It's Tax Time

All, As I'm sitting here working on my personal taxes, I thought of a way to give back a little to the men here on the board who have provided such great information and support thoughout my WLS journey.  Since I'm a CPA and know a tad about taxes, if any of you need some free advice / research on questions you may have regarding your own taxes, send me an email and I'll see what I can do.  Disclaimer: I'm not a professional tax preparer so no guarantees, etc.  Boner

Very generous offer Boner, hope you havn't opened up the flood gates! Don't need any advice at this time, I pretty much just pay. Doug

Due to self paying on my RNY, I'm going to be able to claim medical expenses in excess of 7.5% AGI on my itemized deductions this year. So I'm trying to round up all the evidence I can of expenditures on medical services and procedures this year. I didn't start keeping receipts until I knew for sure I was gonna have to self pay, which basically means I have no receipts for any  money spent on medical during the first 8 months of the year. I'm trying to reconstruct those as best I can. When you go from not itemizing at all to claiming over $30,000 in deductions in one year, it probably sends up a red flag or two. I better have my documentation in order. Here's a question for the panel: I stupidly claimed the Hope Credit on my oldest daughter the past two years while she was a Jr and Sr in HS and taking concurrent classes through a local juco. The total tuition for those two years was under $600. Now she's a freshman at a private four year university and costing me about $19,000 per year and I can't take the Hope Credit cause it's only good for two years. Can I go back and revise my 05 and 06 1040's and pay the extra tax for not claiming the Hope so that I can then claim it in 07 and 08 where it will do me more good?

While in high school, was your daughter "enrolled at least half-time in a program leading to a degree, certificate, or other recognized educational credential?"  Half-time student:   A student who is enrolled for at least half the full-time academic work load for the course of study the student is pursuing, as determined under the standards of the school where the student is enrolled. If not, you shouldn't have claimed the Hope credit in the first place so file amended returns for 05 and 06 then take the credit in 07 and 08. Eligible student:   

	•	Hope credit. A student who meets all of the following requirements for the tax year for which the credit is being determined.
		1.	Did not have expenses that were used to figure a Hope credit in any 2 earlier tax years.
		2.	Had not completed the first 2 years of postsecondary education.
		3.	For at least one academic period beginning in the tax year, was enrolled at least half-time in a program leading to a degree, certificate, or other recognized educational credential.
		4.	Was free of any federal or state felony conviction for possessing or distributing a controlled substance as of the end of the tax year.

Half time student? No she wasn't. I wonder if I screwed up and counted her as a half time student in those years even though she was only taking 6 hours per semester.  All I know is that when I plugged the numbers the university sent me on my 1098(?) form, Turbo Tax wouldn't let me take the credit as it claimed I had taken it two years running already. Which I assume it knew because it is programmed to check prior year's filings.  So I'm understanding you correctly that it would be possible for me to amend 05 and 06 and start over from scratch counting 07 as the first year of eligibility for the Hope credit, corrrect?  And thanks a ton for the advice.

Send me an email since we should take this off line.

Ah taxes.  The government's way of saying: "We're still here, and we haven't forgotten about you." OK, non-scientific poll:  Intuit's 'TurboTax' vs. Microsoft's 'TaxCut'.  Which do you guys use?  Or do you use either? I saw a review that rated the new versions of each pretty high, with TurboTax rated just a little higher, mostly due to the increased numbers of reports it generates, compared to TaxCut. I've used TaxCut for 3 years, but considering a switch to TurboTax.

Used to be a TurboTax man but switched to TaxCut a couple of years ago since it was cheaper. All in all, both are comparable although TT, as you said, was generally more robust when it came to help content, tax forms and reports. The difference came into play only on some more obscure tax issues which the majority of us would never run into anyway.  Switching back and forth is kind of a hassle since you lose the history, and have to keep the old software to pull up past returns. The import programs for both are pretty lame. Imo, both are excellent programs especially for the money.  Boner  

That is sooo kind of you to offer this . dont have a Q thought . I just though I would say thanks for this and I will  keep this in mind as I have not yet done my tax's I think I will have to pay this year. ( crap  ) Nick

Here is one you'll need to use your crystal ball.  If you have a demo. congress and president will they go after the 15% long term capital gain tax we enjoy so much now??  By the way that question is open to anyone of the board here...Brian