Announcement: New Category, Income Tax 2009

Sorry to sound stupid....but what does "click on the tag" mean?

I like this. It's sort of like how gmail has those Labels you can apply to your emails. Never knew FW had this feature until now.

VBMcGB said: LH2004 said: Yay!!!

Can we lock the old thread, or at least get a moderator's note?

Good idea. Give me a bit of time to get on that.


TJtv said: Sorry to sound stupid....but what does "click on the tag" mean?

If you look at the Quick Summary, you will see "tags" followed by links. Click on the link and that will send you back to the forum view, but it will be filtered. For this thread the links read "Income Tax 2009," "tax," and "discussion."

I see that it works, but it's very confusing for people using classic. You first have to go to FW Finance, then click on the TAX 2009 topic, then click on the "tag", which finally takes you to a "filtered" tax forum.

I don't think people will be able to find it.

OK quick question. I was billed for $9500 in tuition in 2008, $2700 of it I paid on Jan 9th 09 instead of in 2008, however it was for classes that started within the first 3 months of 2009. Can I report the full $9500 for the LifeTime learning credit in 2008, or only $6800. If I don't claim the $2700 for 2008 can I do it for 2009?

VBMcGB said:

I can understand the concern, but I'm not sure what else we would be able to do at this point. The only options I can think of are...

1. Standard forum tags (which we're using)
2. Having OPs begin each title with: "Income Tax 2009:..." so that a quick search would identify them. It is cumbersome, but I have seen other forums do such things.
3. Subforums.

Since subforums require dev time and tax season is already upon us, I don't see #3 as a viable option for the 2009 tax season. I can't imagine that OP's will consistently be inclined to add the same additional text before their titles (especially new users), so I don't see #2 as being helpful. This leaves us with option #1, which is quick and easy to do and functions well.

In order to help others who use Classic find their way, I've fixed the message under the OP of the Tax 2009 monster thread. Yes, there was supposed to be a link in there to the Announcement thread, which has basic instructions (I accidentally left it out. Sorry about that.). I hope that clarifies things for people just entering the system.

If you have suggestions, please speak up. We want your experience here to be top-notch. No suggestion is a bad suggestion. Just keep in mind that we have realistic constraints that we need to work within.

4th option: Instead of making people click on the "2009 TAX THREAD...", and then have to click the "tag" inside that thread....Just make it so that when you click on the thread with the title "2009 TAX THREAD..." it autmatically takes you to the tax category. That sounds easy enough to do. If you can't do that, then at least put the "Income Tax 2009" tag in HUGE BOLD FONT at the top of the first post in the "2009 TAX THREAD...."

If I had $4k in gambling losses in the year 2008, how would I report that? Would I need to show proof?

ThursdaysChild said: the new thread would be a lot more valuable if I could find it. Why not sticky it?There is no one single new thread.

To see existing tax threads, click on the category "Income Tax 2009" on the left side of the Finance page (modern view).

If you are using classic view:VBMcGB said: If you look at the Quick Summary, you will see "tags" followed by links. Click on the link and that will send you back to the forum view, but it will be filtered. For this thread the links read "Income Tax 2009," "tax," and "discussion."

VBMcGB said: Monster threads can be confusing. . . .
Before making a new thread, make sure to search. Your question may have already been answered.

But monster threads are much easier to search. I like being able to view a text only version of the monster tax thread -- from there it is very easy to search (in one file) all the tax info for the year. Breaking that info into numerous threads will make it harder to track down. I vote for keeping a single large thread. (Although I appreciate the effort and continued development.)

And now, how does one filter out the "Please answer my question" threads? I thought that was the entire purpose of the Questions/Newbie thread and Tax thread being stickied, to minimize the clutter.

Xnarg said: zmre2b9 said: VBMcGB said: Monster threads can be confusing. . . .
Before making a new thread, make sure to search. Your question may have already been answered. But monster threads are much easier to search.I respectfully disagree. When you do a search, you get a link to the thread in total, not to any individual discussions. You have to manually go through each page of the discussion in order to find the part you need.

Doing a textual search means that you lose the search features in the forum search, such when you search on multiple parameters at the same time such as author, date, text string, title, etc..

For tax questions I would never use the search page in the forum. I'd simply go to the tax thread, click on text only view. That gives me one huge page with all the tax posts. Then I simply do a word or phrase search with the relevant search terms. I quickly, instantly skip from one search term to the next, very quickly -- most importantly, without having to click on anything. THat is a much better way of searching that clicking a bunch of times in and out of different threads, and different pages of threads.

Also, you can just as easily say "See this post," which includes a clickable link to the earlier post in the same thread.

I am trying to use the TurboTax free online version. I have entered Foreign Tax Paid from Form 1099-DIV. But, due to a bug in the program, TT does not recognize the entry and does not post it to Form 1040. I have submitted this to the TT Community to no avail. It's as if no one at TT is reading my submissions. Can anyone help me?? What can I do?? Thanks.

uthorns1976 said: I am trying to use the TurboTax free online version. I have entered Foreign Tax Paid from Form 1099-DIV. But, due to a bug in the program, TT does not recognize the entry and does not post it to Form 1040. I have submitted this to the TT Community to no avail. It's as if no one at TT is reading my submissions. Can anyone help me?? What can I do?? Thanks.
Now here's a good example of the problem with the lack of a monster thread. This is not the place to post the question (it's for discussion of monster vs. separate threads) but where are we supposed to refer this person??

BTW, it's easy to link to specific posts -- use the little chain to the right of the time stamp.

ThursdaysChild said: uthorns1976 said: I am trying to use the TurboTax free online version. I have entered Foreign Tax Paid from Form 1099-DIV. But, due to a bug in the program, TT does not recognize the entry and does not post it to Form 1040. I have submitted this to the TT Community to no avail. It's as if no one at TT is reading my submissions. Can anyone help me?? What can I do?? Thanks.
Now here's a good example of the problem with the lack of a monster thread. This is not the place to post the question (it's for discussion of monster vs. separate threads) but where are we supposed to refer this person??I thought that was why there are stickied threads - so anyone looking for specific info (and not wanting to read until they find it) could ask for it in those threads, which are clearly defined and easy to find since they are always the first ones listed in the forum. If the same questions get asked over and over because people dont look through previous posts on a 'monster thread', why would anyone expect them to look through various existing threads before posting their question in a new one? And for those experts who tend to answer a bulk of the questions - is it really any easier to scan through a page of threads looking for new questions, than it is to scan through a page of posts (a new thread can just as easily be buried by other threads as a question can get buried by subsequent posts in a 'monster thread')? The only real confusion in any of the stickied monster threads is when someone responds without quoting what they are responding to.

From the day I found this forum couple years ago, it was made pretty clear that new threads were created to convey new information, not solicit it. These days, useful info is being overwelmed by random "please help me" Dear Abby-type threads (and random articles about our 'doomed' economy), and releasing tax questions from a single dedicated thread is only adding to that. If its a specific question that only requires a clear-cut answer, there's no need to isolate it in its own thread.

What about 5-6 dedicated threads for specific tax sub-topics (not stickied), all compiled in a stickied main tax thread? That way there is still a easily identifiable Tax thread to corral tax info/questions from random posters, but the info is broken down into more specific and easier to search subject threads (the stickied thread itself wouldnt even be posted to). If that sounds like a better plan, I'd be willing to set up the threads - if someone will give me some suggested sub-topics.

IMHO, as one of the regular answerers in the Tax Thread, I rather dislike this setup.

I now have to login if I expect my unread counts to update. At least in the monster thread, I could keep track of the one post that marks where I left off without having to login to read. I now have to scan the list of threads for unread posts. I now have to manage hundreds of threads.

Honestly, I find myself less willing to sit down and write a quick answer to something I know off the top of my head because of the amount of added overhead needed to just find the questions that are unanswered in the first place. As a result, I probably won't read the tax questions at all until I have a good half hour to sit down and devote to it, where I would have provided quick, short answers throughout the day before.

The joy of a tax forum would have been that we could have set up stickies for common tax topics (i.e. break the monster thread into six, eight, ten common tax question threads) and leave it open for anyone to start a new one that's not covered in one of the "common questions" threads. We can't do that in general Finance because we'd end up with that many stickied threads, which would detract from non-tax users' experience.

I still think the subforum or forum in general is the best idea, and I can't imagine from my professional experience that it's really THAT much effort to create such a forum.

VBMcGB said: Good idea. I turned the word HERE into a link. For those in classic, if you click on the word, it will automagically filter according to the "Income Tax 2009" tag. Please let me know if that works on the user end.The entire thread title still appears to be a single link. You have to be paying really close attention to see the "HERE" is linked differently than the rest of the title (it took me a couple times to figure out what you ment). If anything, the sticky should be a 'ghost thread' that is nothing but a link to the "Income Tax 2009" tag filter.

And I agree with Jim, its alot easier and less time consuming to find 5 new questions in a single thread, than to find 5 questions in 5 separate threads. Break up the Newbie/Questions thread in a similar manner, and I'd find myself answering those questions much less frequently as well. And when referencing/linking to a previous post that is relevant, its alot easier to find the desired info when it is in the same thread, than it is to locate the specific thread (out of many similar ones) that contains the post you're looking for.

VBMcGB said: I think something we may want to discuss is whether we want to have some threads dedicated to common questions? If so, what would those topics be? If not, why not?

Possible thread topics:

W-2s, W-4s, and everything paycheck-related (Also titled: Where did my refund go?)
Economic Stimulus and Recovery Rebate Questions
Self-Employment, Contract Work, Side Jobs, Miscellaneous Income etc. (Also titled: What the heck is this 1099 for? Alt: Do I REALLY have to pay self-employment tax?)
What is and is not Tax-Deductible
Tax Consequences of Investments (this should really be the name of the 401(k)/IRA thread that already exists)
I'm New to Filing Taxes, Help!
State Tax Questions

I would think most of the tax threads that exist could be lumped into one of these topics. I am leaving out things that are less common, but they could always have their own threads as needed.

tyrone3971 said: Question:

I haven't maxed out my contributions to 2008 for my 401k. I know that I can make more contributions to max out that amount until 4/15/09. However, I don't know how this is handled from a tax perspective.

Do I make extra contributions from pre-tax money earned in 2009 toward my 2008 limit?
Does this reduce my 2008 or 2009 tax basis?
Generally speaking, how do I go about making this extra contribution from my employer?

Thanks.Consider asking your question in separate thread. This particular thread is just an announcement (which asks users to do just that).

Review the existing threads in the category (in modern view) Income Tax 2009 to see if your question has already been asked and answered.

Maybe there should be monster threads on AORs, the economy, mortgage rates, insurance, incentives for opening bank accounts, dealing with collection agencies, or.... everything!

There have been about 2-3 tax posts per day this week, that's not very many.

Too, tax season goes for only several months, and it occurs in peaks.

It's busy for about 3 weeks starting at the end of January (when W-2s first come out), then it will die down again until about the 3rd week in March for 3 weeks (for the late filers).

So that's about six weeks out of the year when you'd see a slight increase in the number of tax threads.