dont pay any mortgage or housing loan here....Help us in this regard. I jus want to help my husband in this regard....

Hi Subha - you and your husband will have to file a tax return. If all you have is a W-2, it is very easy. I would suggest that you go to the library and get a 1040 booklet. It will walk you through how to do it manually. There are many free online services available but I have not used any of them so I cannot recommend it. Check with your husband's friends, co-workers, etc. They can let you know if they have used one that they like.

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by Shobanag

Hi Subha - you and your husband will have to file a tax return. If all you have is a W-2, it is very easy. I would suggest that you go to the library and get a 1040 booklet. It will walk you through how to do it manually. There are many free online services available but I have not used any of them so I cannot recommend it. Check with your husband's friends, co-workers, etc. They can let you know if they have used one that they like.

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot shobanag for the assistance in this regard.....

Hi Subha,
Sorry I missed your post...
I guess you have already got all the information from Shoba.

~Punitha

Originally Posted by ssubhasr

Hi puni

We are new to US...Jus came in the month of June'07. My husband works for a private concern in H1B. I joined my husband in the month of August'07. He got is W-2 form from his office. He said he need to file the IT returns. Though I am Commerce graduate with tax returns knowledge (only relating to India), I dont know anything abt US taxation. Can you pl let us know how we can file returns online ? Do we need to have consultation with any tax assistant ? Am a house wife in H4, so no income for me. And we dont pay any mortgage or housing loan here....Help us in this regard. I jus want to help my husband in this regard....

Hi,
Did anyone filed or started doing your the tax already.

I started last weekend and was not happy when I found that we owe more to FED.
Stopped half way thru... but started y'day entering all the mortgage info etc..
And was happy to see that we got some credit from FED...
I haven't completed, but started and will complete next week.

~Punitha

Hi Shoba,
I had one question from my filing...
From past 2 yrs we are getting 1099 .... from State IRS saying STATE TAX refund amout as income and should be taxed.
But why????
What mistake we are doing while filing our state returns???.

~Punitha

HI Punitha - I hope you dont mind - I moved your post to this thread since we are discussing filing taxes :)

No, I have not yet filed mine. Usually we break even - so even if we get a small refund, I am happy! What changed for you this year - that you ended up owing more to Fed? I know that you had mentioned in another post, that you typically prepare it yourself - so, I am sure that you would have picked up all the deductions that you are eligible to deduct. Let me know if you have any questions. I will be glad to help.

Originally Posted by puni88

Hi,
Did anyone filed or started doing your the tax already.

I started last weekend and was not happy when I found that we owe more to FED.
Stopped half way thru... but started y'day entering all the mortgage info etc..
And was happy to see that we got some credit from FED...
I haven't completed, but started and will complete next week.

~Punitha

Hi Shoba,

We did get refund and I am half way thru.
When I entered our w-2, we ended up oweing to fed and I stopped there.
Next day, I enterd all the mortgage info and we got some refund.
Still I need to do my husband's education fees, child credits, energy bills etc.


~Punitha

Originally Posted by Shobanag

HI Punitha - I hope you dont mind - I moved your post to this thread since we are discussing filing taxes :)

No, I have not yet filed mine. Usually we break even - so even if we get a small refund, I am happy! What changed for you this year - that you ended up owing more to Fed? I know that you had mentioned in another post, that you typically prepare it yourself - so, I am sure that you would have picked up all the deductions that you are eligible to deduct. Let me know if you have any questions. I will be glad to help.

Hi shoba,

YOu never replied to this.....
~Punitha

Originally Posted by puni88

Hi Shoba,
I had one question from my filing...
From past 2 yrs we are getting 1099 .... from State IRS saying STATE TAX refund amout as income and should be taxed.
But why????
What mistake we are doing while filing our state returns???.

~Punitha

Hi Punitha - just saw your post. The 1099 you are getting from the state is the refund that you got from filing the prior year state tax return. If you itemize your deductions, you are taking all state taxes withheld from your W-2 as a deduction. Hence when you get a refund from the state, you have to add back the refund as income on your 1040 - line 10. This is due to the "tax benefit" rule. For example, if you take a $100 state tax deduction on your itemized and your state tax liability is only $80, then you get a refund of $20. But on the federal return, you already took a $100 deduction and hence you have to add the $20 in the next year return. You have not done anything wrong.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Originally Posted by puni88

Hi Shoba,
I had one question from my filing...
From past 2 yrs we are getting 1099 .... from State IRS saying STATE TAX refund amout as income and should be taxed.
But why????
What mistake we are doing while filing our state returns???.

~Punitha