Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with finance and taxes

What address to put on returns for filing taxes for two states?

Rustbeard — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:01:03 -0800

Last year I lived and worked in two different states (RI and CA) I worked two jobs in RI and then got another temp job in CA and moved out there in the fall. So I am using TaxCut to file my returns (yes I know its cutting it close) but I am confused when it asks for the "Employee's address" under the W-2 section; what do I put? Do I put my address where I used to live for those jobs back in RI or my current one in CA? I still consider myself a RI resident and will be moving out of CA in two weeks back to New England.

How do I do taxes when I haven't worked all year?

OccamsRazor — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:41:15 -0800

How do I do taxes when I haven't worked all year? Let me explain: I spent all of 2007 saving money so I could spend the first half of 2008 teaching myself a new career path I'm interested in. I had originally intended on picking up a job halfway into the year, but as it turns out I was able to spend the whole year learning. I'm not enrolled in any school, so I'm not technically a student or anything. I also didn't make any money in 2008, I just lived very frugally. So how do I approach taxes?

What is the best financial/tax situation for a family with a kid on the way?

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:27:17 -0800

What is the best financial/tax situation for us? Kid on way, financial aid eligibility concerns. Me: grad student for 2 more years, on a teaching assistantship (this covers tuition, fees, health insurance, and gives me a $1600/mo. stipend) and with some student loans on top (less than $10k/year). I also work in the summers, but make less than $5k. I also receive research grants sometimes ($5k-$15k). In 2008, I will only have been in the country for 2 months and will have an income of less than $5k. In 2009 and 2010 I will be be back on the normal track with $1600/mo. and some loans with perhaps 2-3 months of a travel grant of ~$6k.

Him: working person making a good salary (floating around 6 figures)

New factor: baby on the way at end of year (will be on Dad's insurance and Dad's company covers childcare)

The way that we see it, here are our financial options:

(1) Stay unmarried, he claims baby on his taxes.

(2) Stay unmarried, I claim the baby on my taxes. (But would this screw up my student loan/financial aid eligibility by making me look richer?)

(3) Marry and claim kid together. (Again, would this screw up my student loan/financial aid eligibility?)

So happy about the 401K until...

kookywon — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:28:59 -0800

Did my 401K just blow my IRA deduction out of the water? This question is stumping my HR and my financial adviser. I was a consultant for 2007 until December. I was diligently squirreling away my monthy contribution of $333 so I would be able to deduct the max $4000 at the end of the year. However, I started a new job as a FTE and my paycheck for December enrolled me in the company 401K. When I fired up my TurboTax it said that I was unable to deduct the IRA because I was in a 401K for the year and my MAGI(?) had exceeded the allowance for that deduction. Do I have any recourse? Or do I just leave the money in the IRA as undeducted?

My Money Hurts

murphy slaw — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 21:37:47 -0800

Financial Newbiefilter: Should I sell this mutual fund I bought when I didn't know what I was doing? I've recently gotten my finances into a semblance of order. The one festering boil left on my finances is a managed mutual fund I bought five years ago (as of May) when I had a certificate of deposit come due and got strong-armed by a fund salesman masquerading as a financial planner at my banks.

I'd like to get the money out of this dog of a fund and into an index fund of some kind, but the tax implications are making my head hurt.

I've had the fund for five years. In that case a sale would be taxed as a long-term capital gain, correct? Is there any way to further reduce my tax liability if I'm immediately reinvesting the proceeds from the sale in a different fund?

If it matters, I have maxed out my 401(k) and a Roth IRA.

Another complication is that I may be buying a house in a year or so. If I plan to use this money as part of a down payment, am I better off sitting on it than putting it into another fund which I might have to pay short-term capital gains on when I sell?

My brain hurts. Please halp, hivemind.

Help me find a financial advisor

kamikazegopher — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 02:50:28 -0800

I need a financial advisor in the Glendale/Burbank CA area ASAP. I have serious, urgent issues with my (same-sex) partner's family and property issues. Any recommendations welcome. Thanks in advance.

Tax planning advice for the self employed.

Nothing — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:57:55 -0800

Tax planning advice for the self employed. The web is full of articles, the bookstores are full of guides. But there is so much "get rich quick" and "pay zero taxes" crap out there that I am not sure where to go for good, solid tax planning advice. Is it better to operate as an LLC? An s-corp? What expenses are deductible? What is a good system of recordkeeping? What records should be kept? If I have two related business pursuits, should I keep track of them separately or together? And so on. I know I need to see an accountant, but I'd like to be as educated as possible. Right now I am paying a rather high percentage of a rather small income in taxes. I'm not anti-tax, but I am very pro-eating.

So, what books do you recommend? What websites have accurate, useful articles? What has helped you better understand managing finances as a self employed person?

We don't want the IRS mad at us.

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 20:48:07 -0800

We have a couple of blogs and use a combination of Google Ads, AdBrite and Amazon Associates placements on them. We're trying to figure out how best to approach the income from these ads on our tax filings... We never thought we'd be making as much as we are making (which still isn't much...not enough to live on), so we hadn't really thought through the tax implications in advance. We were blogging for fun and then...well, income.

Since our Google Ads income exceeded 4 figures this year, we think that we probably have to cover our bases on our upcoming tax return. (More than $7500, less than $10k). Our other income sources posted more modest returns (Amazon, $500+; AdBrite: $500+). To facilitate our blogging, we purchased domain names, paid for hosting services, attended a conference, bought a digital camera, etc. Are these officially expenses?

Also, we'll probably get paperwork from Google for filing with our tax return, but can't imagine that Amazon or AdBrite are going to send us something for those amounts...are we wrong?

I'm a temp and my spouse works full-time so we really don't have experience with this little "side business" situation. Any suggestions for where to research this? Any other folks out there dealing with a similar situation? We are not incorporated or anything "official" like that. Just two regular folks with a laptop who are passionate about the subject we write about.

We talked about hiring a CPA but we've been told that may cost us close to $200-300. Since we're already going to owe the IRS this year, we'd rather try to do this ourselves with Quicken/Turbo Tax. We just don't know how to categorize this unexpected income. Thoughts?

Capital gains relief

knave — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 17:00:36 -0800

TaxFilter: Do I meet the "unforeseen circumstances" requirement of the Taxpayers Relief Act for capital gains on my house? The situation: My S.O. and I have broken up, and she's moving out. She was contributing toward the mortgage payment, which will now become a significant burden for just me. I'm the only owner, she was not co-owner, and I've lived there for 14 months. If I sell the house in the next month or two, do I get any tax break?