On Sun, 31 Mar 2024 19:04:17 EDT, Stan Brown wrote:
Does anyone know of a free or low-cost calculator of estimated
Federal income tax? It should cover at least Schedules B and D, the
worksheet that computes taxable Social Security, and the Qualified
Dividends and Capital Gains worksheet; it need not handle itemized deductions.
The motivation for this is that I need to sell a chunk of my stock
fund to make a down payment on a house. As you may know, stocks are
at an all-time high, so I'm going to have pretty large capital gains,
by my standards anyway. I need to get a handle on what that will do
to tax year 2024's bill, so that I can make the proper estimated tax payments.
Thanks to the four folks who replied! I was able to complete my task
and get the full extent of the bad news. (But of course it's better
to know than not to know, and now I can make adequate estimated tax
payments and avoid a penalty when I file next year.)
I thought it would be helpful to others if I include all four
suggestions in one post, with a few comments. Some of the things that
were dealbreakers for me in #3 and #4 might not be for others.
======== #1 ========================================================
On Mon, 1 Apr 2024 11:26:54 EDT, Rick wrote:
Try this one:
https://www.mortgagecalculator.org/calcs/1040-calculator.php
Calculations are done online; there's nothing to download. On the
other hand, you may have privacy concerns.
Easy to use, and without the capital gains it matched my own
computation within a very few dollars. Adding in the capital gains
told me what I needed to know.
It's not yet updated for tax year 2024, so with 2024 inflation-
adjusted brackets the extra tax hit may be a bit less than it
predicts.
======== #2 ========================================================
On Mon, 1 Apr 2024 11:26:36 EDT, Taxed and Spent wrote:
I haven't looked at this lately and cannot say if it does exactly what
you want, but check it out. Maybe if it doesn't do it all you can have
a side spreadsheet to calculate an entry needed for this spreadsheet.
http://www.taxvisor.com/taxes/
Consists of downloadable Excel spreadsheets. In addition to Federal,
California taxes are included, a plus for me. (Other states don't
seem to be available.) Spreadsheets are already updated for the 2024
tax year, another plus.
Spreadsheets are .xls, not .xlsm, because the site claims
compatibility with Excel _5_ and above. (I have Excel 2010, and they
seemed to work fine.)
The site is http not https, so you have to override a couple of
warnings from your browser, when visiting and when downloading the spreadsheets. The site offers both Windows installers and just-the- spreadsheets ZIP files.
The only flaw I found, not a dealbreaker: There's no box to enter
Social Security, or even the taxable part. Instead you have to
compute your taxable Social Security yourself, then include that in
the "other income" box with other miscellaneous income. I've emailed
the author, suggesting this as a possible enhancement.
======== #3 ========================================================
On Mon, 1 Apr 2024 02:13:43 EDT, Stuart O. Bronstein wrote:
Have you tried the IRS tax withholding estimator?
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator
Calculations are done online, and the site says no information is
saved. You don't need to enter your tax ID number or other
identifying information.
It's fairly easy to use, but it says in several places that you can't
use it if you have don't have an income stream from which withholding
is taken. That rules out retired people who choose to pay estimated
taxes rather than having taxes withheld. I tried to cheat by entering appropriate amounts in inappropriate boxes, but it wouldn't let me
proceed without also entering withholding. That's a pity; if it
didn't have that limitation it would be a useful tool for a lot more
people.
======== #4 ========================================================
On Mon, 1 Apr 2024 02:12:03 EDT, retired1 wrote:
Take a look at this free tax calculator.
https://sites.google.com/view/incometaxspreadsheet/home
This has also been updated for 2024, a plus.
High marks for comprehensiveness, not so much for ease of use.
It's the most comprehensive of the four, but I found it too difficult
to work with, because it tries to mix interview-type questions with
entering some numbers on IRS-style forms and schedules. (A plus is
that it includes a _lot_ of forms and schedules, so it's likely most
people would find the forms they need.) It's _extremely_ fussy about
making you enter data in very specific spots, often off to the side
or on different forms. (For instance, the "over 65" box was
protected, and it took me quite a while to discover that I had to
enter my date of birth off to the side instead of just checking the
box as I had in Filing Status.) If I were trying to _file_ my taxes,
as opposed to planning them, I would persevere because I'm sure I
could learn to use it. But since the first two listed above met my
needs, I shelved this one.
--
Stan Brown, Tehachapi, California, USA
https://BrownMath.com/
Shikata ga nai...
--
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