Anyone nervous to do their taxes?

[tvguy]

Slightly off topic, but I mailed (yes mailed, my CPS does not do electronic filing) my taxes 3 weeks ago yesterday, and my refund was direct deposited in my account today.

 

[Summer2018]

I have no idea how it's going to fall out. The child tax credit increase and reduced phaseouts will be good, but the reduced SALT deduction and no exemptions scare me. I also have some self-employment income and I've heard there's a new deduction for that, but I haven't done any research yet.

Anyone been pleasantly surprised?

Disaster.

We always get a refund of about $3,000. This year we owe $2,400.

 

[kymom99]

My son gets va k a total of $41. He’s a student.

I haven’t sent our payment off yet.

 

[tvguy]

Disaster.

We always get a refund of about $3,000. This year we owe $2,400.

But are you paying more or less total tax this year and is your income the same, smaller or greater? For the typical American, the total tax is less, a whopping 1% less in my case

 

[MomOfDisneyPrincess]

I was prepared for the Federal changes and that's all good. I was NOT prepared for the state of Kansas to ignore what Federal did and go on like nothing changed. Basically, if you itemize on Federal, you itemize on Kansas with 50% of what Federal allowed. Except now that the Federal standard deduction has been raised, I can no longer itemize. If I take the standard deduction on Federal, I have to take the standard deduction on Kansas. Wonderful, except Kansas did not increase their standard deduction like Federal did, so I owe $2000 in Kansas tax and only had $916 withheld.

But wait, Adoption Credit to the rescue! My adoption credit from 2009 has been rolling over from year to year as I have been unable to use it up in previous years, because Kansas did not make it refundable like Federal did. So, I can now use $2000 from the credit and get my $916 back as a refund! Happy Endings all around! At least I'm hoping Kansas doesn't wake up and say, "You should have used that credit before this, so we're not going to allow it". I don't believe that's the case, but there's always that tiny little worry.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Wonderful, except Kansas did not increase their standard deduction like Federal did, so I owe $2000 in Kansas tax and only had $916 withheld.

I'm in Kansas. That sounds like you didn't adjust your withholdings maybe for the state?

That's just such a big difference in what was withheld.

Remember too that income tax rates went up between 2017 to 2018.

 

[tvguy]

I owe $2000 in Kansas tax and only had $916 withheld.

I can't imagine a state where the income tax is only $2,000! Top state income tax rate in Kansas is 5.7%. The LOWEST income tax bracket in California is 10.3%

 

[jerseygal]

Slightly off topic, but I mailed (yes mailed, my CPS does not do electronic filing) my taxes 3 weeks ago yesterday, and my refund was direct deposited in my account today.

Unless preparing certain tax returns, for example,Amended returns, (Form 1040X) CPAs and other tax preparers having a PTIN issued by the IRS(a preparer identification number for paid tax returns) are required by IRS to be e filed!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I can't imagine a state where the income tax is only $2,000! Top state income tax rate in Kansas is 5.7%. The LOWEST income tax bracket in California is 10.3%

The poster is saying they OWE $2,000 not that they only paid $2,000 in taxes.

Your 10.3% CA amount is for income over $275,738.00.

For CA for 2018:


For Kansas 2018:


My husband will actually be taxed at a lower overall rate when he's out in CA for the 6months+ in comparison to Kansas.

 

[MomOfDisneyPrincess]

I'm in Kansas. That sounds like you didn't adjust your withholdings maybe for the state?

That's just such a big difference in what was withheld.

Remember too that income tax rates went up between 2017 to 2018.

I did adjust based on withholding tables, but didn't account for losing my itemized deductions for the state. I've always itemized, but since federal upped the standard deduction, I don't exceed the standard. Kansas did not change their standard deduction based on what Federal did, so that messed everything up. Don't forget, I was never intending to have all of my tax liability covered by withholding, since I have that adoption credit to use up.

 

[tvguy]

Unless preparing certain tax returns, for example,Amended returns, (Form 1040X) CPAs and other tax preparers having a PTIN issued by the IRS(a preparer identification number for paid tax returns) are required by IRS to be e filed!

Taxpayers have a legal right to opt out of electronic filing.
You just have to fill out form 8948
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-access/f8948_accessible.pdf

 

[MomOfDisneyPrincess]

The poster is saying they OWE $2,000 not that they only paid $2,000 in taxes.

Your 10.3% CA amount is for income over $275,738.00.

For CA for 2018:
View attachment 388835

For Kansas 2018:
View attachment 388836

My husband will actually be taxed at a lower overall rate when he's out in CA for the 6months+ in comparison to Kansas.

And I don't make anywhere near $275,738.00!! LOL!! But let's not forget the almost 10% Sales Tax we pay in my area.

 

[tvguy]

The poster is saying they OWE $2,000 not that they only paid $2,000 in taxes.

Your 10.3% CA amount is for income over $275,738.00.

For CA for 2018:
View attachment 388835

For Kansas 2018:
View attachment 388836

My husband will actually be taxed at a lower overall rate when he's out in CA for the 6months+ in comparison to Kansas.

Sorry misread that tax tables.
Maybe I also misunderstood what poster was saying, to me poster was paying their state tax was $2,000, and only withheld $960. But even if the tax was $2,960, that's pretty low for a state tax.

 

[jerseygal]

Taxpayers have a legal right to opt out of electronic filing.
You just have to fill out form 8948
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-access/f8948_accessible.pdf

You stated in your original post that your CPA did not do electronic filing, the post didn’t mention that a taxpayer opted out of e filing.

 

[MomOfDisneyPrincess]

Sorry misread that tax tables.
Maybe I also misunderstood what poster was saying, to me poster was paying their state tax was $2,000, and only withheld $960. But even if the tax was $2,960, that's pretty low for a state tax.

I ballpark it around 6%, so it probably is quite low compared to other states. As I said in response to another poster, I do pay almost 10% in sales tax. I'm not sure how our real estate taxes and personal property taxes compare to other states. I think states collect tax in all of these ways, but at difference percentages. Some may have a low income tax rate and high sales tax rates while others do the opposite. It sure seems like they get us one way or another. If states have no income tax, do they pay exorbitant sales tax rates? Florida has no income tax, but they pay around 6% sales tax, so I'm assuming real estate tax and personal property tax must be high.

 

[havaneselover]

I did adjust based on withholding tables, but didn't account for losing my itemized deductions for the state. I've always itemized, but since federal upped the standard deduction, I don't exceed the standard. Kansas did not change their standard deduction based on what Federal did, so that messed everything up. Don't forget, I was never intending to have all of my tax liability covered by withholding, since I have that adoption credit to use up.

Virginia did the same. My effective state tax rate increased 1 percentage point. They’re giving us back a few hundred dollars in October but it’s still a big tax hike for me.

 

[kymom99]

I ballpark it around 6%, so it probably is quite low compared to other states. As I said in response to another poster, I do pay almost 10% in sales tax. I'm not sure how our real estate taxes and personal property taxes compare to other states. I think states collect tax in all of these ways, but at difference percentages. Some may have a low income tax rate and high sales tax rates while others do the opposite. It sure seems like they get us one way or another. If states have no income tax, do they pay exorbitant sales tax rates? Florida has no income tax, but they pay around 6% sales tax, so I'm assuming real estate tax and personal property tax must be high.

They have those hotel taxes and such that they charge their toursists.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

And I don't make anywhere near $275,738.00!! LOL!! But let's not forget the almost 10% Sales Tax we pay in my area.

Where I live it's 9.475% BUT we just had a CID added to a shopping area close by (just one of many of those *sigh*) so that tax is 10.475% there. I've seen 10.6% for some of the areas with the CIDs or TDDs.

KS is the land of high sales tax, TDDs, CIDs you name it lol. I cross city lines so often so different sales tax rates and with multiple other TDDs and CIDs around on a daily basis I couldn't tell you the exact sales tax I pay whenever I'm out and about lol

I know they recently were considering a lower grocery sales tax but I'm not confident it will come to fruition any time soon.

I did adjust based on withholding tables, but didn't account for losing my itemized deductions for the state. I've always itemized, but since federal upped the standard deduction, I don't exceed the standard. Kansas did not change their standard deduction based on what Federal did, so that messed everything up. Don't forget, I was never intending to have all of my tax liability covered by withholding, since I have that adoption credit to use up.

Oh I know we lost out on the itemization too. I know that was being looked at last month or in January for KS though to put into place that you could itemize on state even if you couldn't on federal but haven't heard much on that since. I think it could be because they added other stuff onto the bill which probably reduce the chances of it being passed.

To me that sounds crazy difference even for accounting for the loss of itemization. But I will admit our taxes we don't have the adoption credit or anything like that to compound it. And your taxes may just be different enough from ours. We have a mortgage and student loans and that's it. I feel for you though. No way would I want to owe that much!

 

[havaneselover]

I ballpark it around 6%, so it probably is quite low compared to other states. As I said in response to another poster, I do pay almost 10% in sales tax. I'm not sure how our real estate taxes and personal property taxes compare to other states. I think states collect tax in all of these ways, but at difference percentages. Some may have a low income tax rate and high sales tax rates while others do the opposite. It sure seems like they get us one way or another. If states have no income tax, do they pay exorbitant sales tax rates? Florida has no income tax, but they pay around 6% sales tax, so I'm assuming real estate tax and personal property tax must be high.

Florida is weird. When we lived there my property taxes in Tampa were higher than my parents’ in Naples and the fair market value of their house was 3x the value of mine. So some parts have high property taxes and others don’t. And no personal property tax. But it cost a small fortune to register a car.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

*** Sorry in advance for large pasted in stuff ***

Sorry misread that tax tables.

No worries

And you know what I was wrong too though.

I was looking at what I thought was a good source but I guess they were incorrect lol.

This is straight from the state of CA's website (which I should have gone to to begin with) for 2018 rates:




So even my income amount I listed earlier for what you would be taxed at 10.3% was wrong lol. But it was close lol.


The information from KS that I posted previously was for married filing jointly and that again is:


I neglected to paste in for single rates for comparison purposes in my earlier comment.

For those who are not married in KS the rates are:

Maybe I also misunderstood what poster was saying, to me poster was paying their state tax was $2,000, and only withheld $960.

Totally could be really what the poster was saying lol

But even if the tax was $2,960, that's pretty low for a state tax.

One of the things I would say is CA has a lot more marginal tax brackets than KS does.

Another one is the lower income person in KS pays higher income tax in terms of a rate and in proportion to their income in comparison to CA. The lower income person in CA pays a lower income tax in terms of a rate and in proportion to their income in comparison to KS. Without attempting to be political that aspect can be explained in terms of politics if you understand what I'm getting at.