I’ll indulge your curiosity, because perhaps my claim looks suspect. I spent a lot of money this year, and I made a lot of money. I was in a pretty big hole when the year started, and had to fork over a big chuck of cash to my ex when the divorce became final. Also, I have a kid in school at $50k per year. So, yeah, I was pretty strapped during 2010, despite a very good income. I didn’t pay all my quarterly estimated taxes. The IRS didn’t hurt me too bad, if I can believe my CPA, and I’m determined to do better this year. My previous postings were not an attempt to start a debate on my money management skills, but to point out that the penalty for failing to pay the required quarterly taxes was significantly less than I would have thought, and, indeed, less than most people think. Maybe I’m wrong about that, maybe I’m not a good example for some reason. I’m not a tax expert. Nor am I advising people to neglect to pay their quarterly taxes. (Mid April can be a whole lot more stressful if you haven’t kept up).
I just did mine this morning! Started them, walked to the store to buy some envelopes, walked to the library to get a form I’d missed, asked the librarian where I was supposed to mail them, made copies, and popped them in the mailbox.
…Wait, was I supposed to put stamps on the envelopes?! 
Thanks for the indulgence. It really was curiosity more than pedanticism. As an engineer, innocuous incongruences really grab my attention when, really, it’s just foregoing the minutiae. Like my wife whose conversations make it sound like we’re 5x as wealthy as we really are. And tries to act like it. She really makes me work at keeping casualties to a minimum
That’s why I hate waiting until the last minute. Something gets missed or something unforeseen pops up, and there’s just no time left to handle it. (And lots of past experience to make the point to my dumb self.) I keep trying to tell one son, pay your bills when they come in. You KNOW they’re coming, so just be ready. The grace period is for when some crisis comes up and you need a delay, but don’t make it a habit. For him, though, it’s always a crisis because money just burns a hole in his pocket.
I owed a lot to the IRS and not much to the state.
Why is it that at the federal level it’s so easy? Plug in what you made, how much was withheld, find the actual tax and balance out the refund or payment. With the 1040EZ form, it really is almost simple enough to be done on a postcard.
State taxes, OTOH, are a mess. North Carolina seems to want to stick it to people who make a comfortable living. If your AGI is over $50,000, there’s a penalty surtax. And that’s in addition to figuring you owe some set percentage of your AGI as a “use” tax and a weird mish-mash of your federal and state exemptions that apparently tries to cancel the exemptions so you now owe an additional $5530 in tax.
New York taxes are annoying. “Don’t attach your W-2. Instead, copy all the information onto this other piece of paper!” I’m sure there are tons of transcribing errors. What’s the point?
Really? What with profit/loss and expenses from a business, the stupid “we’ll raise your taxes, but give you a special credit to offset it, but fill out THIS worksheet to see HOW much credit you’re entitled to,” and all the worksheets involved in a simple Schedule A, I’m surprised that I don’t have to fill out a fucking computational worksheet for my own stinking name or address at the top.
And Turbotax gave me the same problems that those tax filler-outers do, not ask all the necessary questions that the (multiple) tax forms at least have the courtesy to do. That’s what I did find amazing about Taxact online, it actually covered every instance I needed to report AND it was free. (Free is good!)
Somebody (Randy Cassingham from This Is True, as a matter of fact) pointed out that most mass shootings seem to occur in the springtime, curiously around the tax deadline, and wondered if there wasn’t some kind of connnection.
I just finished mine on Turbotax, e-filed them and should get a couple hundred back from Federal and enough to fill my gas tank from state. Usually I do them in February but I just couldn’t light a fire under my ass until now. What do I win?
Not necessarily; the penalty is not assessed (in my experience) if your tax payments (withholding and any estimated payments made earlier in the year) were in line with what you paid the previous year. In other words, the IRS will not penalize you for failing to anticipate a significant change in your tax situation. Also, if you paid 90% or more of your total tax, but that 10% is over $1000, you still won’t pay the penalty.
Basically he’s correct. It’s quite a bit more complex than you simply owe a penalty for underpayment. However, back in the days when I was just an employee, I changed jobs that resulted in a huge pay increase. Even though the new pay was withheld at the higher tax bracket, the old pay wasn’t. Unfortunately, the entire year was taxed at the higher bracket, so I owed tax. Enough so that I passed the threshold and was penalized as a result. There was no forgiveness percentage if you passed the threshold back then, and I’ve never taken it lightly again.
Just did my taxes today. The latest I have ever done them. I was going to do them earlier but my parents were visiting last week and I was cleaning my apartment right up until I had to pick them up from the airport.
Did enough on TurboTax yesterday that I had a pretty good idea of the final number, but still need some documentation to verify a couple of things. So I sent in my 4868, automatic extension of time to file. That’ll give me the extra time I need to make sure I’ve got the right amounts for some deductions and credits I’m taking.
Nothing. I did mine just now too, except I don’t usually do them in February. I guess I’m just lazy when it comes to giving people money.
I’ve got things structured so that I always owe a bit, so my habit is to fill out my return and file on whatever the last weekend is before the tax deadline. Last Sunday was a beautiful day, however, so I kind of shot myself in the foot by sitting indoors with various forms and a calculator while everyone else frolicked in the sunshine.
There is a potential monkey wrench in that I had some supplemental income, in the form of an executor’s fee from the distribution of my mother’s estate; this bumped the tax I owe to exactly $1000 and zero cents, which apparently is the threshold for penalities on unpaid estimated tax, which I suppose I should have done for the exec fee at the end of December. I’m waiting to see if they decide to squeeze me for a penalty, but I guess it won’t be back-breaking if they do.