tax question file joint or seperate

[Momto5RN]

worked on our taxes yesterday
put dhs income in etc was looking good he claims at 4
when i put mine it it bumped us to a new tax level and we owe big time UGH !!!
gotta love the gvt work extra to pay your bills down the right way and get screwed by a old AMT law that is severly outdated
we are just 4000 over a level that would = us breaking even of owing alot less
i am wondering if it would change much for us to file seperately or if there is some rule about when and how you can .

my checks have 0 deducations on them
we technically actually have 6 dependents - oldest ds is out of college and files on his own now.

we will owe about 5000 unless i can find something i missed on deductions but i spent hours on it last night .

i do have a home office area we never claimed because it wasnt a seperate room -although i think that may not be a full requirement now its an area in family room that holds my computer - fax- work supplies- work files etc i do home care i only go into the office 1x a week to drop off paperwork and i use my emails faxing printing etc from my office area . i would say about 50% of my work is done at home each week ( calls paperwork - prep work dr calls etc etc )

looking at the area for that on turbo it seems they are more concerned with what the % of the house the office is in

i just have no idea what we will do if we owe 5000
we use to get big tax returns then i went back to work and last year we got 1200 - but i worked alot this past year.
we dont have 5000 - i could try to work extra and get it but 8 weeks isnt alot of time to do it in and i am not sure my health will hold up to it .
dh wants to try to take out a bank loan to pay it which i asked him if he was nuts !!!

once we pay the tax bill i will want to decrease his deductions to 2 maybe because i would rather get something back then stress about paying it.

[Momto5RN]

oh and i am home sick have been all weekend so missed work today and i dont get sick pay but i wasntr aout to give whatever i have to my already in compromised health pts .

and i went to gyn friday need to have all kids of tests and probably a procedure which means missed work a few days
and i have been trying to complete $$$ denttal work i need done for like 4 years now and as usual- i am going to get stuck on the back burner to take care of this UGH

[Greebo]

With a potential tax bill that high, you need professional advice. Get thee to a CPA!

[HappyMama]

Does the turbo or the method ( ie paperwork ) you are doing have the deductions right yet? People who are doing schedule A's for deductions ( 1040 A) , can't do theirs until Feb 14 as the Gov. needs to release the correct paperwork ( because of certain changes...sigh...). Why they weren't prepared either way doesn't surprise me.....

If not get to a CPA, right away as Greebo suggested. Good luck.

[Momto5RN]

i think turbo etc are set up right just that the gvt cant accept them right now but i wanted an isea of what was going on.

my income was in 2 jobs so may not have had as much taken out as would have if one job.

i have done my own taxes since i was 15
used a CPA 1x who actually missed a 500 deduction
HR Block etc come out with same results when i tried that in past .

i dont want to end up owing 5000 and a CPA fee .

My oldest son and dh both have acct degress also although dh doesnt do taxes -

i may have oldest ds give me his tax book to look thru .
last year it looked like we owed and then i found out about an education deduction and we ended up ok
this year we made too much to use that deduction or so it seems.

[HappyMama]

i think turbo etc are set up right just that the gvt cant accept them right now but i wanted an isea of what was going on.

my income was in 2 jobs so may not have had as much taken out as would have if one job.

i have done my own taxes since i was 15
used a CPA 1x who actually missed a 500 deduction
HR Block etc come out with same results when i tried that in past .

i dont want to end up owing 5000 and a CPA fee .

My oldest son and dh both have acct degress also although dh doesnt do taxes -

i may have oldest ds give me his tax book to look thru .
last year it looked like we owed and then i found out about an education deduction and we ended up ok
this year we made too much to use that deduction or so it seems.

Yes , fully understand I have done my own for years as well. I hope it all works out for you that is a huge amount to come up with. Blessings and hugs.

[Telephus44]

To answer the original question, whether you can file jointly or separately, that's entirely your choice. For most situations, filing jointly works out to be the most advantageous, but not always. You can always run the numbers both ways.

Also - and I can't tell from your post what you were going for with the education thing - but you should be able to get a tuition deduction for a MAGI under $160K. The education credits (Hope, Lifetime Learning) phase out at a MAGI of $120K. These limits are for married filing jointly. I'm not sure where you fall on the income level so I don't know if they apply to you.

Also - if you can - you may want to consider upping your 401K contributions. Part of the reason we put aside so much is that our AGI falls right in the phase out range for a lot of credits/deductions, and we put enough in to keep us eligible for the things we're on the cusp of.

[Momto5RN]

i also want to explain... i can see where the issues are. exactly why we owe.

4 years ago i was still too sick with my fibro 2 work outside the home we got large refunds even though i would have preferred that money in my pocket = i let dh have his way with that

3 years ago i worked a 1 weekend a month job that was = to
about 12,000 a year - still got decent refunds

2 years ago i started at my main job- but slowly due to my fibro for
2nd child hit 17 so wasnt eligble for tax credit

2009 we got a small refund from federal and owed about 80 to state

this past year i made 15,000 more than the previous year alot which went to paying off a car ( paid about 9,000 on it from jan to may ) we gave to oldest ds - and paying down debt ( which i think is in my siggy how much we paid off last year in CC debt )

turbo lets me compare last year to this year
we made too much to get OKd for about 4000 in credits we usually get

we lost a deduction in oldest son that was a regular deducation and education deduction now that he is out of college and working FT.

when i just had dhs in we were getting a return i put my income in and ackkkkk the numbers flipped to owe

so i was just thinking if we filed seperately if he got some back
and i owed some maybe they could cancel each other out or at least not be as much .

IE my work and medical expenses are more than his - he makes more than me so if they just had to be over a certain % of the income i might get more actually allowed to be deducted if it is only against my income .

guess maybe i will just have to play with it all and try t both ways to find out.
we have never filed separately before.

[gmarie]

Usually the ONLY reason to file separately is to limit liability. You can not file separately and take advantage of most tax credits.

[Momto5RN]

well not to give anyone a stroke but i dont have a 401k at either job - i am per deim so i can work around my health and kids schedules so no benes etc but i am in control which is most important to me at this point in my life.

we do put the minumum into dhs i think only 50 a month but we want to get the bills paid off from the years i was too sick to work and we really need the money upfront more right now.

[Momto5RN]

well worse come to worse i work my butt off try not to get sick doing it and the EF is going to have to help too ( considering that the GVT i am sure bills high interest that is my best bet )

i could probably work extra for an extra month and rebuild the 1000 by the summer which is when i cut back work to be home more with the kids ( cut back to 3 days from 4 days )

[mommy2krj]

Ouch. Never fun when you go from getting refunds to owing money.

I would take it in to a professional...H&R Block will look it over for free generally.

Also, I wouldn't file separately as you generally CAN'T claim a lot of the deductions that you are currently able to claim.

Another thing I would do is try to figure out a better number for DH's W2...someone isn't getting enough withheld and if all your jobs are at 0 it's more than likely DH's.

Oh, I would also look into maybe putting money into an IRA....don't know if it's still that way but I know a couple years ago you had until a certain date to deposit money into an IRA and it would still count on your taxes. Don't know if that would help or not or if it is even still possible...just something I remember from when I was doing them a couple years ago.

I would be going over every single thing with a fine toothed comb to see if there is anything at all that can be used.

Good Luck!

[mommy2krj]

Also, as a Home RN....do you drive to several places each day? Are you keeping track of mileage/wear & tear on your vehicle?
And...is this a self employed type of situation or is it based from a company?

Those were just a couple other things that popped into my head after typing out my other stuff. Wondering if you have enough to itemize or if you're using the standard deduction. You used to be able to claim mileage even if not itemizing....don't know if that's true any more. Off to go through the IRS website to see if there's anything else I can pick out for you with the info you gave.

[starsapphire]

IIRC you can't contribute to a Roth IRA and file married filing separately. Something to check into if you have/are considering a Roth IRA.