My Taxes are a Mess

Factual Questions
1

Since I live overseas, the deadline has not yet passed for me to file my (American) income tax stuff. So I fired up TurboTax and printed out last year’s stuff. I then began this year’s stuff.

None of the downloading of accounts works! How can this be? M internet connection (obviously) is fine.

In any case, given that I have no 1099s, no 1040s (for my retirement income) nothing. (This is because of the Saudi Post Office combined with my ‘heck with it’ attitude last year.)

OK, so what shall I do?

I propose to enter reasonable figures, guesstimates really, send the Feds a nice fat check and then let them figure it out and send me the change.

What do you think?

This is so unlike me. Usually I am always so careful with my tax records.

2

Paul, not sure I follow what the root issue is. Are you unable to get updated Turbo Tax files? This was working fine for me earlier in the month.

Net, are you asking two questions:

  1. What’s wrong with Turbo Tax file updates?

AND

  1. Can I just send a check and my info to the IRS and let them work out my taxes?
3

Yes, I suppose there are two questions.

The TurboTax downloads worked so well last year. Now I get ‘cannot find server.’ As I said, my internet is working fine.

So what do you think of my plan?

(There has got to be a better way of raising revenue! Something easier.)

4

I have TurboTax Deluxe 2004 installed on my computer. I just launched it and checked for updates and this seems to have worked just fine. I wonder if you might have some problems with filters on your ISP.

As for the IRS portion of your question, I really have no clue.

5

Paul, when my taxes are in a mess, I have a simple solution. I hire a CPA and let her figure out what to do. As for your plan, sending the IRS money will help a lot as long as you overpay on time. Under that specific condition, they will slide you a lot of slack.

6

Have you sufficient time for someone stateside to send you a CD or DVD with all of the updates dowloaded and burned?

7

Do you mean that the company you contract with hasn’t provided you your copy, and you can’t get Turbo Tax to connect to the IRS to download the employer-provided data? Can’t you just phone someone in the payroll department and ask for a replacement copy, or have them tell you the amount you earned?

I’m sorry, this doesn’t make sense to me. Are you saying that you can’t download the 1040 form to complete and file? Or are you saying there’s some form you’re missing that would indicate income you’ve pulled out of a retirement account?

Why don’t you phone the people who are supposed to provide you with the missing data, get the numbers you need, then download and print the necessary forms and schedules from either www.irs.gov or www.1040.com (they even have “fillable” .pdf forms), do the returns manually the old-fashioned way, using the tax table, which is also downloadable from either site? Are your taxes that complex that you can’t muddle through the instructions and follow along with the format you used last year to get this year’s done? Even if you think you’ve done them wrong, you can always have a CPA look at them when you have more time, and file an amended return later.

8

Yes, my Brother would agree 100%- “hire a tax professional”!

9

I think Shayna has the solution. Download the required forms, fill them out the best I can and overpay.

I will also call my brokers on Monday to see if they can help.

Thank you all.