How do I fill out my FAFSA?
The FAFSA isn't as scary as it seems, but it's helpful to have the documents you'll need handy before you fill it out. It's available starting January 1 of the year you'll attend school, and it's best to complete it as early as possible so you get the most aid you'll qualify for. Be especially mindful of school and state deadlines that are earlier than the federal deadline of June 2017. Check out NerdWallet's 5 Hacks to Save Time on Your 2016 FAFSA. These are the basic steps: Gather the documents you'll need to complete the form by following this checklist.Log in to the FAFSA with your Federal Student Aid ID. You'll need an FSA ID to sign and submit the form electronically, and your parent will need one too if you're a dependent student. Create one here. Follow the prompts to fill out the FAFSA. This guide will help you fill it out according to your family situation. You'll be able to save time by importing income information from the IRS starting Feb. 7, 2016. Many families don't file their 2015 income taxes until closer to the deadline of April 18. But it's a good idea to fill out your FAFSA earlier than that. Use your parents' 2014 tax information to estimate their income, then go back in and update your FAFSA using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool once they've filed their taxes. More info here: Filling Out the FAFSA.
How do I fill out 2013 tax forms?
I hate when people ask a question, then rather than answer, someone jumps in and tells them they don't need to know--but today, I will be that guy, because this is serious.Why oh why do you think you can do this yourself?Two things to consider:People who get a masters degree in Accounting then go get a CPA then start doing taxes--only then do some of them start specializing in international accounting. I've taught Accounting at the college-level, have taken tax classes beyond that, and wouldn't touch your return.Tax professionals generally either charge by the form or by the hour. Meaning you can sit and do this for 12 hours, or you can pay a CPA by the hour to do it, or you can go to an H&R Block that has flat rates and will do everything but hit Send for free. So why spend 12 hours doing it incorrectly, destined to worry about the IRS putting you in jail, bankrupting you, or deporting you for the next decade when you can get it done professionally for $200-$300?No, just go get it done right.
When do I have to learn how to fill out a W-2 form?
Form W-2 is an obligatory form to be completed by every employer. Form W-2 doesn’t have to be filled out by the employee. It is given to inform the employee about the amount of his annual income and taxes withheld from it.You can find a lot of information here: http://bit.ly/2NjjlJi
If the IRS knows how much money we owe, why do we need to fill out returns?
Because the IRS doesn't know how much money you owe. They know approximately what you made, and they know a little bit about some of your deductions, but they don't know whether and to what extent you are entitled to additional deductions or credits, or whether and to what extent you earned money from transactions not reported to the IRS. Even on the transactions that were reported to the IRS, the IRS doesn't always know how much of that income is actually taxable - or at what rate.
Should I fill two set of W-2 (and other forms) since I worked in company A from Jan 2013 to October 2013 (left company A in Oct 2013), then started working for company B from Dec 2013 till now?
It is very likely that you will have to file a US Federal return (1040NR) and state tax returns for the states in which you earned income in 2013, although without a full review of your situation it's impossible to know for certain what your filing requirements may be. Each company for which you worked should have already provided you with a Form W-2 - you don't fill those out, the employers do.You should engage a qualified tax professional with international tax experience in your location. Multiple state tax filings can be complex under the best of circumstances, then when you throw in the F1/OPT on top of that it can be even more challenging.
I want to invest my IRS withholdings. How do I fill out a W-4 so my employer does not do federal withholding?
Legally you can’t. Those withholdings are not yours. They are payments towards your tax liability, made at the time that you earn the income. Pay as you go. It makes sense.So what you want to do is borrow money that isn’t really yours, interest free, invest it for a few months, and then pay it back the next year. Is that correct? While it’s not really permitted you can manage to get away with it. You can’t easily get away with stopping all withholding. That requires stating that you expect to pay zero taxes for the year, which you know is false. It looks suspicious and is easy for the feds to check. Instead, what you can do is reduce your withholding by claiming a large number of exemptions. That’s not nearly as suspicious. When you complete your return you’ll owe a lot of tax, which is clearly against the rules, but you’ll probably get away with it at least for a year or two and maybe longer depending on how lax the IRS is in enforcing the law on scamsters like yourself.I used to claim a large number of exemptions. It was legitimate since I actually had a lot of deductions at that time. But a couple of years I accidentally withheld too little money, more than a couple of thousand dollars. I paid the tax with my return and adjusted my withholding going forward and the IRS didn’t penalize me or question it afterwards. But if you’re talking about under withholding by a lot more than that and year after year then good luck. You might get caught, forced to pay a penalty and interest, and be flagged for special attention in the future.
How do you fill out a W-2 form?
In general, the W-2 form is divided into two parts each with numerous fields to be completed carefully by an employer. The section on the left contains both the employer's and employee`s names and contact information as well social security number and identification number.You can find a lot of information here: http://bit.ly/2NjjlJi
Which IRS forms do US expats need to fill out?
That would depend on their personal situation, but should they actually have a full financial life in another country including investments, pensions, mortgages, insurance policies, a small business, multiple bank accounts…The reporting alone can be bankrupting, and that is before you get on to actual taxes that are punitive toward foreign finances owned by a US citizen and god help you if you make mistake because penalties appear designed to bankrupt you.US citizens globally are renouncing citizenship for good reason.This is extracted from a letter sent by the James Bopp law firm to Chairman Mark Meadows of the subcommittee of government operations regarding the difficulty faced by US citizens who try to live else where.“ FATCA is forcing Americans abroad into a set of circumstances where they must renounce their U.S. citizenship to survive.For example, suppose you have a married couple living in Washington DC. One works as a lobbyist for an NGO and has a defined benefits pensions. The other is self employed in a lobby firm, working under an LLC. According to the IRS filing requirements, it would take about 15 hours and $280 to complete their yearly filings. Should they under report income, any penalties would be a percentage of their unreported tax burden. The worst case is a 20% civil fraud penalty.Compare the same couple with one different fact. They moved to Australia because the NGO reassigned the wife to Sydney. The husband, likewise, moves his business overseas. They open a bank account, contribute to the mandatory Australian retirement fund, purchase a house with a mortgage and get a life insurance policy on both of them.These are now their new filing requirements:• Form 8938• Form 3520-A• Form 3520• Form 5471 (to be filed by the husbands new Australian corporation where he is self employed)• Form 720 Excise Tax.• FinCEN Form 114The burden that was 15 hours now goes up to• 57.2 hours for Form 720,• 54.20 hours for Form 3520,• 61.22 Hours for Form 3520-A.• 50 hours estimate for Form 5471For a total of 226.99 hours (according to the IRS’s own time estimates) not including time to file the FBAR.The penalties for innocent misfiling or non filings for the above foreign reporting forms for the couple are up to $50,000, per year. It is likely that the foreign income exclusion and foreign tax credit will negate any actual tax due to the IRS. So each year, there is a lurking $50,000 penalty for getting something technically wrong on a form, yet there would be no additional tax due to the US treasury.”
How can I fill out an IRS form 8379?
Form 8379, the Injured Spouse declaration, is used to ensure that a spouse’s share of a refund from a joint tax return is not used by the IRS as an offset to pay a tax obligation of the other spouse.Before you file this, make sure that you know the difference between this and the Innocent Spouse declaration, Form 8857. You use Form 8379 when your spouse owes money for a legally enforeceable tax debt (such as a student loan which is in default) for which you are not jointly liable. You use Form 8857 when you want to be released from tax liability for an understatement of tax that resulted from actions taken by your spouse of which you had no knowledge, and had no reason to know.As the other answers have specified, you follow the Instructions for Form 8379 (11/2016) on the IRS Web site to actually fill it out.
