All Posts

in terms of making the payments you can do that direct at irs.gov, be sure to give the correct classification as estimated tax and 2025 tax year.   to avoid underpayment penalty you need to pay thru withholding or timely (quarterly) estimated tax, the smaller of 100% of your 2024 tax (110% if your AGI > 150k or 75k for MFS filing status), or 90% of your 2025 tax.  That's your safe harbor amount.  See lines 1-9 on Form 2210 for the calculation.  Withholding is always considered "timely" but estimated tax needs to be paid quarterly.   If you had a significant increase in tax for 2025 then you may be better off paying ES based on 2024 tax depending your situation, first step is to make that calculation.  Paying based on 2024 is the simplest calculation since the tax is known, the only variable is 2025 withholding, and it doesn't matter how much your 2025 income is or when it occurs, but it can often be an overpayment if you fall into that 110% high income requirement, or your income is flat or declines from year to year.  If you filed with TT with 2024 it would have produced estimated tax vouchers (which you don't need to follow) based on 100/110% of 2024 tax as default and assuming your 2025 withholding is the same as 2024.   Whether you pay quarterly ES based on 2024 or 2025, if you didn't pay ES for Q1/2 already but now it's July, you will incur a penalty, but you can stop the penalty from accruing if you catch up that missed quarterly payments now, and make the 3rd payment by the Q3 deadline etc.   The other option, if your additional investment income is uneven and more towards the later half of the year, you can pay ES unevenly to line up with it (another good example is a Roth conversion in December that couldn't be planned in quarterly ES payments thru the year) and then file Form 2210 Annualized Income method, but you will need to calculate your AGI, Qualified Dividends, Long Term Cap Gain etc for each quarter (3/31, 5/31, 8/31).  This is handled in TT under Other Tax Situation / Underpayment Penalty when you file next year.  But if your income is incurred evenly thru the year, this method may not help eliminate the penalty as it will still show that you were late paying ES that were actually due in Q1-2.   More info see https://www.irs.gov/faqs/estimated-tax and https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i2210.pdf   Not a CPA please research accordingly, hope this helps.

How did you prepare your return--Online TurboTax or the desktop version?   If you were surprised it went by direct deposit to a bank, what did you choose for your refund option when you filed?   How were  you thinking it was going to be handled?    Did you choose direct deposit?  Be aware that the IRS will also say it went to a bank, even if it went to a prepaid debit card such as the Credit Karma MoneySpend Card or a brokerage account.   Did you by chance choose the Credit Karma account? Did the IRS give you a bank name, and if so, was it different from your bank account?   Did you have any TurboTax fees that you chose to pay out of your Federal refund?   If so, the IRS sends it to a third-party bank where the fees are subtracted, then that bank sends the remainder to your bank (or card.)   The company that handles that is called SBTPG (Santa Barbara Tax Products Group.)   If you DID use that service to pay any TurboTax fees, we can tell you how to use the refund lookup tool at the SBTPG website.     You can also look at a couple of summary pages in your return to see what the refund choice was.   If you used Online TurboTax, the FAQ below tells you how to get the PDF that contains the worksheets.   Look at a page called Filing Instructions, which may have refund info on it, and also look at a page called 2024 Federal Tax Return Summary.   NOTE:   When you open your return interview to get to the Print Center, do not make any changes in it.   If you ever have to amend anything, it has to start off exactly as filed.   https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/account-management/find-direct-deposit-account-information-e-filed/L9HUEnN0h_US_en_US   NOTE:  Remember all PDF tax documents and tax data files are very sensitive files, since they contain your personal ID info, financial data, and possibly bank account numbers, etc.  Be sure to store them safely and securely to guard against computer theft, hacking, etc.

You said "return", but I'll assume you mean a Federal tax refund.   First, you need to be sure the return was successfully filed. It depends on how you chose to file the return.   If you filed a paper return by mail, TurboTax does not mail it for you.  If you chose that method, you would have had to print it, sign it, date it, and mail it yourself.  It takes at least 4 weeks for a mailed return to show up in the IRS WMR tool.     If you efiled, double-check to be sure the return was efiled successfully and accepted.  If you used Online TurboTax, you can sign into your Online Account and check the efile status at the Tax Home.   What word is used there for the status: does it show as  accepted, rejected, printed, started, ready to mail, or something else? If that showed it was accepted, (or if you mailed a paper return), you can use the "Where's My Refund" tool at the IRS website below to monitor the status of your Federal refund.   Is there any message there? https://www.irs.gov/wheres-my-refund   Here are some tips when using that IRS tool:   Be sure you enter the correct tax year, SSN, and filing status. Be sure you are using only the Federal refund amount.   Do not include any state refund or any total refund or net refund (Fed and State) that TurboTax may have provided on a summary screen.   Look at your actual Federal return to get the Federal refund amount to use in the tool, i.e., your Form 1040, Line 35a.

Turbo Tax will always say tax due (or refund).  That is just the state of your return when you filed it.  Turbo Tax is not updated when you pay the tax or get the refund.  The IRS and state do not tell them when they get your payment.  Once Turbo Tax efiled your return they are done with their part.   How did you pay it?  Your only proof of payment is your bank or credit card statement showing it coming out.  Turbo Tax does not pay it.  They only send your bank info to the IRS or state for them to pull it out of your account.  Turbo Tax won’t know if or when you paid it.

  You have to access your own account and/or  print it for yourself using exactly the same account and user ID that you used when you prepared the return.    https://myturbotax.intuit.com/   Start a 2024 return online and enter some personal information  so that the menu on the left opens up and lets you access your past year returns.   https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/prior-year-return/help/how-do-i-access-my-prior-year-return/01/27010     https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/import-export-data-files/save-2021-turbotax-online-return-pdf/L8dHfRkpT_US_en_US?uid=m5y4ch1y   Many people have multiple TT accounts and forget how to access them.  Log out of the account you are in now.     https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/account-management/many-intuit-accounts-turbotax/L9aVfKS1Z_US_en_US?uid=ll5g6zcx Account Recovery     Or did you use the desktop version of TurboTax?  If so, the files are on your own hard drive or any backup device you used like a flash drive.     https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/tax-return/find-last-year-tax-data-file-tax-file-computer/L0XJvPaJr_US_en_US?uid=m6gufxei     https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/data-systems/find-tax-data-file-mac/L4VNGm33S_US_en_US?uid=m6guhab0 You can get a free transcript from the IRS or for a fee of $30, an actual copy of your tax return. https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506.pdf       SAVE YOUR TAX RETURNS ! EVERY year before mid-October you should save a copy of your tax return as a pdf and print a copy of it for your records.  That way you will not be searching online frantically when you need it for a lender, FAFSA forms, your next tax return, etc.    https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/import-export-data-files/save-2021-turbotax-online-return-pdf/L8dHfRkpT_US_en_US?uid=m6guj526   https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/import-export-data-files/save-2021-turbotax-online-return-pdf/L8dHfRkpT_US_en_US?uid=m78eb8pc In order to transfer a past year return to the new return you need the tax file   https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/import-export-data-files/save-turbotax-online-return-tax-data-file/L4xwOG3LF_US_en_US?uid=m6guk3xl   NOTE:  TurboTax and the IRS save returns for seven years.  Returns older than seven years are purged.  

In the time since I made my previous post there has been discussion as to whether basis in In-plan Roth Rollovers in the 401(k) upon being rolled over to a Roth IRA become conversion basis in the Roth IRA or become contribution basis in the Roth IRA.  The instructions for Form 8606 say to include on line 22 "any amount rolled in from a designated Roth, [...] that is treated as investment in the contract."  It would seem that investment in the contract would be all funds other than earnings (earnings being the portion that would be taxable i simply distributed), meaning that the amount of the In-plan Roth Rollover should be treated as Roth IRA contribution basis regardless of how long it had been since the IRR was done.  That doesn't sit well with me because it implies that someone under age 59½ could bypass the 5-year conversion rule by moving funds from the Roth 401(k) to the Roth IRA.  Of course if your are over age 59½, the 5-year conversion rule no longer applies, so it wouldn't matter whether the basis in IRRs is treated as contribution basis or conversion basis in the Roth IRA.

No, turbotax can't vouch for your family situation.   If you were married for tax year 2023, you could only file as head of household if you were living apart from your spouse for at least all of the last 6 months of the year (since July 1), AND you paid more than half the cost of keeping your home, AND you lived in that home with at least one qualifying person, usually your dependent child.   However, even if you filed using the HOH status, the only proof is the form you signed (electronically) claiming that was true.  Taxes are on the honor system and most people are not audited, but Turbotax has no way to independently vouch for the truth of any claims on your tax return.