You have probably been waiting entire year for the time to file your taxes again. 2022 tax season is almost her and you can finally enjoy this long anticipated moment. The joy of figuring out numbers, filling them out in not so complicated forms, adding and subtracting, dividing and then triple checking to make sure all numbers are in order. So much fun!
I am not a text expert. The contents of this post are for entertainment purposes only. Please make sure to consult your tax expert with any real tax questions you may have. In this post I mainly talk about my options and what is in the news regarding taxes in the US.
Yesterday, the IRS has announced that tax filing season begins in January, 24th and tax deadline will be April 18. In the meantime IRS is planning to system testing and reprogramming to make sure the system runs smoothly to avoid any possible technical difficulties. This doesn't mean you can't start the fun yet. Tax preparation companies already started accepting and preparing tax returns. However, they won't be submitted until January 24th. I would assume these companies are the most excited about the tax season.
If you have used any of these services in the past, chances are you have received several emails from them about this seasons taxes. Everybody's tax situations are different. If you use any of the online tax preparation services like TurboTax or H&R Block it might be a good idea to research the free versions if that fits your tax needs. I remember watching a show that talked about some tactics these services like TurboTax use to have tax filers pay fees when there are free version of the same service from the same company are available.
These free versions of the services do not immediately show up in searches, because they use clever ways to make sure the paid versions are the most visible for their customers. If this is something that may interest you, make sure to do some research and perhaps even save some money. At the same time, it may be more convenient to use paid version for some, and repeat the same process done in previous years.
If you had crypto gains in addition to your other incomes, they might be taxable too. Platforms like Robinhood make is easy to transfer trading history to TurboTax. Robinhood was in the news again, and it wasn't a good one for them. A 27 year old truck driver won a case against Robinhood over the restrictions Robinhood put on trading of meme stocks last year in January. Jose Batista was awarded $30,000 in repayment from Robinhood. I wonder how many more traders Robinhood caused these kinds of damages and if more cases like this will be coming in the the future.
In the other news Coinbase and Paypal will join TaxBit network for free crypto tax forms. Crypto taxes are also one of the complicated taxes. It seems like this crypto tax company TaxBit is working in making filing crypto taxes easier and cheaper. I personally haven't used it. In fact, I first heard about it today. I believe there is a need for such tools and services if indeed they can help filing taxes less complicated and cheaper.
The crypto tax software provider on Tuesday launched the TaxBit Network, a certified network aiming to democratize crypto tax calculations and tax forms by providing necessary tax reporting data to all network users for free.
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It looks like many big crypto exchanges and companies like Coinbase, Paypal, Binance.us, Ftx.us, Gemini, Venmo, BlockFi, etc will be participating and using the network. Those companies who are in the network will be able to receive free 2021 tax forms. Tax forms can also be received for transactions on platforms that are not part of TaxBit Network for an additional fee. At the first glance it does seem to be a useful network and I think they will continue adding more platforms to the network, and if this years tax filing are successful, TaxBit can become one of the top brands in crypto.
Another thing to consider this tax season is when to file the taxes. On one hand, it looks like there will be some delays in receiving the tax returns if you are anticipating to receive sone, on the other hand there is question if Congress will make some law that adds changes to the this years tax filing like they did last year. What happened last year was, after tax season started, Congress passed another stimulus law which included some changes to the taxes for those who received unemployment boost payments of $600 every week. The change was that $10,000 of that income wasn't counted for the tax purposes. So basically unemployment boost payments were tax-free income. I am not sure if those filed too early had to file amended returns or returns were amended automatically. Can something like this happen again? Maybe, maybe not.
Another a bit confusing part of filing taxes can be the child tax credits. For the year of 2021 child tax credits were raised from $2000 per qualifying child to either $3000 or $3600 depending on the age of the dependent child. Half of these new amounts were paid out in the last six month to qualifying parents as monthly payments. Parent will still be able to claim the other half in their taxes. But some parents didn't even receive any. I believe they can claim the full amounts. Since this new child tax credit was only intended for 2021 and never got renewed, parents are will no longer be receiving monthly payments and the total child tax credits will go back to the previous amount of $2000 per child. This too may change, if Congress decides to pass a new law.
What else is new with taxes? Aren't they da best? :)
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