Just Paid My Taxes
 

If things were logical....

If only we did not have to pay preparers to do our taxes for us

You don't. You can literally do it all yourself, for free. The issue is they can be very complicated so we pay so we don't get in trouble.

There is the old meme:

IRS - taxes are due
ME - how much do I owe?
IRS - you have to guess
ME- so I pay what I think I owe?
IRS - no, we know what you owe. If you guess wrong, it will involve fines and/or jail time.

I used the free Cash App service the last few years with no problems.

Got nailed as usual with AMT, NIIT and IRMAA again next year. Ouch!

I could but they have made it overly complicated and last few times I did it made a few errors paid a few fines and got lots of aggravation.

I do 1 LLC return, 1 estate return and 2 regular returns every year. ..
Using turbo tax, its pretty straight forward, the improvements made in the last 10 years have been extremely helpful.

K1s are the worst, as most times, they will not impact your tax return from publicly traded partnerships. From estates etc, they may appear strange and weird. . .

I was ready to file, and realized that I forget capital gains from a Fidelity schedule. So I had to chat with the turbo tax peeps to figure out how to reopen the file to continue entering in data. Didn't do it correctly the first time, but the second time, it worked. It didn't change any numbers due to tax loss carry forwards, but the process is very detailed and requires some level of numerical organization as well. I love the large standard deduction, as we don't have enough for itemized entry any more.

But, if you are not a finance nor accountant type, and are unfamiliar with accounting concepts, or have certain types of financial transactions, then tax returns may be extremely difficult as there are lots of little pieces which need to be identified, added/summed together, and then entered. I personally hate doing it anymore, as it's just a waste of several days of adding and subtracting, and data entry, rinse the excel data and repeat the next deductible account. . . of course the banking statements don't help when they just say check number 4567 is $7,000 and I am supposed to remember to whom I asked bank bill pay to send a check back, 1 year ago? tedious
process.

hopefully, everyone got theirs filed on time. . . and we can all return in about a year to whine and complain again!

I aspire to achieve the level where I owe so much that if I did not pay nothing would happen!:D

Our return is simpler but we do have a K1 to deal with. Biggest problem we have is having to file an extension due to late delivery of that K1.

I use H&R Block Tax Cut software. It seems easy enough to use and complete enough for my needs. This software allows me to go back to any section to add or change information. For example, I estimated the K1 info in order to get an idea how much I should pay along with the extension filing. Later when the actual K1 comes in I'll be able to open that section to fill it out properly and file.

The only thing I dislike about the H&R Block software are the fees to file an extension and to file State returns (when that mattered). This year I used the IRS Free File for the extension form to avoid the H&R Block fee.

I agree that K1's are the worst. I don't even get my final ones til October because limited partnerships don't have their act together. I have to file an extension every single year, and guess my tax liability for estimated payments. I hate it.

How about the capital gains this past year if you had mutual funds. To make matters worse the gains I made were wiped out in 2-3 trading days

We will see. 20k IRS people have sought early retirement. Good or bad?

This is the first year that I have to pay estimated taxes.

99% of my income is social security, dividends, and capital gains.

I know what my social security will be but how do you estimate dividends and capital gains?

Last year, I think all of my capital gains came in the 4th quarter.

And am I supposed to pay in April for gains that don’t arrive until December? Does the IRS expect you to sell stock to come up with the money? How do you pay estimated taxes on income that you don’t have?

Two methods.

Most complete but most difficult:
I receive statements each quarter reporting the dividends, interest, and capital gains. Use the reports that cover the period and the calculations from the IRS forms to calculate the tax. This should put you close to paying the correct amount of tax for the year.

Simplest but safest:
Use the 100% (110%) “safe harbor” rule. Take your total taxes due from last year, multiply by 110% if necessary, divide by four, and make payments of that amount. This may not be close to the amount you ultimately have to pay but should be sufficient to avoid penalties.

You need to make the timely, estimated tax payments. If that means selling stock then that’s what you’ll need to do. We have enough in deposit accounts and CDs to cover our payments but YMMV.