crisis re: the 7500 federal tax credit

[jimcmorr]

snip.. snip..

snip.. snip..
and each file as single for federal and then we have to file two more california state forms as single people for the feds). any.way.

snip.. snip..

considering this fact... as long as one of you (the purchaser of the LEAF) has sufficient tax burden to claim the $7500 fed tax credit you are entitled to claim it. If not you are entitled to the amount of credit that will offset your tax burden.

 

[Pipcecil]

To really summerize for all the dumb young people who don't know tax stuff well (i.e. me) - After you fill out your tax form at the bottom it says because of all your deductions, blah blah you should have paid the government $10,000 (or whatever it is), at this point the EV credit gets applied, so instead of $10,000 its now $2,500 (mwhahah). Then you see what you actually paid the government from pulling out its money every paycheck, say its $12,500. Now its $12,500 minus $2,500 (snicker) = $10,000 refund because you paid too much!

So as long as your total calcuated tax to the gov is over $7,500 you get the full credit (please note this is different from what you actually paid the goverment over the last year).

Sorry for the rehash, but I actually had to google what tax liability was...I need more years to fill out taxes. And for all involved, TurboTax rocks!

 

[charlie1300]

hi everyone
thanks a lot for your comments. wondering if gasless in seattle has anything to add now that they saw their accountant with the electric car?

as to those wondering WHY we have an accountant we have w-2 income mainly but also some consultant income, some investments and in addition we're two women married in california which means we have to file multiple different tax forms that gets a bit complicated ( 1st return is married filing jointly for california, then we have to split our community income between us and each file as single for federal and then we have to file two more california state forms as single people for the feds). any.way....).

I've done my own taxes for 45 years, with turboTax the last 10 years, so I recommend that you give it a try.
But if you don't feel confident in doing it youself, and feel that your tax situation is too complicated to deal with yourself, I would recommend spending the money to use a highly recommended CPA. Anybody can call thenselves a "tax accountant", and the chances of getting someone that knows what they are doing isn't real great.
Remember that you have to collect all the data yourself, whether you plug it into a computer program, or hand it to a CPA.

C

 

[travisty]

I wonder - why do people use accountants - unless you have special circumstances (high networth, a business etc).

If I just had a w-2 and retirement account tubro tax all the way. Though with multiple income sources of varying natures and working for a governemnt contractor I need to make sure my taxes are to the letter. It's also protection in case the IRS decides to start an investigation I'll let H&R Block deal with 'em.

Also I know that my tax preparer is able to find loopholes that more than pay for her service (I compared her return to turbo tax the first year)

 

[GaslessInSeattle]

Our taxes are getting wrapped up, no problem getting the full $7,500 back on taxes already paid. This is a non-issue.

 

[Volt3939]

...

... ( 1st return is married filing jointly for California, then we have to split our community income between us and each file as single for federal and then we have to file two more California state forms as single people for the feds). any.way.
...

What a hassle! Someday it will be easier.

 

[linkim]

Also I know that my tax preparer is able to find loopholes that more than pay for her service (I compared her return to turbo tax the first year)

Without divulging private financial information, would you share what "loopholes" your tax preparer found that you missed with Turbo Tax? I use Turbo Tax and wonder as I go through the process, if there are something I am missing? I use Turbo Tax Deluxe, and when filling in the data, I frequently get prompts to upgrade, but I never have.

 

[Harv]

Did my taxes last night through H & R Block. They do have IRS form 8936 in their system. No problems in getting full federal tax credit of $7500 back.

 

[mwalsh]

Did my taxes last night through H & R Block. They do have IRS form 8936 in their system. No problems in getting full federal tax credit of $7500 back.

That doesn't appear to be so for the software/online version. You must have gone in to an office to have your taxes done, correct?

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Did my taxes last night through H & R Block. They do have IRS form 8936 in their system. No problems in getting full federal tax credit of $7500 back.

That doesn't appear to be so for the software/online version. You must have gone in to an office to have your taxes done, correct?

I did the turbo tax free version and it worked fine on the tax deduction and prompted it to me when I tried to claim use tab on the car tabs I bought for the Leaf

 

[Vlad92]

I didn't buy a Leaf yet (Nebraska roll-out is not until summer, 2012), but I played around with TurboTax last night and entered the information as if I bought one and the credit came up as everyone else is saying.

HOWEVER, when I entered the information for the Charging Station (estimating a cost of $2100) it came up with a credit of 0. In reading through the details TurboTax says if you pay AMT (which I do) you are not elligable for this credit. Can anyone confirm that is true? I was not aware this was the case.

 

[garygid]

1. Which version of H&R Block supported the EV tax credit form, please?

2. Yes, we have been told that AMT kills the EVSE credit.

 

[mwalsh]

1. Which version of H&R Block supported the EV tax credit form, please?

According to H&R Block yesterday, nothing but their "in office" product. Since I'm not about to pay $400 for "professional" preparation, I went with the Turbo Tax download product instead.

Don't forget to claim the sales tax on the purchase too! That was a nice little $2300 deduction (allowed portion of the $3000 I actually paid). Oh, and the allowed part of the registration fees!

 

[planet4ever]

IIn reading through the details TurboTax says if you pay AMT (which I do) you are not elligable for this credit. Can anyone confirm that is true? I was not aware this was the case.

It's even worse than that. With a few extreme exceptions, no one can take the 30% EVSE credit if they have any other credits (EV credit, home energy efficiency credit, etc.) in the same tax year. That's even if they don't actually have to pay the AMT rate. See this thread: Tax credits for chargers are finished

And, of course, as was said at the top of that thread, the EVSE credit expired at the end of 2011. So, for the most part, the only people who can legitimately claim it are the ones who installed their EVSE in 2011 and either (a) leased their LEAF, or (b) are getting their LEAF in 2012.

Ray

 

[Harv]

Did my taxes last night through H & R Block. They do have IRS form 8936 in their system. No problems in getting full federal tax credit of $7500 back.

That doesn't appear to be so for the software/online version. You must have gone in to an office to have your taxes done, correct?

Yes, it was indeed an "in office" visit.

 

[gbshaun]

Don't forget to claim the sales tax on the purchase too! That was a nice little $2300 deduction (allowed portion of the $3000 I actually paid). Oh, and the allowed part of the registration fees!

Everything I can find on the IRS site suggests this special deduction was part of the 2009 Recovery Act, and only for purchases of vehicles in 2009.
There is still a law that enables individuals to take a Federal deduction of their State SALES tax rather than on their State INCOME tax, but that's only likely to be the better method in states which have low or no income tax. ie NOT very likely in California.
Was this what you were referring to?

Yes, I too claimed the VLF fee. There was even a cool calculator on the DMV site in CA to calculate what it was https://www.dmv.ca.gov/FeeCalculatorWeb/vlfForm.do" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My H&R Block CD didn't contain the $7500 refund form, so i filled it out online, printed it, over-rode the entry on my 1040, and have to mail in my claim. That's fair enough for $29.95

Shaun

 

[linkim]

Don't forget to claim the sales tax on the purchase too! That was a nice little $2300 deduction (allowed portion of the $3000 I actually paid). Oh, and the allowed part of the registration fees!

I have not completed my fed or CA state taxes but have looked at my first cut using TurboTax (TT). Are you saying that you are claiming the sales tax, instead of an itemized deduction (Schedule A) or both? My understanding is that one can claim either a deduction for sales tax or itemized deduction, but not both. The property tax portion of the registration fee is claimed as an itemized deduction on Schedule A.

I am a bit confused by your comments, but then again I just plug in the numbers to the questions asked by TT so may have missed some of the finer points. Also I haven't read any of the IRS publications so that could be adding to my misunderstanding.

Kim

 

[thankyouOB]

Don't forget to claim the sales tax on the purchase too! That was a nice little $2300 deduction (allowed portion of the $3000 I actually paid). Oh, and the allowed part of the registration fees!

Everything I can find on the IRS site suggests this special deduction was part of the 2009 Recovery Act, and only for purchases of vehicles in 2009.
There is still a law that enables individuals to take a Federal deduction of their State SALES tax rather than on their State INCOME tax, but that's only likely to be the better method in states which have low or no income tax. ie NOT very likely in California.
Was this what you were referring to?

Yes, I too claimed the VLF fee. There was even a cool calculator on the DMV site in CA to calculate what it was https://www.dmv.ca.gov/FeeCalculatorWeb/vlfForm.do" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



My H&R Block CD didn't contain the $7500 refund form, so i filled it out online, printed it, over-rode the entry on my 1040, and have to mail in my claim. That's fair enough for $29.95

Shaun

it is estimated sales tax plus car sales tax
or
property tax.
you can manipulate property tax payments so that they gang in the year you take the sales tax option.

also, i got EVSE and EV rebates.
taxable income is not quite high five figures.

 

[EVDRIVER]

Wow. That's all I can say. It took my tax preparer all of 3 min to do this. You can also read the directions on the IRS website on how it works. Why do so many people let alone a tax "person" (data entry people) struggle with something so easy and basic? You owe $10K then you pay $2500. You paid 10K then you get $7500 back. (corrected) What is so complicated about something so basic? If your tax person can't figure it out then you have the wrong tax person unless it is a return by donation situation You can deduct that by the way.

 

[planet4ever]

also, i got EVSE and EV rebates. Taxable income is not quite high five figures.

OK, I looked at this a little more, and I appears I may have to recant some of my more extreme statements. If you are married filing jointly, and your gross income is roughly $70K to $85K, and you don't itemize or don't claim many deductions, you may well be able to claim both the EV and EVSE credit. You might even be able to claim a small amount of EVSE credit outside that range in exceptional cases.

The key is that the AMT starts at zero for gross income (less charity and casualty) of about $75K, and goes up from there at 26%. Your regular tax hits $7.5K at $67K gross (assuming standard deduction), so you can't claim a second credit until you get above that point. I said $70K because that would give you $450 more in taxes to work with. Once you get to the AMT starting point at $75K gross your tax with standard deduction is $8,664, giving you more than $1K working room above the $7.5K EV credit.

But the regular tax is only going up at 15% until you get to nearly $87K gross, and by then the 11% tax differential has nearly eaten everything beyond the $7.5K. After that your regular tax is going up at 25% while AMT is still going up at 26%, so the tiny margin remaining disappears quickly.

If you itemize, and claim more than $13K or so on Schedule A, you are out of luck for the EVSE credit, unless the result would be less than $13K without charitable deductions and casualty or theft losses. Whether you claim income taxes or sales taxes doesn't matter. Neither of them can be deducted for the AMT calculation.

All this is for married filing jointly. I didn't try looking at the other cases, but I assume they would be less liberal.

Ray