# A tax question for all of you who are filing this year



## simX (Apr 11, 2002)

I filed my federal tax form on the internet via TurboTax for the Web.  It seemed pretty easy, and it was a nice walk-through thing, except for one little thing that's really annoying.

It rounded all the figures down to the nearest dollar, so my adjusted gross income had some cents chopped off, and so did my tax return amount.

The support they offer (here's the main page for the web filing system: http://www.quicken.com/freedom/ ) is very minimal outside of all the help you get while you are actually going through the steps of filling out the form.  The help docs said nothing about the cents being chopped off.

So now my question is this: is this going to affect anything, besides the fact that I'll lose like 34¢, which I don't really care about?  Should I put the rounded adjusted gross income on my state taxes, or should I use the actual non-rounded number?   And when I file next years return, should I put the rounded AGI if it is asked for?

This is kind of bugging me, and I want to get the nagging doubts off my back.


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## nkuvu (Apr 12, 2002)

I don't think it will matter at all.  If you look at the instructions for the various forms, they mention that you can round down all dollar amounts.  I don't think it will matter if you report your AGI to the state with rounded or non-rounded amounts.  The tax brackets are broken up into whole dollar amounts, so it shouldn't change the amount of tax you need to pay.  Digression -- why didn't you use TurboTax for your state taxes also?

The only thing I wonder -- where does this extra money go?  It sounds like the same criminal activity from Office Space (which is not the first I've heard of that scheme...)

This whole post should be taken with a grain of salt -- IANATA (I am not a tax advisor  )


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## chemistry_geek (Apr 12, 2002)

Does Turbotax on the web really  work?  I heard it costs around $15.00.  I have to do my taxes myself this year and I sold some mutual funds last year to contribute to my Roth IRA for the previous year (1999).  I know nothing about taxes, will Turbo tax make this easy?


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## simX (Apr 12, 2002)

Oh, you can round down on the normal papers anyway?  Well that's a relief.

The only reason I didn't file electronically is that California requires you to have a special code, which requires you to have information from previous year's return.  Only problem is, this is the first year I've filed.   So basically you have to file on paper the first time.  Next year I should be able to file completely paperless, for both federal and state taxes.

Also, I still have to send in a paper with my signature on it, so it's kind of pointless this first year, anyway.

And chemistry_geek, it's free if you have an adjusted gross income under $25000.  That's what I have, so it was free for me.  There's like a $15 fee if you have an income over that, so that's not too bad.  But it was pretty simple  it walked you through all of the steps, and you don't have to do any calculations, which is very nice.  It auto-looks up the tables and checks which form you need to file based on the information you give it.  So it might actually be useful if you have an adjusted gross income over $25000, anyway.

Just try it out  you give your billing info at the end (only if there's a fee  I didn't have to give them any billing info since I didn't need to pay).  You might find it's worth it.

Dang, but taxes are a pain when you do it on paper.  A 60 page booklet for a 2 page form??  That's ridiculous!


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Apr 12, 2002)

I used http://www.my1040ez.com, and it makes all the forms for you.  The only reason I would be required to have a "special code" is if I chose to have my refund direct deposited, which I didn't.  Otherwise, you print out a 8453-OL form and send it in.

It costs a little under $7 if you made over $15,000, which I didn't do either... hehe... sometimes deciding to be a poor student has its advantages!

All in all, pretty damn easy.  This was my first year filing over the internet, as I usually do the TeleFile procedure.  Painless, easy, quick.  Getting money back.  Yeeha.

I believe that all tax returns are rounded to the whole dollar -- but I never understood the exact procedure, so I always rounded down.  It's a bit different than what we were taught in school: $99.99 rounds to (get this) $99.... NOT $100.  Always round down on taxes.  Weird.


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## genghiscohen (Apr 12, 2002)

TurboTax on the Web works fine, and can help you with 99% of your tax questions.
I filed both state & federal returns on line this year, and about 2 weeks later, the refunds were direct-deposited into my checking account.


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## nkuvu (Apr 12, 2002)

Diablo, the technical term is truncating.  You chop off anything past the decimal.  If you were rounding to the nearest dollar, $99.99 would go to $100.00.  You lose accuracy either way, but truncating is worse on accuracy.

simX, the IRS also chooses some people (based on some mystical criteria like which way the fungus grew the most this year) to file completely paperless.  They send you a form, but it's small paper.    Then you go to their website, fill in some information, and you can electronically sign your tax forms.

I'd suggest TurboTax or something similar for anyone who doesn't qualify for a 1040EZ form.  The EZ form is so simple that it's not worth it to pay for the TurboTax.  But once school starts in, TurboTax is the way to go.  Why do I say school?  I found two new tax laws, the Hope Learning Credit and (I think it's called) the Lifetime Learning Credit.  I was able to deduct a huge amount of my school costs from my annual income, and got a lot more back.  IIRC, the difference was about $300.  Now that I am out of school, I can claim interest paid on school loans (which I have a lot of, since I took so long to finish school (that's another story for another thread  )).

Another plus for TurboTax (no, I don't work for them, really  ) is that when you file state taxes TurboTax automagically fills in all the drudge fields for you.  So you don't have to enter your name, address, annual income, etc.  It reads the information from what you said on your Federal return, and presto chango, you're halfway done with your state taxes before you've even started.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Apr 12, 2002)

> _Originally posted by nkuvu _
> *Diablo, the technical term is truncating.  You chop off anything past the decimal.  If you were rounding to the nearest dollar, $99.99 would go to $100.00.  You lose accuracy either way, but truncating is worse on accuracy.*



Thanks for correcting me -- however, maybe we should correct the IRS and the verbage they choose to include in their forms.  My TeleFile says "round," instead of "truncate," even though they want you to truncate.


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## JohnnyV (Apr 12, 2002)

They just round like that so the government saves money.  My tax return money bought me a spiffy digital elph S330


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## nkuvu (Apr 13, 2002)

> maybe we should correct the IRS and the verbage they choose to include in their forms


Heh.  Good luck.


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## mdnky (Apr 15, 2002)

You're supposed to round to the nearest dollar on your taxes.  Otherwise, the poor IRS workers would have 3 extra keys to input, and goverernment would loose that vital $0.49 (even though you only made $51,500.51, you have to claim $51,501)


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Apr 15, 2002)

> _Originally posted by mdnky _
> *You're supposed to round to the nearest dollar on your taxes.  Otherwise, the poor IRS workers would have 3 extra keys to input, and goverernment would loose that vital $0.49 (even though you only made $51,500.51, you have to claim $51,501) *



That's what we're so confused about... ROUNDING $51,500.51 to the nearest dollar would yield $51,501.  TRUNCATING, as the IRS wants you to do, would yield $51,500.  However, the IRS uses the term "rounding," when they should be using the term "truncating," partly, I think, because most people probably don't know what truncating is, or maybe because rounding is a more commonly-used term.

You don't round anything when you do your taxes.  You simply truncate, or cut off anything after the decimal.


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## blb (Apr 15, 2002)

Actually, when they say round, they do mean round (look for _Rounding off dollars_).


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