Oh, my goodness. You spend 2 minutes communicating with anyone lately, whether in person, on the phone, via owl, or on the internet, and the talk turns to income taxes. Everyone has a story this year, and they want to share. It’s not surprising; between the changes to withholding last year, and the child tax… | Read More…
How To File For An Income Tax Extension, Military-Style
Get a simple, free tax extension to get more time to file your federal tax return. The deadline to file your federal income tax returns is Monday, 18 April 2022. Each year, more than 10 million Americans aren’t ready to submit their returns on that date. By filing for the automatic tax extension, you will… | Read More…
Social Security Tax Repayment: What To Do With A Corrected W-2
Most military service members are finishing up the Social Security tax repayment from the deferral that happened in the last part of 2020. This will be a change in your paycheck and you may get a corrected 2020 W-2. What Were The Deferral and Repayment? From September through December of 2020, Social Security taxes were… | Read More…
Tax Returns: When One State Isn’t Enough
My friend Jerry Zeigler is always helping me out with tax questions, and he’s graciously shared this information about how and when military service members and their spouses may need to file tax returns in multiple states. We definitely did this wrong for a few years, and it cost us money in the long run…… | Read More…
Financial Advice for New Military Spouses (and the rest of us)
Occasionally, I’m fortunate enough to get to talk to some new, or new-ish, military spouses. There’s so much to know about money in general, and money and the military can be particularly tricky. I usually have a limited amount of time, and I struggle to decide on the most important topics to discuss. I want… | Read More…
Income Taxes After Military Retirement: Don’t Get Stuck With A Huge Bill
There’s a rumor floating around that somehow your taxes are going to zoom up after you retire from the military. As with many rumors, there is a bit of truth in it, but there’s also just a lot of confusion. It is true that some military families end up with large tax bills in their… | Read More…
Home of Record and State of Legal Residence: Things You Need To Know
The military can be confusing, with all its special terms and acronyms. One of the terms most often mis-used is home of record. The term comes up in questions about taxes and driver’s licenses and final moves. On rare occasion, when talking about final moves, it’s being used properly. The other 99.9% of the time,… | Read More…
How Income Taxes Work – Even If You’re Not A Tax Person
Income taxes can be difficult. There are literally thousands of pages of laws, and hundreds of different forms that some people have to use to file their income tax return. However, the basic system isn’t really that complicated. Understanding the basics of how income taxes work is a key step in making sure that you… | Read More…
What Military Moving Expenses are Tax-Deductible?
PCS moves are expensive. Even with all the allowances, you’ll sometimes have some out-of-pocket expenses, especially if you have pets. Thankfully, unreimbursed moving expenses can be deducted from your income taxes, and they’re a most valuable type of deduction. Disclaimer: No article can address every specific tax situation. Do not make any decisions based solely… | Read More…
Taxes on Military Bonuses: How and Why
I’ve noticed a lot of cfrustration about taxes on military bonuses. That’s not surprising, because it IS frustrating if you don’t understand what’s going on, but it doesn’t have to be too hard to understand. First, you have to have a firm grasp on how income taxes work. If you are not sure, then read… | Read More…