Dear accountants | Imamother

amother

Lime

Tue, Feb 02 2016, 12:12 pm

I need help. Yes, we will be using an accountant but I was wondering if someone can give an outline of papers needed to give the accountant. I know you hate giving advice for free, don't we all, but I am so lost. People are using terms I never heard of before like w4, 1099...
I just need to know what to collect and hand in! Think about it making your life easier too if all the papers were in a nice neat folder ready for you!
Like: w2 from work, receipts from charities I donated to, student loan interest paid. Already collected these.

I just did a free tax return calculator online as the other threads made me curious. Saw that there was something about unreimbursed medical expenses. If we met our OOP total from medical insurance (one member of the household unfortunately was hospitalized, needed surgery etc) and this cap is over what I calculated was 2% of income- what proof can we provide? Insurance bills? Does this effect our taxes paid and/or return we might get?

What else counts? Mortgage interest, but we don't have one.
School expenses? If in first 4 years of college I saw that as an expense. But what about if it's other accredited places like graduate school?

Thanks so much!!

grace413

Tue, Feb 02 2016, 12:33 pm

As I've said before I'm not an accountant but my DH is and I do work on the tax returns.

Re the medical expenses. You will be doing your accountant a favor if you give him/her the specific amounts separately for drugs, doctors, hospitals, ambulance, miles driven for medical care etc. Hope your family member has had a refuah shlaimah. However, should your expenses be enough to help you deduct, don;t forget medical expenses for other family members: prescriptions, eyeglasses, OOP doctor visits etc.

The accountant doesn't need every last piece of paper: take it from me, I've dealt with 40 page printouts of drugs when all I needed was the final number.

In order to deduct the medical expenses, you will need to have all you itemized deductions (schedule A) be more than your standard deduction. If you don't have mortgage interest you may not have enough total deductions but you have to run the numbers to see how it comes out.

You may be entitled to a credit for graduate school. Again all the data needs to be entered. You should have received a form from the school indicating the amount you paid and this form should be given to the accountant.

If you have any interest bearing bank accounts you should have received 1099s from the institutions involved and the accountant also needs these.

HTH.

chicco

Tue, Feb 02 2016, 1:42 pm

Do you have kids in preschool and do you work? You can get a credit for that. Did you donate to good will or anything?
Do you receive interest from any banks? Did you sell any stocks? Do you have any pensions? Health savings account? Cash any bonds?

You should be getting papers in the mail if these things apply.

amother

Bronze

Tue, Feb 02 2016, 1:47 pm

What happens if your medical expenses are more than your income and your parents end up paying them?
Can you end up owing no taxes? Or is that considered a taxable gift? Lets say in this case it was about $8000.

seeker

Tue, Feb 02 2016, 2:05 pm

You'll need to talk to your accountant about the specific details and what they need for all the individual things like medical expenses, expenses paid by someone else, etc.
But for things like W2 and 1099 they should come in the mail in an envelope that says on it "Important Tax Return Document Enclosed." Anything you get that says that just automatically stick in a large envelope to give to your accountant.