When I filed my taxes last year (using online software), I forgot that I’d made a full 401K contribution. Is there a way to figure out if it’s worth filing an amended return without actually going through the process of doing so?
Were you a regular W-2 employee? Or are we talking about a solo 401k for a self-employed person?
If you were a regular W-2 employee, fill out Form 8880 (pdf) to see if you qualify for a larger Saver’s Credit than you claimed on your return.
Assuming you were a W-2 employee, your totals in Box 1 of your W-2 have already been adjusted to reflect your 401k contributions. Unless you took distributions from your 401k, had multiple employers which caused you to exceed the before-tax limit on contributions, or qualified to take the Saver’s Credit, there is nothing more to report on your tax return that I can think of.
On the other hand, if you are talking about a self-employed 401k, then please advise.’
It sounds like you made a contribution above and beyond what you see as salaried income from an employer. Correct?
It’s likely the online software will let you reopen the same return.
Make the contribution adjustment in there and see to what degree your net tax changes. Then decide if its worth amending your return. If you decide to keep the return, the online software may also help you file an amendment. If not; just don’t save new changes to the return when you close it.
If you know your marginal tax rate (the tax rate on the last dollar of income), you can get a rough idea from that by backing out your taxes on that amount of income.
It’s likely the online software will let you reopen the same return. You may need some identifying info such as your SSN and your amount of tax, or tax return, or something, along with your userID and PW.
Make the contribution adjustment in there and see to what degree the tax changes. Then decide if its worth amending your return.
If you know your marginal tax rate (the tax rate on the last dollar of income), you can get a rough idea from that by backing out your taxes on that amount of income.
I’m not 100% sure what these two questions are asking, but I’ll try to answer them based on my own understanding.
The 401K (and I’m pretty sure that’s what it is) isn’t offered by my employer, and has nothing whatsoever to do with my employment. It’s an account that I’ve had for years now through multiple jobs. No one pays into it but me, and I made a payment into it (that I was told was limited to something like $4.5K or something like that by law).
Does this help?
Also, I assume that whatever I decide to do, I should do ASAP.
Here is the misconception. You do not have a 401(k). You have an IRA. It might have been a 401(k) at one time that was rolled over, but from your description, it is definitely an IRA. The next question to figure out is whether you have a Traditional IRA or a Roth IRA. Contributions to a Traditional IRA may be deductible, up to the yearly limit, which for 2012 was 5,000 (or 6,000 if you were age 50 or older), depending on your Adjusted Gross Income (the AGI ceiling can vary depending on whether you and/or your wife (if married) also are eligible to participate in an employer sponsored retirement plan).
If it is a Roth IRA, contributions are not deductible.
Both Roth and Traditional IRA contributions may be eligible for the retirement savers credit, however, depending on your AGI.
If you made a traditional IRA contribution by the deadline, which for your 2012 return was by April 15, 2013, and it was deductible as an adjustment to AGI that was not reported on your original return, or you were eligible to claim a retirement savings credit that was not reported for either a Traditional or Roth IRA contribution, you can amend your tax return by filing form 1040X and required attachments. The amended return cannot be electronically filed and must be paper filed. If you also filed a state income tax return, you may need to amend that return as well. For the federal return, you have up to 3
years from the due date of the original return to file an amended return and claim for refund.
Oooooh. This makes sense.
I’m fairly sure it was a Roth. I got a tax statement about it after the 15th — does that mean anything insofar as whether it’ll have any impact on my return last year?
Taxpayers have until April 15th of the following year to make Traditional or Roth IRA contributions. So for 2012, you were eligible to make contributions to a Roth for the year 2012 up to April 15th, 2013. There are income limitations on who is eligible to contribute to a Roth. It is likely, as long as your income was not too high (over $173,000 AGI if you filed joint, or over $110,000 if single) and you had “earned” income, such as from a W-2 job, of at least the amount you contributed to the Roth, you are fine.
In regards to your 2012 tax return, if it was a Roth, there might be nothing needed to be done with amending your return. Contributions to the Roth are not tax deductible, like they are for a Traditional IRA. However, you may have been eligible to take the Saver’s Credit if your AGI was below certain limits ($57,500 if filing married joint, $43,125 if head of household, or $28,750 if single).