Taxing Situation

A new year. In fact, a new decade. But the shiny newness of 2010 is starting wear out and the arrival of those 1099s, W-2s, etc brings with them the sobering reality that April 15, a Thursday this year, is not far off.

We are not tax professionals, but since most of persons who are not tax professionals still have to file a return, or accurately determine whether they are required to, it pays to know where to find the answers before at best, dread, or at worst, panic, takes hold. Even the IRS states on its website, “Many people will file a 2009 Federal income tax return even though the income on the return was below the filing requirement.”

Ah, but you say, Sure. How do I know I am not making a mistake by not filing? Or by filing? The information below, from the Internal Revenue Service website-- http://www.irs.gov -- will help you determine if you have to file a Federal Income Tax return or if it would make sense to change your withholding so you do not have to file unneeded returns going forward. This site is the best place to find accurate and up-to-the-minute tax info and is easy to navigate.
Additionally, one of the most helpful publications, available to download from the site or to order by mail, is Publication 17, which explains in minute detail who must file and what must be included in the return.

Generally speaking, for tax year 2009, if at the end of 2009 you were under age 65 and your gross income was at least $9,350 ($18,700 if married and filing jointly) you must file a return. But there are other conditions and requirements depending not only on your age or marital status, but on other criteria, ie, Were you a church employee? Did you sell your main home? Did you make early withdrawals from a qualified retirement plan? And much, much more. Not only are tax laws complex, many of them change every year so a deduction you were able claim in, say, 2007, may not apply to 2009. So asking an accountant or knowledgeable and well- trained tax preparer is the best way to be sure not only if you need to file, but what forms you need to use.


And please don’t procrastinate. April 15 is headed straight for you so getting the paperwork together now is the best way to meet the filing deadline and retain some peace of mind. And wallet.

Slightly Less Taxing

Tax preparation time is here and if you sold any securities in 2008, you will need the basis—the price you paid for them, to determine if you made or lost money on the sale. This may be easy to locate if you purchased them fairly recently, but what if you bought them years ago? Decades ago? How can you find out what you paid for a stock, fund, etc back in, say, 1982?

An effortless way to find out what the closing price was for a security on any given day is to go to http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/ or http://www.marketwatch.com/ . There you can enter the symbol for the security, the day it was purchased and then find the closing price on that date.

This is helpful information you’ll need when it comes to filling out those Schedule D forms.