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John151

I’m a conservative investor in my seventies. In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, I routinely kept about five percent of my investments in cash, defined as my Vanguard money market fund. I don’t own any bank CD’s, and I count my I Bonds as “bonds.” When the yield on my money market fund dropped to 0...

John151

I've decided not to over-analyze it. For both I-Bonds and annual IRA contributions, I make all purchases in early January ($10,000 each for me and my husband for I-Bonds and $6,500 for each of us for IRA which is a tIRA >> Backdoor Roth). This way, I get these investments out of the way at the begi...

John151

On an investment of $10,000, changes in fixed rates and inflation rates are pretty negligible, so I buy the maximum in January and then forget about it.

John151

I’m seventy, and my equity exposure is increasing all by itself. The stock funds I’m invested in have doubled in value, and I’m currently about six percentage points above my allocation target for stocks. I could sell enough shares to get down to my target, but I’d have to pay substantial capital ga...

John151

I'd like to thank all of you for your responses. I started filing with TurboTax when I qualified for free filing through Vanguard. When Vanguard dropped that benefit, I switched to TaxAct, and when TaxAct raised its prices, I switched to FreeTaxUSA. TurboTax offered the advantage of importing my inv...

John151

I asked this question last year and the year before that, and I thought I’d ask it again this year. How did you file your income taxes? Did you calculate your taxes manually? Did you use tax preparation software? Or did you have your taxes prepared by an accountant? In February, I calculated my 201...

John151

I asked this question last year and the year before that, and I thought I’d ask it again this year. How did you file your income taxes? Did you calculate your taxes manually? Did you use tax preparation software? Or did you have your taxes prepared by an accountant? In February, I calculated my 2017...

John151

I’ve been investing with Vanguard for over thirty years, and I’ve never had a service problem, with one exception. I was invested in Vanguard’s Tax-Managed International Fund, and all of its dividends qualified for favorable tax treatment. Then Vanguard decided to merge the fund with Vanguard Develo...

John151

I consider my checking account and my Vanguard money market fund to be my emergency fund. I count them as the “cash” component of my investments, and they form about five percent of my portfolio. If I need more than that, I can draw on my Vanguard tax-exempt bond fund.

John151

I think it depends on how your tax-advantaged account is invested and on what you want to do with the proceeds. Mine’s in a stable value fund paying three percent, and I’m planning to invest my RMD in a tax-exempt bond fund. The former pays more than the latter, especially after taxes are withheld f...

John151

I’m a retiree in my seventies, with about a third of my investments in stocks. My pension covers most of my living expenses, and I have enough in bonds to see me through to the end of my days. The correction didn’t frighten me at all. My stocks could go to zero without affecting my lifestyle in the ...

John151

I filed with FreeTaxUSA this year for the first time. As has been mentioned, FreeTaxUSA doesn’t import investment information, but it was easy to copy and paste from my electronic investment statements, and the whole thing took only an hour or two. Preparing and e-filing my federal return was free. ...

John151

Here’s a reason to file early on: tax preparation services like TurboTax and TaxAct often raise their prices as the tax season progresses.

John151

I’m a retiree in my seventies. I keep about 5% of my savings in cash, defined as my checking account and a Vanguard money market fund. I don’t mind that it’s paying very little. I like knowing that it’s there if I need it.

John151

I filed on February 15 using FreeTaxUSA. The IRS says I’ll get my refund around February 26.

John151

In twenty-five years of investing with Vanguard, I’ve never gotten a corrected 1099. I filed when Form 8606 became available, on February 15. I like to get it out of the way as soon as possible, even if I’m not expecting a refund.

John151

Like FiscallyResponsible, I wish we had the option to use email for authentication. It works well enough with Treasury Direct.

John151

According to TaxCaster, the recently enacted tax cuts will reduce my 2018 federal income taxes by about twelve percent. Are other people seeing similar results?

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/c ... terContent

John151

I filed my federal income taxes this evening with FreeTaxUSA, and the IRS accepted my return in about an hour.

John151

I filed my federal income taxes this evening with FreeTaxUSA, and the IRS accepted my return in about an hour.

John151

The IRS has two lists of Free File Fillable Forms. Both of them are now saying that Form 8606 won’t be available until February 22.

https://www.freefilefillableforms.com/# ... ailability

https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/li ... able-forms

John151

If they keep postponing things, we may not have to file at all.

John151

They just updated the availability of Form 8606 (for FFFF) to 2/22/2018. :annoyed Where are you getting this? I just checked the FFFF site and it still shows 2/15/2018 there. Not that I would be surprised with another extension or two at this point. The list of available Free File Fillable Forms is...

John151

TurboTax is still saying February 15, but that could change.

John151

I’m filing my taxes with FreeTaxUSA this year, and they’re now showing the updated version of Form 8606 with all of my information in the right places. I could probably file my taxes today, but I’ll hold off doing that for a few days, until I have time to double-check my return for any errors.

John151

The IRS’s list of Free File Fillable Forms says Form 8606 will be available for e-filing on February 15. TurboTax is projecting the same date.

https://www.irs.gov/e-file-providers/li ... able-forms

John151

And see this:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/42138 ... le-process

John151

Swimmer wrote: ↑
Sun Feb 04, 2018 3:23 pm
It's now online!

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8606.pdf

John151

I find it annoying too, but my refund will be small, and I don't need the money right away. The people I feel sorry for are the ones whose refunds will be more substantial, particularly if their refunds are delayed even further because someone else got them first.

John151

I can’t file my state income tax return until I file my federal income tax return, and I can’t file my federal income tax return until the IRS updates Form 8606 (Nondeductible IRAs) for tax year 2017. Does anyone know the reason for the delay, or when the new Form 8606 will be available?

John151

I will not pay capital gains tax in order to rebalance. In tax advantaged accounts I rebalance. Our AA has exceeded the 5% rebalancing band. Currently at 56/44, whereas our IPS calls for 50/50. Can only rebalance in taxable accounts, as our IRAs are already 100% bonds. The dilemma of rebalancing me...

John151

I’ve calculated my 2017 income taxes using the online versions of TurboTax Deluxe, TaxAct Plus, and FreeTaxUSA. The results were precisely the same, but there were significant differences in cost. Here are the prices for e-filing federal and state returns: TurboTax Deluxe $76.98 TaxAct Plus $64.00 F...

John151

I’m a retiree in my seventies. I’m about six percentage points above my desired allocation to stocks, but all of my stocks are in taxable accounts, and rebalancing would mean paying hefty capital gains taxes. So I’ve decided not to rebalance. My pension and my bond investments are enough to see me t...

John151

That’s why I won’t “upgrade” unless I’m forced to.

John151

As of this morning, Vanguard Form 1099-DIV and Vanguard Form 1099-R have been posted online. This is for mutual fund investors. Brokerage investors will probably have to wait awhile.

John151

It doesn’t take into account your Foreign Tax Credit (if you have one), but if you take it as a credit (rather than as an itemized deduction), you can easily subtract your estimated credit from your “Total.”

John151

I’ve kept all of my tax returns since I started filing them in 1973. They don’t take up much room, and I don’t see any reason to throw them out. Also, it’s interesting to review them to see how much income I had a various points in my life, and where the income came from.

John151

I turned forty in the 1980’s. During the first part of the decade I had almost all of my savings in bank CD’s. As interest rates dropped and my CD’s reached maturity, I gradually shifted some of that into stocks. When the decade ended, I had about a third of my investments in stocks, and that’s the ...

John151

I was able to lock in a special deal for TaxAct at $13.50 for the federal return. The price for a state return is currently $37.00. I’ll probably file my federal return with TaxAct and then file my state return directly with the state for free.

John151

I’m phobic about being in debt. I charge almost everything to my credit cards as a matter of convenience and pay off the balances each month. I didn’t buy a car until I could pay for it with cash. I didn’t buy my present condo until I could pay for it with cash. I feel much more secure knowing that ...

John151

The rule of thumb under our current tax brackets has been that the 25% bracket is the break-even bracket for tax-exempt bond funds. Investors in brackets lower than that should have their bond investments in taxable funds, and investors in brackets higher than that should have their bond investments...

John151

Thank you, joe8d. Unfortunately, it looks like H&R Block’s free edition doesn’t handle Schedule D, which I have to file this year to report a capital loss carryover. The best offer I’ve had so far was from TaxAct: $13.50 for my federal return. I signed up for it. A state return is currently $37, but...

John151

I don’t meet the qualifications for a 1040A, Alan, but I appreciate the suggestion.

John151

I filed my taxes with the online version of TurboTax for over fifteen years, until TurboTax started playing games with its prices and with what its prices covered. I switched to TaxAct because its prices were more straightforward and substantially less than what TurboTax was charging. Today I got an...

John151

LadyGeek, I gave Waterfox a try, and I like it. It imported all of my Firefox legacy add-ons and most of my settings flawlessly. The only glitch was that the Add-ons Manager was for some reason set to “Update Add-ons Automatically,” and Waterfox updated Stylish to a version that doesn’t work for me....

John151

I invested my first RMD in a tax-exempt bond fund. Subsequent RMD’s have been going into that fund too.

John151

I Bonds make up about 30% of my bond holdings, and I’m adding the legal maximum to them every year. They’re safe, they offer some inflation protection, the interest they pay is tax-deferred, and their yields are better than anything I can find in bank CD’s. In my opinion, I Bonds are an excellent in...

John151

I’ve had a somewhat similar reaction to the market’s rise. My stocks have more than doubled, and they’ve risen above the upper limit of my target bands. I’ve stopped adding to them, and normally I would rebalance by exchanging from stocks into bonds. But all of my stocks are in taxable accounts, and...

John151

Thanks, guys! I appreciate it.

John151

Has anyone filed Illinois income taxes using the state’s online tax service? Was it difficult? Did you encounter any glitches?

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