Am I an exemption?

[fisherofmengirly]

Okay,

so this is the first time we''re doing our taxes *married* and I''m confused out of my mind. How do I know if either he or I are an exemption?

I know it goes back to whether or not we claimed ourselves as a "0" or a "1" on our w-9s when we started our jobs, but how do I know if we did or not? I''m confused. Totally. Neither of us remember.

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Okay, I''m a dork. I looked at our past years'' forms, and we both claimed ourselves as a dependent on ourselves (which I think is the way I''ve always done it, so that they take out more and I don''t end up owing down the road...). So, I guess we''d claim both of ourselves again?

Is that how you married people do it?

 

[fisherofmengirly]

This tax stuff also leads to another question; Paul and I have never counted our offerings/tithes to the church as part of our "charitable contributions" for tax purposes. I never really thought about it, but a few people this year have mentioned doing that. Is that common?

 

[mrssalvo]

Date: 2/17/2008 6:08:20 PM
Author: fisherofmengirly
This tax stuff also leads to another question; Paul and I have never counted our offerings/tithes to the church as part of our ''charitable contributions'' for tax purposes. I never really thought about it, but a few people this year have mentioned doing that. Is that common?

I''m a stay at home mom so no income for moi. not sure exactly how we file. hubby and the accountant handle it. But, i do know we do count tithes/offering to our church as "charitable contributions."

 

[Mara]

when we were single and owned no property we claimed 0 each because then the govmt takes out the most taxes possible so the chances of us owing anything were slim to none at that point. sometimes claiming 1 (yourself) the govmt won''t take enough out so you might owe something. it was just easier to claim 0 and break even.

but now that we are married and have property, stocks, investments, etc, we actually just get advice from our tax guy on what to do and when. you can ''claim'' anything on your W9 when you fill it out...you can claim 0, 1, 9. you just have to make sure you can pay if you owe when the time comes. for a while we claimed something like 5 each to help it even out more because we were getting such a boon from our house purchase. otherwise the govmt was holding way too much of our $$ for too many months. and we were still getting money back. but as our incomes went up, that boon from the house purchase definitely lowers.

i was always a fan of using turbo tax or whatever when i was starting out, it was $35 and it was easy. plus you can efile with it, which i love. good luck!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

I keep telling Paul to do his w-9 with a "1" instead of a "0." We owe a few dollars this time.

It''s much better than last year; he owed a few hundred and was grumpy over it.

If I had filed on my own, I could have bought some new furniture for the new house (that we don''t have yet).

Oh well, at least next year we''ll be able to count off something for the house. (But not a new baby... I''d have to be pregnant by now).

We opted not to do the 1040 that is all itemized; it''s beyond my head and Paul doesn''t think he agrees with filing to get money back on tithing. If it was more than $15 that we owed, I''d push the issue a little more, maybe.

Thanks for the help, ladies!!

 

[Mara]

Actually if he did his W9 with a 1 instead of a 0, you guys would owe more. If he did it with a 0 then the govmt took out the MAX in taxes. If he did it with a 1, he''d get an exemption for himself, so they take out less. The more #''s you put (up to 9)...the less they take out. A house will probably help you guys a fair amount.

On the charitable contributions...I think you can claim up to a certain amount without having receipts or something...maybe $200 or so? I am not sure though. I am so happy to pay someone to do our taxes now after doing them for years on my own.....now all we do is go once a year, turn in all our paperwork, sit there for 30 minutes and answer questions.

 

[LegacyGirl]

Taxes have always confused me. Even to this day. Having to figure out all these things I can take off just makes me nuts. I finally just broke down and paid someone to do them

 

[fisherofmengirly]

Hmm... well maybe he''s been putting 1 and he needs to do 0. I don''t know what''s up.