TurboTax 2010 Assumes Tax Cuts Expire

NJOracle wrote in news:id87k4$mii$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

Am I missing something here?

TT 2010 is for income in 2010, when the tax cuts are in effect.

What Congress does to either extend or let expire the Bush tax cuts shoud not have any efect on your 2010 return (except possibly for

See

Somebody tell me what I am missing here, please.

You are right. Either TT jumped the gun and used "new" rate schedules or I screwed up. I suspect the later. ;) I'll get back with more information after I look into it.

As I indicated in a previous response, it was probably my error which it was. In my preliminary run of my 2010 taxes, I treated all of my dividends as Non Qualified. Running a spread sheet of dividends received to date, I estimate the my Non Qualified dividends will be about 50%. Using 50% reduces the above mentioned 18% to 0% so it was my dumb mistake that created the problem and not some error by Turbotax.

I sincerely apologize to John Carter and all of the other viewers who may have wasted their valuable time trying figure out what I was talking about.

"NJOracle" wrote: "I was scratching my head as to why my preliminary run of TT 2010 showed an 18% increase in tax due over 2009..."

You are probably affected by the Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT). Congress has never implemented a permanent patch to this tax which was intended to tax only the richest percent of taxpayers, but was never adjusted for inflation. Every year they pass a temporary patch at the last possible minute in order to keep the middle class from being hit hard. Only our current do-nothing Congress has not passed any such patch. With all the talk about tax rates going up for 2011 I am really surprised no one is discussing the elephant in the room about the ticking time clock for 2010 tax rates.

With the AMT you are severely limited in the amount of your itemized deductions, the amount of the Child Tax Credit and other credits. A family making $70k can have from $500-1500 additional tax burden due to this.

If by some miracle Congress does patch the AMT floor for 2010 income before year end, TT and other tax software will have to be modified for the new rules. That would mean that early filers would not get any refunds due in a timely manner because the IRS also has to reprogram their computers.

NJOracle wrote in news:idavk1$259$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org:

No need for apologies - I didn't lose any sleep and since I am retired, I lost no "valuable" time. I am just worried about the hair (what little I have left) I may have lost scratching my head over the whole thing. ;-)