Wondering if this affects me in any way? Will I get in trouble by the IRS by using the “long form”? Will this come back to haunt me in the future? I’m not sure what he does exactly… but I think he puts down that I lent money that year or something, like to a friend for example.
I did the Tax Estimater at H&R block website. They said I’d be expecting $ 877. Could I get more back? Does this sound right? How about state?
I’m single, no kids and claimed 0. Made $ 37,274 last year. Federal tax withheld was $ 4,764. State income tax (box 17) $ 1,022
The tax person said I could either choose 1 or the other. Either long or short. If I choose short form I’d pay less but if I choose the long form I’d pay more but he’d guarentee me I’d get more on my tax return. Like I said before I think he puts down that I gave out a personal loan or something… My question is if I do this will I get in trouble with the IRS?
Answer by Hullabaloo
The long form us used for Itemized deductions as opposed to standard deductions. The largest source of deductions under itemization is usually mortgage interest. There are many other things as well; however, I do not think that a personal loan is one of them. I would be careful with that.
Using standard deduction with the info provided, 877 sounds about right.
Oh, and if you get your taxes done, go to a place like HR block because of their accuracy guarantee so if there are issues, they use their lawyers and money to alleviate you from any wrongdoing.
The long form is the original 1040. There are all kinds of simpler 1040′s like the 1040EZ. Yes, the long form is okay. In fact, that’s actually the “official” form. The other 1040′s with letters behind it, are abbreviated forms for people that don’t have that complicated a return. When you itemize your deductions instead of taking the “standard deduction”, and when you have certain stock transactions etc. etc. etc. you have to attach these things the IRS calls Schedules. You have to use the long form (1040) for that kind of stuff. Not to fret.
There are three forms 1040,(long form) 1040A (short form) and 1040EZ.
In a nutshell the longer the form the more itemized deductions you can take. If you have no children, no house and no IRA you can probably get by with the 1040Ez. If you have any of those three you’ll need to get the 1040A. If you have lots of investments or other deduction such as College loan interest that you are paying you might need the the long form.
In my opinion it’s easiest to just get either TurboTax or TaxCut and do it all on the computer. The programs will file the proper forms and fill out the appropriate paper work.