If you make 300K or more do you always end up writing 15-20k+ check to the IRS?

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01/25/2014 21:50

Subject: If you make 300K or more do you always end up writing 15-20k+ check to the IRS?

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:Re AMT, is it safe to assume that e-tax software is calculating this for you and telling you if it applies to you?

Yes. I use turbo tax and I get hit with the AMT each year.

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01/25/2014 21:53

Subject: If you make 300K or more do you always end up writing 15-20k+ check to the IRS?

quote

Anonymous

This thread is helpful to me. We make $290k and I often wondered if I am doing it all wrong to have to owe so much taxes. I see that I am not the only one.

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01/25/2014 22:18

Subject: Re:If you make 300K or more do you always end up writing 15-20k+ check to the IRS?

quote

Anonymous

Please be careful. When you owe that much annually, you are significantly more likely to be audited by the IRS.

That said, if you have a high income and itemized deductions that are significantly higher that the standard deduction, then you rarely will fit into the standard formulas, including setting your exemptions. I would recommend that you get TurboTax. Sometime in the March-June time frame, I will take the previous year's TurboTax, plug in numbers from the current year (I use our early paystubs and mortgage statements to guesstimate our income and withholdings for the year) and calculate a ballpark of what the end of year will look like. I know that enough tax laws are changed annually to know that this is only a ballpark estimate, but it's enough for me to determine whether I need to adjust our withholdings for the rest of the of year. It takes up a few hours on one afternoon, but it makes sure that I am on track to be in the right ball park at the end of the year. I try to be within +/- $1K federal and state. The one time that I was off significantly (something like $4K federal and $2K state) was when we had some unexpected financial changes that occurred late in the year and I forgot to even check how it would affect our taxes.

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01/29/2014 16:33

Subject: If you make 300K or more do you always end up writing 15-20k+ check to the IRS?

quote

Anonymous

while I recommend the irs tax w/h calculator be careful... it does NOT take AMT into account. I use the calculator as a guide and then tax the AMT on the last tax return and add that in as well to come up with an estimate of the total tax we'll owe.
Like everyone else said change to 0 immediately!

Or for simplicities sake (and to avoid any penalties), make sure you have w/h 110% of the tax on your last year's return...

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01/29/2014 16:41

Subject: If you make 300K or more do you always end up writing 15-20k+ check to the IRS?

quote

Anonymous

$425K household income last year, getting ~$7.5K refund. 0 exemptions and an extra $500/paycheck withheld from one of our paychecks.

Turns out we over-withheld a bit, but we just got married and weren't sure what would happen with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

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01/29/2014 22:10

Subject: If you make 300K or more do you always end up writing 15-20k+ check to the IRS?

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:$425K household income last year, getting ~$7.5K refund. 0 exemptions and an extra $500/paycheck withheld from one of our paychecks.

Turns out we over-withheld a bit, but we just got married and weren't sure what would happen with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

This sucks I hate taxes. It's too volatile, they should just make it 20% for everyone and be done with it.

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01/30/2014 07:30

Subject: If you make 300K or more do you always end up writing 15-20k+ check to the IRS?

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$425K household income last year, getting ~$7.5K refund. 0 exemptions and an extra $500/paycheck withheld from one of our paychecks.

Turns out we over-withheld a bit, but we just got married and weren't sure what would happen with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

This sucks I hate taxes. It's too volatile, they should just make it 20% for everyone and be done with it.

Agree. I'd even be willing to up it to 30%...

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01/30/2014 18:20

Subject: If you make 300K or more do you always end up writing 15-20k+ check to the IRS?

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$425K household income last year, getting ~$7.5K refund. 0 exemptions and an extra $500/paycheck withheld from one of our paychecks.

Turns out we over-withheld a bit, but we just got married and weren't sure what would happen with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

This sucks I hate taxes. It's too volatile, they should just make it 20% for everyone and be done with it.

Agree. I'd even be willing to up it to 30%...

+100

We make between $350-400, and always owe in the range of $6000-$10,000. I wouldn't rag so much on the amount we owe if there was truly a way to predict the amount of AMT. Our problem is that we have some unpredictable income streams, distributions from family partnerships, RMDs from deceased parents account and some random other.