So, I fired up the Turbo Tax, and I'm doing my rough draft of my taxes... Here's a few things: I didn't pay ANY estimated quarterly taxes for 2007. I didn't pay Uncle Sam a dime last year. I contributed the $4000 I was allowed to my traditional IRA. I also had the standard deductions that most of us have, like a mortgage, tractor depreciation, and so on.

Now, I was a little concerned that I would owe a ton of money for not paying the estimated quarterly stuff. I sold stock that I lost money on, maxed out that IRA, gave to the Semper Fi Fund. I thought I was going to need all of it to offset the penalties or whatever I had to pay for not giving the IRS their interest free loan.

Anyways, I'm cruising along, paying attention to the little refund meter. I was starting to think I had a bugged copy of Turbo Tax, since it was saying ZERO the whole time. I mean, I had almost all of my deductions in there.

So then, the kicker. I come to my IRA contribution entry. I type in $4000, and whammo... The little refund meter says I OWE $240 as a penalty. I contributed too much it tells me.

Now, this is something I never expected to happen. I had so much in deductions, that it offset my income to the point I couldn't even contribute to my own retirement.

The other thing, I guess I never really thought of, is that if you don't pay anything in, you can't get any refund. Can this be? Is there a point when Uncle Sam says, "sorry, all those business expenses are yours to eat?" Can they really penalize you on your retirement contributions?

I guess in some respects, I should be happy. I won't have to stress myself to find every last deduction this year. I'll actually play with the numbers enough that I don't get penalized for my IRA contribution by taking away deductions. Have to check into some other options, I guess.

Anyone else run into these things?

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Anyone buying in to Obama's hype machine needs to seriously do research and check the facts. Google search "Obama" with these words: Rezko, William Ayers, Reverend Wright, Nation of Islam, Muslim family, Muslim Brother, Barry Soetero (real name). It's all there for you to find out about the fraud that is Obama.

The 240.00 sounds like the excise tax at 6%.

You can always contribute the maximum to your IRA with no limitations, except for an O/O whose taxable profit becomes lower than the IRA amount.
If you are married, you might consider it to be reclassified as a spousal IRA.

Contributions on your behalf to a traditional IRA reduce your limit for contributions to a Roth IRA. See chapter 2 for information about Roth IRAs.

General Limit





For 2007, the most that can be contributed to your traditional IRA generally is the smaller of the following amounts:

• $4,000 ($5,000 if you are age 50 or older), or
• Your taxable compensation (defined earlier) for the year.

Hi there, is there a Tax Software out there for Us OTR Drivers, Like TaxAct,etc.

Thanks

Im sort of in the same boat. I've been using Turbo Tax online for the last few years and we have always had a refund...although right now with what I have entered so far, it says we owe 600 bucks. My wife and I made 4grand total more last year than in 06, but I don't know if that put us in a higher tax bracket or what. I got paid for my teaching job through June although they spread it out to I think September...was unemployed from June to October 19th when I got hired on by the Great Pumpkin. From there, I made training pay for the next four weeks until mid november...so Im trying to figure out why I owe. Of course, all I have put in so far is our W2s from last year, and I still need to add Schneiders when I get it. Then I get to have fun with the unemployment stuff and all the other interest and taxes I paid last year if I can get that info. Right now we arent even making enough to pay our bills each month so I dont' know how Im going to come up with 600 (or more).

Hey Bear, how does your PER DIEM figure into this tax software !

or do you fill out a separate form to claim that ?

All these headaches you guys talk of are why I pay an accountant to handle this stuff. Not to mention she is easy on the old eyes.

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I gotta agree with brickman, my wife 's been doing my taxes for the past ten years or so, no problems.. If you use an accountant just give them the totals of all your stuff, that will help keep the costs down. I use spreadsheets, with totals on each month in both trucking and contracting, and it is possible to get a return without paying in any tax, have done so in the past but not shure how that happened. I got a letter one time saying there was an error, next thing I know they sent me some more money. Two returns in one year? Just keep all the paperwork together and organized, last couple years we been running a turbo tax program or the like. drive55cat

You have to know how many days you worked. TurboTax will not do the math for you, so you'll need to know the amount the government is giving you, then multiply it by days worked away from home. Should be an easy $10000 or more.

__________________
Anyone buying in to Obama's hype machine needs to seriously do research and check the facts. Google search "Obama" with these words: Rezko, William Ayers, Reverend Wright, Nation of Islam, Muslim family, Muslim Brother, Barry Soetero (real name). It's all there for you to find out about the fraud that is Obama.

I use Quicken throughout the year to track all of my expenses. It's pretty simple for me to do my taxes without the middle man (or woman).

__________________
Anyone buying in to Obama's hype machine needs to seriously do research and check the facts. Google search "Obama" with these words: Rezko, William Ayers, Reverend Wright, Nation of Islam, Muslim family, Muslim Brother, Barry Soetero (real name). It's all there for you to find out about the fraud that is Obama.