The Tax Preparation Blog

Posts Tagged ‘home’

Question: Income tax question????????

If I were to make $150 000, while living in Montreal, Quebec (Canada), how much would I be taxed?

Can i have some details please?

Answer: About $27k for Federal and $29 for provincial for a total of $56,000.

Santander Fin Pref – Tax Certification

Santander Fin Pref – Tax Certification

Disability Insurance Income- Do I Have To Pay Tax On it? Canada

Question: Did H&R Block Rip me off?

I bought a house last year and thought it might be a good idea to have a ‘professional’ figure my property tax and mortgage tax deductions.

After I complied ALL the information for them, it took a matter of 7 min for them to put my numbers into their system. After it was all calculated, they told me to pay them $285!!!!!??? I about passed out. I told the agent that I NEVER would have used their services had I known it was going to cost that much! She just rolled her eyes and said it was a complex form because I itemized. I was then given two options.

1) pay now
2) have it taken out of my refund for a small $29.95 fee.

I feel I was totally ripped off: Get me in there, do a super quick data entry procedure, charge me an insane amount of money…for that kind of cash I’d at least like to get SOME kind of tax advice or a budget plan or a detailed walk through of what was being done. Nothing, just my taxes filed and sent out the door.

Am I being unreasonable?

Answer: You learned a lesson of not to use them again but it cost you $285 bucks. The good news is you can deduct their fee on next years return.

Sales tax deduction alive and well

Dear Tax Talk, I plan to use the sales tax deduction calculator for my federal return. For this purpose, the IRS allows one to add certain types of nontaxable income before applying the sales tax rate.

Tax Deduction Tips & Advice : How to Take Federal Income Tax Deductions

Question: what to do with my fidelity account?

I never knew anything about fidelity investments and have not filled out any info. (as far as I know!) to invest money in anything. My point is, I was on a summer job program from unique hr with the city of dallas this year, and after my summer job was over. I now have gotten this retirement statement saying i have money on it and after reading the letter and stuff. I read that 20% tax will be withheld from the amount i want to receive as a check because of the amount being under 1000 bucks. I haven’t done anything yet because i don’t know anything about this or what to do. I just know that i have until dec. to make a decision, and so far i have not gotten a regular job yet. For those who know about this stuff, please help. what should i do?

Answer: The following is an educated guess. You need to call the City of Dallas Human Resources, Fidelity Investments, or the Department of the City you worked for to get a final answer.

Dallas may have a “Qualified Tax-deferred Retirement Plan.” If so, that plan deducts a certain amount of each paycheck invests it in various ways — mutual funds, money market funds, bond funds, etc. You choose how you want your money invested — i.e., which funds.

Apparently, if you have more than $1,000 in the Plan, you don’t pay taxes on it until you withdraw it. Usually, that will be when you retire and are in a lower tax bracket. However, since you have less than $1,000, they pay Income taxes on it at the 20 percent rate.

At this point, you have a couple of choices: 1. Take it all out of the plan and pay income taxes on it.
2. Let it ride until you have $1,000 or more, or make additional contributions to get it to the $1,000 level so you won’t pay taxes until you withdraw it.

If you let it ride, you can probably choose from many different investments, from very safe but low earning, to very risky put potentially high earnings. Which should you choose? If you’re young, live dangerously and go for growth investments. If you guess wrong, you have a lot of time to make up for lost earnings. If you’re older, play it safe. You don’t want to make risky choices late in the game, when you’re ahead.

But as I said, the above is just a guess based on limited information. Make some phone calls and ask questions. Don’t be afraid to sound dumb — everyone starts out dumb.

POLITICAL HOT TOPICS: Thursday, December 23, 2010

The CNN Washington Bureau’s morning speed read of the top stories making news from around the country and the world….

Careers at Weaver

Time really is money

When it comes to financing college, “know the deadlines and don’t miss them.” That was the most important financial aid advice Helen Nunn said she had for the parents of college-bound Mifflinburg Area High School students who gathered Monday night for a primer on how to get those needed funds.

Mortgage Watchdog Interest Calculator Saves You Bank Rip Off

Tax package highlight of farm year

The best news of 2010 for the Illinois Farm Bureau came at year’s end.   “The best thing that happened for farmers this year just happened,” said John Hawkins, news service director for the Bloomington-based bureau, referring to the tax package awaiting President Barack Obama’s signature that included estate tax reform and an extension of tax credits for renewable fuels.

First Time Buyer and move up buyer Tax Credit Extension – La Mirada Real Estate, by Don Jacks