But-I-digress
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- Posted Re: If I know I'm not going to surpass the standard deduction this year, can I skip filling in medical expenses and charitable contributions altogether? on Deductions & credits. 2 weeks ago
- Cheered Re: If I know I'm not going to surpass the standard deduction this year, can I skip filling in medical expenses and charitable contributions altogether? for Critter-3. 2 weeks ago
- Cheered Re: If I know I'm not going to surpass the standard deduction this year, can I skip filling in medical expenses and charitable contributions altogether? for NCperson. 2 weeks ago
- Posted Re: If I know I'm not going to surpass the standard deduction this year, can I skip filling in medical expenses and charitable contributions altogether? on Deductions & credits. 2 weeks ago
- Cheered Re: If I know I'm not going to surpass the standard deduction this year, can I skip filling in medical expenses and charitable contributions altogether? for xmasbaby0. 2 weeks ago
- Cheered Re: If I know I'm not going to surpass the standard deduction this year, can I skip filling in medical expenses and charitable contributions altogether? for Mike9241. 2 weeks ago
- Cheered Re: If I know I'm not going to surpass the standard deduction this year, can I skip filling in medical expenses and charitable contributions altogether? for Critter-3. 2 weeks ago
- Posted Re: If I know I'm not going to surpass the standard deduction this year, can I skip filling in medical expenses and charitable contributions altogether? on Deductions & credits. 2 weeks ago
- Posted Re: If I know I'm not going to surpass the standard deduction this year, can I skip filling in medical expenses and charitable contributions altogether? on Deductions & credits. 2 weeks ago
- Posted If I know I'm not going to surpass the standard deduction this year, can I skip filling in medical expenses and charitable contributions altogether? on Deductions & credits. 2 weeks ago
- Posted Re: Are "PLUS" and Deluxe two different version of preparing my taxes, or is the cost of PLUS added to the cost of Deluxe? on Get your taxes done using TurboTax. February 17, 2020 6:48 PM
- Posted Are "PLUS" and Deluxe two different version of preparing my taxes, or is the cost of PLUS added to the cost of Deluxe? on Get your taxes done using TurboTax. February 17, 2020 6:39 PM
- Posted Re: What do I do with charitable donations and medical expenses if I know they are going to be less than the standard deduction this year? on Deductions & credits. January 22, 2020 11:03 PM
- Posted What do I do with charitable donations and medical expenses if I know they are going to be less than the standard deduction this year? on Deductions & credits. January 21, 2020 2:31 PM
- Posted We would be contributing out-of-pocket (by April 15!) to... on Deductions & credits. June 6, 2019 12:59 AM
- Posted (I also have a similar question about his Simple IRA, but... on Deductions & credits. June 6, 2019 12:59 AM
- Posted The $1,000 catch-up is for each of us, though, right? Pr... on Deductions & credits. June 6, 2019 12:59 AM
- Posted If we did not max out our HSA for 2018, can we still do that? on Deductions & credits. June 6, 2019 12:59 AM
- Posted Thanks, you two. Very helpful. on Deductions & credits. June 4, 2019 7:41 PM
- Posted dmertz, I appreciate that information, because I would ne... on Deductions & credits. June 4, 2019 7:41 PM
2 weeks ago
No, it won't hurt me to add them, but it's fairly time-intensive. Aside from monthly cash donations to a few different organizations and random contributions for friends participating in fundraising walks or bike rides--the easy ones to add up--there are the in-kind ones. Haven't been as many to Goodwill or the library this year as normal, but I have items shipped directly to the local domestic violence shelter throughout the year, and it's a royal pain to have to go back and locate the dates, items, and cost of dozen of pillows, towel sets, small kitchen appliances etc. Medical expenses are always a pain in the rear, but since we've been using our HSA to a greater extent, most of our expenses in that area will already be pre-tax. Then again, our health insurance premiums and deductibles alone come close to $20K, which puts me back in the arena of "do I need to add everything up and make sure?" Gaaahh! Are we back to only being able to deduct over 10% of our AGI for medical?
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2 weeks ago
Do you know if this means I have to have entered the donation already in the normal area? That won't be difficult, as I know we have donated that much to one agency in particular and could add up others to reach that as well. And thanks, as I had apparently missed hearing about the above the line option available this year.
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2 weeks ago
Thanks. As far as I know, the only one our state allows that I might have done is to an accredited college or university, which we didn't do this year. I missed out on hearing about the $300, so I appreciated getting that info from you and others here.
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2 weeks ago
Until the past couple of years, for as long as I can remember, I have itemized our deductions. When the standard deduction was doubled, we have come close but not surpassed it. If I determine by educated guess that we will get only the standard deduction this year, do I still need to fill in anything under charitable donations or medical expenses, other than HSA distributions? What do I do about the place where it asks if specific agencies still apply to charitable donations? We did donate to most of them again this year (and possibly a couple of new ones), but I honestly don't feel like doing the math on all of them, especially the in-kind donations, when I don't think it's going to affect my refund. Do I mark them as none applying, and if so, does that mean when the tax laws change again, I'll have to fill in agency information on every single place we've donated again? There are usually 15 or 20, and I'd rather not lose that information from the system.
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February 17, 2020
6:48 PM
What constitutes a "simple" tax return? I have HSA contributions and distributions as well as IRA contributions (both Roth and Simple) but no IRA distributions, so I'm not sure how much IRA info needs to be listed--just Roth contributions? Does the Plus allow for itemizing, which I'm not sure if I need to do yet or not?
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February 17, 2020
6:39 PM
I've used Deluxe other years and started with that, but just cleared everything out to start over again. Not sure if I'll be itemizing this year or not. I don't get what the difference is and am not sure if this means I'd be paying TurboTax less or more by going with PLUS.
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January 22, 2020
11:03 PM
Almost positive that the only charitable donations that are worth anything in my state are ones made to colleges and universities. Medical expenses aren't--I wish. I'm unclear as to the practical way to do this, though. Should I not have started with Deluxe if I don't need a Schedule A? Right now, it's throwing every place we donated to last year at me saying, "did you donate to this place again this year?" with a yes or no option. Some we did, some we didn't, but I'm not remotely interested in going back and looking up everything to fill it in with accurate numbers when they won't make any difference. Same with medical expenses, which were substantial, but at the recommendation of our financial advisor, we maxed out our HSA, which will also keep us below the need for Schedule A. I'm sure when I get that far, they're going to ask me for medical expenses, too, but I kept much less organized records of those than I did of the charitable donations. My husband suggested I put "$1" for each charity to which we still donated, otherwise they'll be removed from the list, and when the tax cut bill disappears, I will need many of them again. We probably had about 20 different places we gave to last year. Kind of the same with medical. Do I put "zero" for our expenses (not accurate) and fill in whatever our form says for HSA distribution? I guess the basic question is, is there a way to tell the software, "l don't want/need to itemize this year?" I was thinking this all going to be easier, not harder. Do I need a TurboTax employee to reply to this??
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January 21, 2020
2:31 PM
We have quite a number of charitable donations about which we're being asked "do these still apply?" Many of them do, but because of the doubling of the standard deduction (in 2018?) and the fact that a significant amount of our medical spending was through our HSA this year, which it hadn't been previously, I don't think we'll have enough of those + medical expenses to itemize. Am I supposed to mark them all as "no," even though in another year or two I might need them again and would like them all to stay with our information? I really, really don't want to take the time to add them all up, especially because I wasn't as meticulous as usual in keeping records, thinking I wouldn't need them for the reasons listed above. Please help. What about medical expenses that weren't paid for via our HSA but also won't be enough to itemize?
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June 6, 2019
12:59 AM
We would be contributing out-of-pocket (by April 15!) to take the deduction for 2018, but where do I put that on this year's form?
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