Mods–I am not asking for tax advice!
I need the title of a book, aimed at non-accountants, that offers suggestions on US Income Tax deductions, and other tax advice.
I am too poor for an accountant to be cost-effective.
The IRS webpage is evil & useless.
Books, please?
What’s your tax situation? Do you have a mortgage? A business? Investments? A trust?
If you have a pretty standard financial life (if you normally fill out the 1040EZ) you really should look in to TurboTax. It’s like $40 (per year, maybe less) and it steps you through everything like a baby.
But do describe your tax situation so people can recommend books specific to your needs.
No mortgage, no business, no trust, 401k & bank accounts only.
Less than $30k per.
I own a condo, left to me several years ago, by my Mom.
Any tax software will guide you through the process more easily than a book.
I suggest TaxAct. It’s free.
Assuming you don’t rent out the condo, you’ll be fine with a 1040EZ. Take a look at it here. There are only 12 items on it, maybe 3 or 4 of which apply to you and are pretty straight-forward (just refer to your W2 form), with the others being either not applicable or some simple math. Tennessee’s should be similarly easy.
I wouldn’t even bother with TurboTax on this. Spend 5-10 minutes filling it out by hand, and save yourself $40.
Wow, TaxACT looks like a much better deal than TurboTax. Thanks RealityChuck!
Can State,City oor County Property Tax be deducted?
If all your deductions (medical, charitable, local tax etc.) exceed the standard deduction, you can itemize them. For 2012 the standard deduction for a single person is $5,950. (it changes depending on filing status - only you can determine that). It is important to understand that you can’t deduct those taxes on top of the standard deduction. (I am not an accountant).
If you have a lot of anxiety about filing your taxes, you might consider going to H&R Block. They will ask questions that you may not have thought to ask yourself. They won’t charge you a whole lot for a simple tax situation and you can use that return as a template going forward.
To add to what ethelbert said, fill in the Taxes You Paid (2nd section) and Gifts to Charity (4th section) on Schedule A and add it all up. Does the total exceed $5950? If so, you’ll want to do itemized deductions, in which case I suggest just going with TurboTax or TaxACT. If the Schedule A total does NOT exceed $5950, then toss out Schedule A and just fill in the 1040EZ form.
In Arizona, you can get free help filling in a 1040EZ form–basically they take your W2 form and 1040EZ and fill it in in a couple of minutes. If you’re not confident about filling in the 1040EZ, maybe see if they have a similar free service in Tennessee.
What about property taxes?
Schedule A, 2nd section.
If you paid less than $5950 in charitable donations and taxes (which includes state, local and property taxes), then no you can’t deduct them. Which is to say, there’s no point in deducting them because you’re better off just taking the standard deduction instead.
If this is your situation, then just fill out the 1040EZ. Otherwise, buy some tax software just to be safe. It’s easy to use and will ensure you don’t fuck something up and get audited.
At your income level, there is free online tax preparation available from multiple providers. Just go to the IRS site and pick a Free File company that includes filing for your state. The page link is below, although the list of Free File companies won’t be up until Jan. 30.
It is incredibly simple – basically you just fill in the information from your W-2(s) and the software does the rest. It will walk you through simple questions about available deductions so you won’t have to try to determine for yourself what you can deduct. Then it will do all the calculations for you. You can even try it using both the standard deduction and itemized deductions to determine which is best for you.
I have used a Free File company to do my taxes since 2003. It takes about 30 minutes and is completely painless.
I also grabbed a book off Amazon.
J.K. Lasser’s 1001 Deductions and Tax Breaks 2013: Your Complete Guide to Everything Deductible
Bosda, there’s really no reason to spend this much effort on deductions. At your income level you will be better off taking the standard deduction. Your tax situation is not complicated from what you’ve described here. Here (pdf) is form 1040EZ. It’s less than one page. Just fill in the Box 1 from your W-2. The total of any 1099s from your bank go in Box 2. Fill in the rest per the instructions and mail it. Then wait for your refund.
Here are the 1040EZ instructions.
:smack:
The last thing you should be buying is a book. If you want to spend money educating yourself on taxes and potential deductions, take the advice given to you by numerous parties in this thread and buy tax preparation software. It will walk you through your specific financial situation and give you all the options, show you all the forms, tell you what you can and can’t deduct, etc.
I mean, seriously, you don’t currently have any reason to believe you’ll even be itemizing. Given your income level, I’ll be shocked if you are even close to the break even point for itemizing. And if you don’t itemize, deductions don’t matter.
Save your money and cancel the Amazon order.
Hey, now, let’s not be so harsh. Bosda may learn some valuable new information about tax deductions in those 452 pages that he can share with those of us who were kind enough to help him out.
Can’t tell if serious.
Well, it depends. I agree that the book would not be very useful for figuring out his actual tax situation.
However, if he simply wants to be educated in a more general sense about taxes, in case his tax situation changes in the future, I could understand that. There was a time years ago when I read some books on taxes similar to this even though 99.99% of them didn’t apply to me. I just found it educational and more importantly they completely destroyed any fear of taxes I had. Now my tax situation is a lot more complicated than it was back then, and I am confident that I can handle it.