Personal Finance Tax Thursday Thread for the week of January 27, 2022 |
- Tax Thursday Thread for the week of January 27, 2022
- Am I overreacting or being screwed?
- Is now a good time to fully find a Roth IRA for the year?
- Help with this crazy auto market!!
- Multiple Accounts Hacked and taken over via my stolen cell phone number
- Engineer scrapping by in this crazy world of high rent in California
- Friend Is Getting Laid Off This Friday, Single Dad With Mortgage...
- [California] My boss fired me in a way that indicates I resigned when I didn't?
- Fidelity "Declines to do business with me"
- Bounced check even though I had enough money in my account?
- If I never updated my W4 allowances after getting married, having a kid, and buying a place...
- Should I invest my cash reserves or continue saving?
- Is there a good place to look for information about personal finance for Russia?
- Dad in over his head with large stock purchase
- Leave current job making 30k for another making 40k?
- Medical Debt from Grandmother
- Travel nursing contract question
- My university refuses to correct my 1098-T
- Should I max out my retirement accounts if I have no savings?
- Employer lowering the hourly rate they originally offered
- Bonus money- 401k or brokerage
- Employee only matches 50% of up to 3% of my annual salary
- Someone used my SSN to open new credit lines, but my credit reports are frozen?
- FreeTaxUSA can't efile
| Tax Thursday Thread for the week of January 27, 2022 Posted: 27 Jan 2022 03:00 AM PST Please read the PF tax wiki page to see if your question is answered there before posting. Also check out the Tax Filing Software Megathread.This weekly cross-sub thread will be posted through mid-April to give subscribers a chance to ask basic tax-related questions in a consolidated thread. Since taxes can be a very complex topic, the main goal is to point people in the right direction, provide helpful information, and answer questions. (Please note that there is no protection under §7525 or attorney-client relationship when discussing matters in posts on a message board. Consult a reputable tax advisor in person if your situation demands it.) Make a top-level comment if you want to ask a tax-related question! If you have not received your answer within 24 hours, please feel free to start a discussion. For all of the Tax Thursday threads from the last year, check out the Weekly Archive. [link] [comments] |
| Am I overreacting or being screwed? Posted: 26 Jan 2022 04:38 PM PST My boss pays me in blank company checks with my name, labor in the memo, and total "after taxes" all hand written. Yet to provide any documentation showing where my money has been going. Any information is very helpful, thank you. Edit: For those of you asking for my state I'm in Missouri and yes I have asked and voiced myself more than once to this guy and have yet to get any sort of reassurance. Can't provide me paystubs dating back to when I started in September 2021, claims his paystubs are in his checkbook, writes my paycheck based on a free paycheck calculator that's says "estimated take home pay" in the screenshots of the site he claims ARE my paystubs. Very negligent and I am very very aware of so don't think I'm just allowing it. [link] [comments] |
| Is now a good time to fully find a Roth IRA for the year? Posted: 27 Jan 2022 06:23 AM PST Fund** not find Basic info - retirement is 30+ years away, fully funded emergency fund, already contributing up to the 401k match for my company, already fully funding HSA, have $6k to put into some type of account. Not sure if now is a good time to put into a Roth IRA or should i put it elsewhere? I have a Fidelity account already. TIA! [link] [comments] |
| Help with this crazy auto market!! Posted: 27 Jan 2022 05:06 AM PST So, I've been waiting for a brand new 2022 Honda Cr-v to show up at the dealer. Made a deposit on it that's refundable. The production keeps getting pushed back farther and farther. I reserved this vehicle back in October. The sale rep keeps telling me the production is being pushed back and back more. Do I trust them and just continue to wait? Or should I take my deposit back and try to find something else in that range of vehicle on a lot? The reason for wanting to get this vehicle is because of the AWD, reliability, and MPG. I drive an hour to work every day and wanted something practical. Side note: I do have a reservation for a 2022 Ford Bronco, which I'll take a year to build. Should I just wait for this? This is the vehicle I would actually be happy with in the long run minus the MPG. Both of these vehicles I would keep until they were dead. I'm sick of making excuses as to why I don't want to keep a vehicle for the whole life of it. [link] [comments] |
| Multiple Accounts Hacked and taken over via my stolen cell phone number Posted: 27 Jan 2022 09:29 AM PST Two days ago I started getting texts about passwords and pins being reset, then got a text from my cell carrier saying that my number had successfully been transferred. My phone then bricked and was virtually inoperable. This all happened within minutes. The first two accounts taken were my email and coinbase. I started the process of contacting my mobile carrier who started the process of trying to get my number back and in the meantime drove to the store to get a temp number assigned to my account and phone. Once I was able to use my phone again, I started calling my banks, however quickly realized that they had already cleaned out my Chase account of thousands of dollars and overdrafted it. All of that money had gone into my compromised Gemini account. Once I was done filing the fraud reports with Chase, I started the support request with Gemini, who surprisingly was extremely responsive. After about 24hrs of back and forth with Gemini they were able to regain my access to the account. Turns out the fraudsters bought a bunch of BTC and were not able to transfer it out so I now have control of all the BTC, bought with my own money of course. Call your phone providers and have them place security blocks on any sim and phone numbers you own! not sure why they don't do this automatically but you apparently have to request that they do it. [link] [comments] |
| Engineer scrapping by in this crazy world of high rent in California Posted: 26 Jan 2022 07:05 PM PST Hello everyone, as the title says I am an environmental engineer struggling in Cali. I was paying roughly $900 of rent sharing an apartment with a roommate. But the roommate during working from home just wasn't working out, he would hog all the living spaces while I was stuck in my room. So I took a leap and decided I need my own privacy and place to maintain my sanity. Currently,I am temporarily staying with my parents, I have been here for month of Jan, but I am starting to realize attaining my own place is going to be a financially suffocating experience. A studio in Cali in the city I am in goes for $1300-1900…I make a 70k salary and after taxes and investments that is literally 50% of my take home income if I were to pay $1500 of rent. What do I do now? Paying 50% of take home income sounds ridiculous to me. Recommendation are much appreciated. Little bit of financial background I have managed to save roughly 40k in cash for a little wiggle room but I don't expect to start using that just to pay rent and I do have some other personal investments. Edit: Thanks for all the responses everyone, I am learning a lot from everyone's input and different points of views! This is a topic that I don't really talk about and thought I'd share here and I've gotten a lot of great feedback. [link] [comments] |
| Friend Is Getting Laid Off This Friday, Single Dad With Mortgage... Posted: 26 Jan 2022 02:59 PM PST A friend of mine was just notified that this Friday will be his last day. A severance package wasn't offered. He is a single dad that pays child support along with a mortgage and other living expenses. He has six months of living expenses saved up. This is what I told him to do so far. Is there anything else?
[link] [comments] |
| [California] My boss fired me in a way that indicates I resigned when I didn't? Posted: 27 Jan 2022 12:23 PM PST Hey everybody, Some background, I worked at this law firm for 10 months as an office manager. On the day of my job interview, I mentioned that I do want to eventually go to law school so I will be studying for the entrance on the side of working full-time for about a year or two. Anyways, I was great at my job. Within 10 months, I grew from an assistant to manager and received 2 decent raises and a couple nice bonuses for my performance. A couple months back, while in a meeting with my boss (a lawyer btw), I told him that I would like to request a hiatus sometime in the summer to focus on my exam and then return. He was totally understanding of it and it was all verbal. Anyways, fast forward to about a week ago, I tested positive for COVID-19. Apparently, the lawyer I share my space with tested positive and was out of the office as well but we did not know it was because he tested positive. I found out a couple days after I tested positive and I expressed to my boss that I expected for us to be notified of a potential COVID-19 exposure so we can distance ourselves from gatherings and loved ones. I only mentioned this as a "manager" as it all goes back to the wellbeing of everybody. He did not answer me for 6 days and he continued to ignore my texts and phone calls about returning. He then responded to my email, saying that he was taken aback by my "strange micharazterization of what transpired and the unncessarily accustory tone." I figured he took my message about the COVID-19 exposure the wrong way and just ignored it. I continued to call the office and text him because I was feeling better but he did not answer. I finally sent him an email telling him I'm coming back on Wednesday morning in accordance to the CDC guidelines and that I was looking forward to coming back. He then sent me this email:
Anyways ... I appreciate his offer to pay me for my sick time and one more paycheck but I never requested a date of seperation! He had told me I can go ahead and take a hiatus when we hire another assistant to help in my absense and it wasn't even official yet. And I was supposed to come back. I wouldn't have accepted the 1-2 months off if it meant I cannot return ... I feel totally betrayed and that he worded our correspondence like this so it looks like I quit when in reality, I didn't! I totally believe this is his way of getting back to me for how I expected him to tell us about the covid-19 exposure and it wasn't even in bad taste! He's just really sensative and paranoid ... I've been pretty much fired and I'm worried how I'm going to find a suitable job on time if he's making it look like I quit so I don't get any unemployment! He took that security away from me. Do you guys think I have a chance at filing unemployment or should I just forget about it? I have the emails and text messages of being ignored and my haitus request was only requested verbally and accepted on the grounds of my return. [link] [comments] |
| Fidelity "Declines to do business with me" Posted: 27 Jan 2022 01:11 PM PST Last week I opened a Roth IRA account with Fidelity and linked my bank account to transfer funds. Fidelity sent a couple deposits to my savings account, which I verified, and then moved $6k over. The next day I get an email notice from Fidelity stating " Your bank has notified us that it will not complete your transaction request because your bank account does not allow this type of transaction. " OK. The credit union says that ETF are not allowed on savings accounts. I then link my checking to Fidelity, they send a couple deposits and I log in to Fidelity to verify. Fidelity website tells me that my account is locked and I need to call to reset my password. I call and reset my password. Now I sign in and the verify account page gives an "something went wrong" error. I call Fidelity again and after a bunch of back and forth I am told there is a restriction on my account and they cannot tell why. I then hold for over an hour to talk to someone in the "back office." They ask me tons of questions to both verify my identity and then questions like 'where did I hear about Fidelity', 'what type of funds were I planning on putting in the IRA' and 'what was I planning on using the IRA for' (uhh.... retirement savings??). I am then placed on hold again for ~20 minutes. The rep comes back on the phone and tells me "Fidelity has decided to decline to do any business with you. Your accounts will remain frozen and disabled. Those are the only comments I have." Why have they decided that they want nothing to do with me?? What looks fraudulent about creating an IRA? I did not even think about my 401K. It is serviced through Fidelity, when I try to log into that account it now responds "you are blocked" [link] [comments] |
| Bounced check even though I had enough money in my account? Posted: 26 Jan 2022 09:52 PM PST I had a college tuition bill of $1904, which I paid by entering my PNC checking account number. In that account I had $2089. The check apparently bounced, and the University charged me a $50 fine. I immediately transferred the money to Ally bank, and the bill went through on time so I wasn't charged a late fee. Nonetheless I am frustrated. As a college student you can see how significant fines like this can be. Parking tickets, books, administrative fees, ramen noodles, I'm drowning here and not sure how anyone makes it through this. Why would they send the check back as "insufficient funds" when I clearly had enough funds? Can I get PNC bank to refund this fee? I can't exactly threaten to leave as a customer because my account is already pretty much drained. Edit: If anyone has tips for broke college students please lmk [link] [comments] |
| If I never updated my W4 allowances after getting married, having a kid, and buying a place... Posted: 27 Jan 2022 12:32 PM PST Then that means I've over-withheld, but the difference is returned to me as part of my tax return, correct? In other words, no net loss, except I could have invested that difference during that time? [link] [comments] |
| Should I invest my cash reserves or continue saving? Posted: 27 Jan 2022 04:09 AM PST Hi PF, I can't help but feel weird about my current situation. 25M, earning 107k in a (I guess is Tampa HCOL now?) area. Bi weekly take home is $2900 after bennys, 401k etc. I save about $2500/m towards my house right now. But have 0 investments. It all goes into a separate cash for housing purchase. Each paycheck $1250 hits one account w/ no card I choose not to touch and the rest in my main checking. Debts: I have 13k in student loan debt, no CC debt, no car loan. Own my car. Assets: I have 30k cash, 6k in crypto (9.5k invested), 10k in 401(k) (I don't include this in my net worth). Let's call it 36k. 4 months emergency expenses would be what — 8k? So 30k-13k-8k would be = 9K. Plus incoming paycheck so let's make it 10k. I understand markets have pulled back recently w/ the fed soon to start tapering but am I dumb for sitting on 10k cash extra? I'm trying to buy a home and that is my main priority but man, I feel like that 10k could be better "spent (invested)" than being in cash. Side note, I'm going through a special program (NACA) that will allow me to have no down payment on my home. Not to get too deep into detail but all I need is 6k at closing. So, I guess that makes it 4k. What do you guys think? Thanks! [link] [comments] |
| Is there a good place to look for information about personal finance for Russia? Posted: 27 Jan 2022 08:37 AM PST I am from Russia, but the wiki here seems to be only for US/EU [link] [comments] |
| Dad in over his head with large stock purchase Posted: 27 Jan 2022 12:53 PM PST Using a throwaway account. I'm posting this out of concern for my parents' finances because my dad has purchased $25,000.00 of Nvidia after watching the news about how well the Nvidia stock will supposedly do in the next year. I'm far from an expert in stocks and investing in general so I'm turning to those more experienced to see how I can salvage this situation. To me, buying $25,000.00 of any stock seems financially unwise. I've always heard that it's better to diversify in order to reduce risk and buying $25,000.00 of stock for someone who has no idea what they're doing sounds like it could end in financial ruin. Background: This is in the United States. My (28) dad (mid-60s) immigrated to the U.S. in his 30s and has been working in various small businesses. He owns a dry cleaning business with my mom. The business hasn't been doing well in the past 5-7 years due to the age demographic of the surrounding area leaning towards retirement age. Not many retired people are getting their clothes dry cleaned (or laundered) in this area. The pandemic has hit especially hard, as with all small businesses. My dad thought it would be a good idea to take the $25,000.00 loan from the SBA and invest it in a promising stock due to the dip in price. He is using Fidelity. What should I be researching or know about so that we can avoid any possible pitfalls? He is still learning about how investment works as this is his first time in investing. I'm worried he's in over his head and will lose a devastating amount of money. [link] [comments] |
| Leave current job making 30k for another making 40k? Posted: 26 Jan 2022 05:50 PM PST I currently work a physical job that I enjoy making $18 an hour. I was approached by a relative today about an open position in the company they work for that they felt I would be a great fit for. It is salary at 40k a year plus quarterly bonuses with typical 8-5 Mon-Fri hours. Pros of current job:
Cons of current job:
Pros of new job
Cons of new job
What would you all do? The prospect is exciting but I feel guilty for leaving my current company. I was told the new position is being held for me so if I'm interested I should put in my 2 weeks tomorrow. [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 27 Jan 2022 09:03 AM PST Hi, I recently had to undertake debt for medical expenses for my grandmother. She is in another country with no health insurance and had a stroke coupled with Alzheimer's and heart failure. I am the only one in the family that contributed to her initial medical costs. It's been really stressful and I've been pretty depressed and idk where to even start. On the bright side, she was able to get medical care and has since recovered from her stroke and is currently in a long-term care home. Other family members is now helping but now I have this debt to worry about. To pay for medical costs, I have about $30,000 in credit card debt. Credit card #1: $5,300 0% APR until Dec 1, 2022 Credit card #2: $11,220.50 0% APR until Dec 1, 2022 Credit card #3: $13,132.04 20.99% APR Here's my financial situation Salary $75,000 Biweekly paycheck after taxes and benefits $1,900 Monthly expenses: - Fixed (rent, bills etc) $1,200 - Variable (groceries, gas etc) $800 I also have a $5,000 emergency fund. Prior to the situation, I had $12,000 and used $7,000 on grandmas health care expenses. Other debts: Car loan $20,000 2.74% interest rate 60 month term $376 monthly payment No student loans —- I'm just drained at this point. I am emotionally spent with not being able to be with my grandma and also financially in distress. I can't even think about a plan to tackle this situation. Please help. [link] [comments] |
| Travel nursing contract question Posted: 27 Jan 2022 07:55 AM PST All, My wife is looking over a travel nursing contract and trying to make sense of it The offer is $43 per hour, the housing and food stipend total $1400 so it's around $2900 total per week. The food and housing stipend is non taxable so we're a little cloudy on how that works. She is traveling roughly 60 miles one way, but will be staying with her parents during this time so she won't need to use the entire stipend depending on if they'll even accept money from her in the first place, and if so how much. They're (the agency) telling her if she is audited she will need to provide proof that she used the stipend for housing and travel costs instead of just putting it in her pocket. I'm not a tax person so I'm not sure about this side of it She will get a W2 from the company she is contracted to so they should be taking taxes out for her, but what would a good way to calculate weekly take-home pay based on this. Thanks in advance!! [link] [comments] |
| My university refuses to correct my 1098-T Posted: 27 Jan 2022 07:49 AM PST I got my 1098-T last week. They added all the Qualified disaster emergency grants i got under Cares and American Rescue plan under line 5. I also got a higher education emergency grant that they applied to as refund for last year and they put it as an adjustment on my tuition Line 4 + 6. Under section 139 and per IRS guidiance these are not supposed to be counted as gross income, are not taxed and are not supposed on to be on line 5 or lines 4 and 6. My school financial aid department transferred me over to the billing department. They are telling me this is an error in their system and they can not fix my 1098-T. Isn't the school supposed to provide me with an acccurate 1098-T and correct it if an error? They are telling me they cannot correct the error. What do I do? I really need a correct 1098-T as I don't want to take chances with the IRS when I file my taxes. [link] [comments] |
| Should I max out my retirement accounts if I have no savings? Posted: 27 Jan 2022 09:37 AM PST Hi all, I'm 29 years old single with no kids making 140k and have been making six figures for several years in a MCOL city and wanting to buy a home, which has made me realize I have no cash on hand and now I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong… I came out of college with zero debt and have been maxing out my 401k, Roth IRA and HSA for the tax deduction and have 250k in retirement savings but have no cash on hand. Was this a bad move and should I be saving more cash instead? I drive a new car but not a luxury vehicle or anything and my rent is $2200/month plus parking and utilities. I admit like a lot of young people I do eat out often and spend some money on clothes and entertainment and credit card bills are around $2000/month. This basically leaves me with nothing at the end of the year… I feel like my spending isn't that bad…am I just putting too much into my retirement accounts? [link] [comments] |
| Employer lowering the hourly rate they originally offered Posted: 26 Jan 2022 05:08 PM PST My girlfriend was job searching and went into a bakery that was desperately hiring. Within 20 minutes she had a start date for the following week and was being shown around the place, before we left she ask what the hourly rate would be and the boss said she would start out at $12/hr then after a month see about a raise if she fit the job well. She half filled out an application because the boss said it didn't matter they would take her. When she started working she never filled out any paperwork until the end of the week she had to ask her boss if there was anything she needed to fill out. She got a small stack of papers and filled them all out. On the expected pay rate she put $12. On her second week of working her boss saw the $12 on the paper and told her she would only be paying her $11. Not the most drastic change but still we are curious about if shes obligated to pay the $12/hr. Especially since she was unaware she was working for $11/hr until after her first week [link] [comments] |
| Bonus money- 401k or brokerage Posted: 27 Jan 2022 10:57 AM PST I'm between maxing my traditional 401k and brokerage. My Roth IRA is maxed, as is my HSA. I think my issue with the idea is that I don't have a spot I need this in my opinion. My work 401k traditional has about 1.5 my salary at 30, my Roth IRA about .5. My brokerage is feeling healthily funded as well. In my 401k, I'd pay marginal tax when I take it out, which could be higher then 15% capital gains in the brokerage if I live life to my fullest. That would affect my social security taxes too then. I also can't time it as well- I can put it all in my brokerage while the market is down right now but I'm my 401k it would take me 8 months to shovel it in as fast as I could and realistically I'd still have leftover to do something with. At what point does getting it in during a market drop outweigh the 401k requiring dca essentially? Am I thinking of this wrong because if I spend a lot in retirement, I could imagine being in a bracket over the 15% fees I'd pay only on gains in the brokerage. Maybe I'm missing something [link] [comments] |
| Employee only matches 50% of up to 3% of my annual salary Posted: 27 Jan 2022 12:53 PM PST My employer's 401k plan only matches 50% (~$900) of up to 3% (~$1,800) of my annual compensation (~$60,000) each year for my 401k. Should I reduce how much I'm contributing to my 401k each month to just 3% and contribute a minimum of ~11% of my annual compensation to a separate traditional IRA? [link] [comments] |
| Someone used my SSN to open new credit lines, but my credit reports are frozen? Posted: 27 Jan 2022 06:48 AM PST I found out the other day that someone has opened a new Kohls store card in my name, a wal mart card, a green dot bank account, and supposedly a chase bank account. I also got a letter in the mail that someone ordered $203 worth of shit from a mail order cheese company. My question is how is this possible if my credit reports have been frozen? I have verified they were still frozen. When I called equifax to question them on how this could've happened they denied the existence of the new accounts, but I have gotten letters in the mail and they have even shown up on Credit Karma. I am taking steps to close the fraudulent accounts and have set up a fraud alert but if it happened before with a freeze on my reports, what's to stop it from happening again? And how did it happen in the first place? Is this on the fault of the credit bureaus? [link] [comments] |
| Posted: 26 Jan 2022 05:39 PM PST Tried filing my taxes with FreeTaxUSA, as I have done in previous years. This year it says I have to mail in my paperwork and won't let me efile. My taxes are not really any different this year than they were previously. Has this happened to anyone else? Any ideas on what could be causing this or what I should do? Wanted to see if anyone has found a fix before having to mail it in. Edit: The message it gives me is: " Mail Your Federal Return [link] [comments] |
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