I hate taxes

I may have finished them tonight....I may have totally screwed them up as well. At this point I don't care much. I couldn't find a way for TurboTax to fix the issue with putting Social Security down, and then taking it off somehow. So I ran off two copies, one with SS included, one without. I have a cover letter with it explaining that I'm an idiot and it's the best I could do. I pointed out the Treaty exemption. I also had one other mistake I couldn't figure out how to fix... TTax didn't seem to let me go back to the 8938 (FATCA) forms to correct.....somehow have one account down twice. But, I'm over the limit to do FATCA so I'm at least letting them know. Still FBAR to do. And yet another stupid thing....I may....still not sure....I may have e-filed accidentally. Top of the TurboTax page it says "Way to go Fred, you filed your 2019 taxes". Below that it says "Federal printed, ready to mail". I give up......

If you e-filed you will have received an email confirmation that it was received, then in the coming days further emails saying it has been accepted, or rejected, otherwise you have not e-filed. It is quite difficult to e-file without realizing it so you almost certainly haven’t.

I was just getting frustrated as hell. When I was paying for TurboTax it also made me use my old US address again. Whatever. There's probably a way around it if I wasn't ready to throttle something. I also learned something else at the end. I was planning on clearing the whole TTax form and starting completely over. But I wanted to take a look at the form in its final review before I went back to do this. The only way you can get that review look is to pay for the TTax.....no problem I thought. But once you pay for it you can't clear your form....you can adjust things a bit, but it wouldn't let me clear the form and start over unless I wanted to pay again. I'm just hoping the person who gets to go over my taxes is having a good day. The difference in being able to take off my 4 months of social security ended up being more than I thought. With SS on the taxes I owed $241, without SS I get a refund of $1034. This was a VERY unusual year though with my draining my retirement savings account (I empty it in April) rather quickly so technically I had a LOT of income for 2019. Next year will be a lot less and then for tax year 2021 my income drops to just my pension and my theory is things will get a lot simpler then. 

It could be worse, it could affect your golf.

Your story certainly has me determined to find a way to buy the download version each year. As long as our daughter stays in the USA I’ll have a US credit card with a US address to buy TT.

It could be worse, it could affect your golf.

Your story certainly has me determined to find a way to buy the download version each year. As long as our daughter stays in the USA I’ll have a US credit card with a US address to buy TT.

I might just buy a copy next year myself. I was a bit shocked it wouldn't let me start the whole filing over with a clean form.

I think you said you were using FEDEX? to mail it? It was somewhere on an earlier post.

Golf- Only 11 holes open this morning.....still just too damn wet. Another dump coming this afternoon I believe and that will close the course for a few more days. Gives me a good excuse to stay home and get that damn ILR paperwork going.

I might just buy a copy next year myself. I was a bit shocked it wouldn't let me start the whole filing over with a clean form.

I think you said you were using FEDEX? to mail it? It was somewhere on an earlier post.

Golf- Only 11 holes open this morning.....still just too damn wet. Another dump coming this afternoon I believe and that will close the course for a few more days. Gives me a good excuse to stay home and get that damn ILR paperwork going.

It was Nan I think who said she uses Fedex. I have been using the Post Office and tracking it but while it only takes a day to arrive in New York, it the then takes weeks  in the US postal system, bouncing around various sorting offices.  At least I can track it and it does get to its destination.

I am going to look to use Fedex this year I think.

I was lazy and used Royal Mail tracked this year. I hope it doesn't come back and bite me in the backside.  (I did not want to have to get onto a packed bus to go to city center to FedEx it, with people coughing, etc.). We both put our returns in separate envelopes inside the one we sent.  It's early enough that if it gets lost we can redo-them - took a photocopy for good measure. Fingers are crossed it actually gets to Austin ok. The Daughter does not owe tax, and I should get a very small refund.

On the SS. You enter on line 5a what your SS was. On 5b you enter "0" as the taxable amount. You write in next to it "US/UK tax treaty Art. 17.3". Could not figure out how to do that on TurboTax, but on the printed form it's not hard. Good luck with it!

I've given up. I am just going to send both copies tomorrow. Kind of surprised that there is only one place in town to do the FedEx thing. Whatever....I'll pay whatever they want. I just want IT to go away. I'm just hoping there is an intelligent tax person on the other end that  realises I'm not trying to get away with anything........I'm just stuck in the horrible world of the overseas American tax payer. I'm sure there is a TV show in this somewhere.........

I've given up. I am just going to send both copies tomorrow. Kind of surprised that there is only one place in town to do the FedEx thing. Whatever....I'll pay whatever they want. I just want IT to go away. I'm just hoping there is an intelligent tax person on the other end that  realises I'm not trying to get away with anything........I'm just stuck in the horrible world of the overseas American tax payer. I'm sure there is a TV show in this somewhere.........

I think whoever receives the return types all the info into “Deep Thought” so you should be just fine.

In case it matters to anyone:

I posted our 1040s via tracked international mail on Friday, 6 March at about 2:30pm.  It left the country/Heathrow that Sunday.  Today (17 March) I finally got a tracking update from the USPS that it has left the Chicago international sorting center and is en route to Austin. That's 11 days, give or take, between when the Royal Mail handed it off until I have my first update from the USA.  I am hopeful it will arrive in Austin by the end of the week. Not that it matters a lot, but just so I've got that off my plate.

Can't remember if I sent mine in to Austin on Mon or Tues of last week. Went to the only FedEx place in town. £48.40. But....it got there in 24 hours. I just checked the IRS refund info site....absolutely no info on my refund at all or whether anybody has even looked at it. But.....it is a paper tax form and I have no idea how long it takes them to get around to it.....haven't used a mail in return for ?? millions of years.

I'm working on my US tax return and I went looking for advice. Something about the title of this thread appealed. I hate taxes too! Actually, it's not taxes I hate, it's filling in my return. Argh! It's wrist-slitting time.

I just wanted to say that Nan D's March 9th post saved me loads of money! Thank you, thank you! I didn't realise that my US social security payment wasn't taxable in the US. Now I have to go back an file an amended return for last year. (Not really happy about that but I guess it will be worth it.)

My next question: For the purposes of Form 1116, line 3e, does US social security count as US source income for the "gross income from all sources"? I can see that it might be, but then it's not US taxable income. Anybody know?

My next question: For the purposes of Form 1116, line 3e, does US social security count as US source income for the "gross income from all sources"? I can see that it might be, but then it's not US taxable income. Anybody know?

First, as you know, US SSA benefits paid in the UK to a US Person are 'Exempt' for purposes of form 1040. The instructions for 1116 state for lines 1a, 3d, and 3e 'Exempt' income should not be included in the amounts for those lines.

Are you using tax software? This is why totally disregarding US SSA when completing tax software is important. Once completed, then go back and hand write the gross amount of SS paid and '0' on the appropriate lines on the 1040. I don't know if all tax software makes the appropriate calculations, but I am highly suspicious.

Also, don't forget to deduct the apportioned amount of UK tax paid on US SS from the amount of UK tax you claim to have paid. If using tax software, my guess is you'll need to do this manually. 

Thank you, OAP! I am not using tax software. My problem is that the whole mess is so complex and I don't understand what exempt means, necessarily. Almost every year I discover something new that means I have to file an amended return for the year(s) before. The IRS instructions and examples are, in my humble opinion, appalling.

The IRS instructions and examples are, in my humble opinion, appalling.

I doubt anyone would disagree that the instructions are appalling, especially since most were written with a total disregard for the  the expat.