With less than a month left to file your federal income taxes, I’m thinking some of you might have a tax question or two you’d like answered. So here’s my offer. You leave your tax question here in the comments or contact me directly, and I’ll answer it! Normally, I’d charge $100/hour for income tax planning and $75/hour for income tax preparation – but I’m offering this service to you absolutely free!!! I’m making this offer available until April 15th, 2010.
Now just a few rules:
- Any tax question is fair game. Nothing is too simple or complex!
- Don’t leave any personal information in a comment. They’re available for the entire public to see!!!
- If you contact me directly, I’ll keep any personal information absolutely private. I will reserve the right to use your question in a post on this website, but I will not share any of your personal information on here.
So what do I get out of this? Well, other than the pleasure of helping my readers, I’ll be answering questions that other people are probably searching for as well. I’ll put the answers in posts on this website, and hopefully people will find those posts when they search for their question. More visits is a good thing for me! (But I’ll send you your answer before the post is published. I schedule my posts in advance, so I don’t want you to have to wait.)
But you get free tax help at no cost, so what do you have to lose? Leave a comment now or contact me directly!
If you enjoyed this, you might like:
- Why Hiring a Tax Professional Could Work in Your Favor
- Would Jesus Support the Buffet Tax Law?
- Tax Tip: Combine a Traditional IRA Deduction with the Retirement Savings Contribution Credit
- Is Renting Throwing Away Money?
- The Hobby Loss Rule: What It Is and Why You Don't Want to Break It
How important do you think it is to file a Form 8606 for Roth IRA contributions in a year you make them? I used Turbo Tax online and even though I told them I made contributions a Form 8606 was not generated. Will I have any problems justifying my basis with the IRS if at a later date I take a premature withdrawal of said basis? Or, will the IRS be able to do its matching magic from the informational Form 5498 that the Roth IRA custodian files and thus all is OK?
Thanks for your question, Eric. That’s a pretty specific question, so I’ll just answer it right here rather than in a post.
You don’t need to file a Form 8606 if all you did was make a regular contribution to a Roth IRA. The IRS could use the information it receives on Form 5498’s that are filed for you if your basis is ever called into question. Additionally, the custodian of your Roth IRA would have the information on file to help you determine your basis. I use Vanguard and I can look up any of my historical contributions or ask them to send me Form 5498 for any year I need. Finally, you can keep records of your contributions as well (copies of any Form 5498’s you receive).
Now if you do ever take a nonqualified distribution from your Roth IRA (either from your contributions or earnings), you’ll need to file Form 8606. The same goes if you ever decide to make nondeductible contributions to a traditional IRA or similar account. You can find more information in the IRS’s Instructions for Form 8606. (They actually answer your question in that publication at the bottom of the center column on the first page. Additional information on what records you should keep can be found on page 5 in the middle of the center column.)
Hope that helps! Actually, now that I think about it this would make a good post.
My house was in a tornado. I had to get new siding , new roof, lights and windows. Even though my insurance paid for this and I only paid my deductable can I still claim this on my taxes?
Hi, you can only claim casualty losses that you paid out of your own pocket. What you paid for your deductible can be deducted on your taxes, but whatever the insurance company paid cannot. See this page on the IRS website for more information: http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc515.html
my wife only work a few months in 2012 earning only $4908.00 Can she file for unearned income and receive anything back? She filed on her w-4 at work federal 2 and state 2. She got her w-2 back yesterday and only earned $4,908. and zero cents. Federal income tax withheld Zero, social security withheld $206.14, medicare tax withheld was $71.17, Can she file for anything back and if so how? Then I only did odd jobs for people[ threw out the year fixing and repairing things making less than 6 thousand dollars threw out the year. can i file anything or us together? Thank you for your help
my e-mail above for Chris Boover is vomackboov@yahoo.com
Hi me and my boyfriend live together and I have no income as he receives disability of 800, he also recieved all his back pay of 13,000.00..would he get a tax credit for our 2 dependents if he has not played any federal taxes on any of that money he has recieved? Or am I looking at a bigger refund on my 500 I received for working the entire year?