Anyone happen to be a Tax Advisor?

[Dantetier]

I was doing my parents taxes online, and until we got to the Mortgage interests portion of the deductions, they were getting $1200 back, but once we put it in, it dropped to $180... I thought you were supposed to get money BACK from Mortgage Interest Payments?

 

[Guest]

 

[Dantetier]

I don't think so... TurboTax is pretty cut and dry... besides... the total I got from Turbo tax was really close to what H&R block said....

 

[Cheyenne]

I don't think so... TurboTax is pretty cut and dry... besides... the total I got from Turbo tax was really close to what H&R block said....

Which total, the $1,200 or the$180?

 

[Guest]

 

[Dantetier]

okay... according to Turbotax... BEFORE we Itemized, my parents were getting 1200 or so back... AFTER we itemized (mortgage interest, church tithes etc..) it DROPPED almost a grand.. I thought Deductions were supposed to raise your refund...

incedentally... H&R Block said we should get $280 back, and they were going to charge us $260 to do the taxes. Go figure

 

[ma_guy]

There is an IRS defined "standard deduction". If your itemized deductions are less than the standard deduction amount then what you came up with is going to happen. If your itemized deductions come up as less then use the standard deduction and skip the Schedule A..

 

[Guest]

 

[Cheyenne]

I agree. It wasn't the mortgage interest itself that caused the refund to decrease, it was the fact that the itemized deductions must be less than the standard deductions available to your parents. Take the standard deductions and skip schedule A.

I have another question though, out of curiosity. How can H&R Block tell you what the refund will be before they actually do the taxes?

 

[Dantetier]

Turbo tax didn't exactly give us a choice.. it made us do the itemized, then said it would give us whatever was best. *shrugs*

H&R Block DID the taxes, but we didn't accept them., so we didn't have to pay

 

[Guest]

 

[Dantetier]

I got the interest from the 1098's... I'll probably try it again without itemizing... see how that works. Everyone is sure that's legal?

 

[Guest]