re my tax return - advice please?

[Deleted]

Tonight I was tossing out a lot of papers (old bills, receipts, etc.) and came across an unopened envelope from Flagstar with my statement of interest paid in 2010 on my mortgage. I have already done my taxes and received my refund. Last year Chase purchased my mortgage from Flagstar. I brought the Chase statement to my tax appointment but am shocked that I forgot about Flagstar AND somehow overlooked the statement. What should I do now? Interest paid to Flagstar was $1700. Thank you.

[henryclay]

There are a couple of possibilities. To provide a correct respone it is necessary to know:

1. Your age, and
2. That of your wife, if you are married and
3. Are either of you blind.
4. Your filing status
5. The dollar amount of deductions on Line 40 on page 2 of your tax return, and
6. Your resident state.

But for general information, if there is a need to make a correction to your return you will need to file an "Amended" return. That is done on a Form 1040X. There need be no hurry to get that done. The law gives you 3 years to do it from the due date on the original return.

For that reason any tax preparer that has the time to undertake amending a 2010 tax return right now, with less than 10 days from the last day of tax season, is either so expensive they have no business, or so bad they have no business.

Some states don't have an income tax, but if yours does, the state return will need to be amended also.

But in some states, when the federal tax goes down, the state tax goes up, so the refund from the IRS might be reduced by having to poney up some of it to the state.

In any event, it appears you have simply not taken all the deductions that were available to you. The IRS won't be upset by your not claiming all of your deductions.

If you will provide the information requested above someone will undoubtedly give you reliable proper advice.

[Deleted]

Thanks. I am 57, not blind, single, head of household, Michigan, and line 40 is $13,290.

I'm glad to see there's no rush to this because I know there's no way I could get through to him now. I can fix it when I see him next year. Or, come to think of it, I was planning to meet with him this summer to talk about where I should be taking money when I'm retired and need it. ...Roth...traditional IRA...401k...other investments. I'm not clear on this. I've still got 10+ years to retirement but I want to be ready.

[henryclay]

Head of household means you have at least one dependent. That dependent has to be either your child, foster child placed with you by an agency, grandchild or parent. It also means any number of several other things that can affect the bottom line. , , , , But , , , ,
I did some quick data input for "how goes it" the results of which say, depending on your income being about average, the difference in taxes could be anywhere from 255 to 425 dollars on the federal return.

There are so many variables that need to be considered in going from the federal return to the Michigan state return that I don't have info on so I only looked at the bare basics, and the taxes seem to remain the same with or without claiming the additional $1700 interest deduction. In your individual case that probably means nothing at all.

Hope this helps.

[Deleted]

ok, thank you. So at this point is it OK for me to do nothing further at all? I just don't want to NOT do something I was suppose to do re my taxes.

(I have joint custody of our daughter and claim her every other year.)

[henryclay]

So at this point is it OK for me to do nothing further at all?

It would seem so. Based on your opening post there is a refund due. (Or said another way, the additional interest deduction would result in a smaller overall tax.)

I need to clear up a posibly incomplete comment. I left out the most important part and I apologize for it.

Head of household means you have a dependent child who lived with you in your home and you paid the expenses for the home for over one half of the year. This is interpreted to mean "lives with the taxpayer claiming the HOH status", as opposed to a few days or weeks at various times during the year.

In the case of parents, they do not have to live in the same home, but they must qualify as dependents and the person claiming the HOH status must pay the expenses of the home where they reside. It can be in a nursing home.

[commentator]

I'm not sure why henry needs all that information but here's what you can do.

Before April 18th, file another complete Form 1040 with "Substitute" or "Replacement" written at the top of page 1. Or, after April 18th, file an amended return using Form 1040X.

Based on the level of stress your preparer is likely enduring right now, the second option (file an amended return) is probably the one to go with. I would not, however, wait until next year to get back any money owed me by Uncle Sam.

[henryclay]

The reason "I" needed "all that information" was that the poster indicated the return was done by his, (her?), tax preparer, and a question was asked about any difference the $1700 would make on the return. Filing status and whether a Schedule A was included was a part of the rationale for asking. Unless there is some crystal ball somewhere that only a few people have available to them, I asked for information necessary to properly answer the question.

When the response was made concerning a "joint custody" arrangement, and a Head of Household filing status, it opened another area of taxes entirely. An area that is also necessary to understand in order to properly prepare a tax return.

Related: In the very few cases where a Form 1040X is NOT used, I always suggest "CORRECTED" be written across both the top and bottom margins of each page in the corrected return. I also suggest that the date be included, such that the notation would read: "CORRECTED 4/20/11". Doing this will indentify each page as well as differentiate each submission from all prior and subsequent submissions.

[commentator]

Except for 4/20 being after the filing deadline at which point an amended return is the only option, I agree with your suggested wording.

Even if I have ALL the information you asked for all I would (still) need to determine the tax savings of a corrected or amended return is a copy of the original 2010 return as filed.

Any time a client comes to me for an amended return, I go over the entire original return, preferably with the client present, to see what other threats and opportunities might exist.

[TheOtherMe]

OP also needs to determine if the tax savings offset the fees to be paid to the preparer. There are times when an amended return is not worth the money unless you know how to prepare it yourself.