I let him back in and now I am kicking myself #2

UGH! GRRRRR!

The ONE true lead I have right now cancelled on me. I had an interview this AM with a freelance company, and they told me this morning that they have paused their services except for email marketing. A sign of the economy?!?

I am SO bummed. Back to the drawing board. I will have to look into other freelance organizations. This is SO frustrating!!!!

Sounds like a good idea.

Now my husband and I have to file taxes together, requiring prolonged communications. I tried to do mine as married filing separately, and TurboTax said I owe $4,000!!!!!! In 2021, when we filed jointly, we received a $3,000 refund that we split. So, we have to file together. UGH! I regret ever getting married to him.

Wow! I’m sorry to hear that.

The events in the financial world have companies reconsidering lots of things. I know you’re looking for something pretty specific, but may be time to cast your net wider in light of so many holds on hiring employees and contractors.

I've cast as wide a net I possibly can. I am applying for everything I qualify to do.

You were unemployed portion of 2021. So your combined income was much smaller. That’s why you got money back. Or was it 2020? I thought it was last year.

And you were employed in 2022 and made good money. That’s why you owe. Our tax person runs it both ways filing jointly or separately and shows us the difference. It’s not much. Not significant. Not 7k difference.

No way no how you’ll get much money back working the whole year making over 100k. Filing jointly will not make a big difference but you can run it both ways and see the difference.

The only time I ever got money back was having a minor kid at home, having somewhat low income and paying student loan. Otherwise never ever got money back neither single nor married. We get 6 bucks back from city tax because my husband’s hospital is in urban setting. 6 bucks.

You want to sit with your husband do taxes together? Vomit. Maybe if he scans and sends you all his files. Without meeting. Or he’ll show up with flowers. That seems to be his “go to” move

No we’re bringing our taxes to a tax specialist. I did work in 2021, the majority of it. It was in 2020 where I didn’t work for five months. We got 3k back because of my husband.

Oh he must have made less. My apologies. I thought you were unemployed last year.

Then you might be better off doing it jointly as you lived together. I’d try to do it without sitting next to him. Fingers crossed you’d save some buck!

Yes. And Turbotax strangely did not ask me to upload my health insurance documents which show that I was covered for the year. If you're not covered, then you owe money. That's likely why it said I owe 4K. I do not trust these online tax software programs. In the past, I've had one saying I owed, and another giving me a refund! This is why we're seeing a tax consultant.

Court hearing is this morning.

Husband wanted me to guide him on how to download Zoom. Come on. Get real. He is very technically inclined and could have figured it out. He wanted to call last night, and instead, I texted him the instructions and went to bed.

I'm sure he wanted to try and convince me yet again not to follow through with divorce. Yesterday he told me that if I find myself missing him in a year, even after being with another man, that he'll be there for me.

And now? Now I have to have him drop off his tax paperwork with me so that I can take all our papers to the tax specialist. Actually, come to think of it: that's all I need to do and I won't necessarily have to see my husband again. Last year, once we dropped off our paperwork, everything else was conducted electronically and by mail.

They don’t ask for those insurance papers anymore unless you buy insurance privately. It makes no difference now if you have it from your employer. They changed that from how it was. There was a lot changed for the past few years. That’s what our tax person said and on top of my insurance summary there’s a statement: “don’t attach to tax documents, retain for your records”.

Did you have your taxes taken out as “married” or “single/married filed separately”? What’s on your W-4? If they took taxes out as “married filed jointly” but you now filed “married filed separately”, it means you underpaid taxes. They have to take out more taxes during the year so you don’t owe.

Talk to a tax consultant and they’ll show you what to put on W-4 to make you owe less

He’ll have to provide his signature on a paperwork at a tax consultants. He could possibly come in and sign separately but they won’t file without his signature.

I had 2 jobs in 2022. The first one, in which I worked only from Jan 1 - Feb 4th 2022, I think I put down "married filing separately" on my W4, since we were separated at the time I got hired. In my second job, which I worked from Feb 8 - Dec 31, 2022, I put down "married filing jointly" on my W4 . So, it's mixed.

I didn't know about the health insurance. I thought it was required by law to be covered for all 12 months of the year, or else you owe money come tax time?

The tax consultant should be able to work this out for us. Between the two of us, I pray that we do not owe money.

We filed last time through this same consultant electronically. All we had to do was drop off the paperwork at their office, and the rest was seamless and easy, done from the comfort of home. Then they mailed the paperwork back to us.

I am very nervous for court.

On another note, this guy who lives out of state is coming to visit me tonight. I am not sure yet what's happening between us, but he's visiting tonight, he will spend the night, and then at the end of the month, we're going out of town for a night to go skiing. I did not plan on dating anyone. I did not plan on meeting anyone. It just sort of happened and is completely unexpected. It's throwing me off slightly, but I am enjoying it so far.

Yes if your W-4 said married filed jointly, then they didn’t take enough tax out. When we had it like that we owed 7k because we had it wrong on W-4. That’s why you owe money. They didn’t withdrew enough

No that insurance proof isn’t required anymore for tax purposes. I mean you can attach it but it makes no difference If insurance was from the employer. Tax rules change all the time

Ok got you. Ours want both signatures in order to file electronically. Those are electronic signatures. Or could be pen and paper. Not sure how they file it without signatures. But looks like they do

Oh my gosh, are you kidding me?????? What are you supposed to put then on your W4 when you are married????? Always married, filing separately????? In order to take out enough taxes? I don't get this at all.

Maybe the Turbotax software says I owe money because when I entered all my info yesterday online, I entered it as married, filing separately, not married, filing jointly, as it says on one of my W4 forms.

I am SO confused, and I will be beyond upset if money is owed when we go to file.

Regarding this new guy??? I get butterflies when thinking of him. Hmmm.

Ugh. Court is over.

When the judge asked if there was any chance of reconciliation, my husband literally scoffed at that question and said "no way". He was acting as though he's the one divorcing me, and that this is his decision. His reaction irked me.

Then he called me after court, and sounded like he was in a far better mood. And, I think that's because I did not tell the judge that I had lost my job, and I did not go after alimony. Contrary to what ppl on here have said, I could have gotten alimony.

You want IRS to take more taxes during the year. They’ll take more if you are single/married filed separately. You can file jointly, just make sure taxes taken out single/married filed separately.

Our tax person showed us the difference.

The other way is to reduce your taxable income by increasing pre-tax retirement funds contributions.

That’s why we don’t do our taxes by ourselves but always do with the same professional who shows us all the changes etc

If your husband made less, you might not owe though.

He made maybe 10K less than I did, I do believe.... and he has a LOT of money taken out for taxes during the year.

Well I hope new guy is nice. Take it slow.

It might help then if you file jointly