Monday, November 17, 2014

2014 Boomer Deduction Instructions for Turbo Tax (Store bought or downloaded)

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These are specific instructions for entering information from the Boomer Deduction Worksheet into Turbo Tax using their home software tax preparation.  I used the Deluxe version linked below (which offers a 10% bonus if you use some of your refund to buy an Amazon gift card).  If you normally purchase the software, please use the link to help defray the costs and enormous effort this takes.  Also please consider making your Amazon purchases using the search box to the right and/or donating to the site.

TurboTax Deluxe 2014 Fed + Fed Efile Tax Software + Refund Bonus Offer

DISCLAIMER:

This is NOT an endorsement of Turbo Tax!  I also make no promises about the accuracy or reliability of the information presented, it is for assistance and education ONLY.  You MUST do your own due diligence to ensure your taxes are right.  I feel that the assistance of a trained professional is critical in preparing taxes for military members.  Feel free to contact me for questions at taxadvisor@email.com.  Realize still that even if I answer your questions, I make no promises and bear no liability for the accuracy of the answers.  The only way I take ANY liability is if you see me to prepare your taxes in my professional capacity under my employer for whom I work as a tax professional.  Making a donation to this site (which I encourage and appreciate if you make extra money from the massive amount of work and expense this takes) does not constitute paying me for my advice.

Glad that's over!

General Instructions:
  • Make sure you fill out the 2014 Boomer Deduction Worksheet, found HERE, first.
  • The information and answers to various questions apply to the Boomer Deduction only.  It is possible that some yes's or no's may be different for you if you have complementing or overlapping situations.
  • I don't write everything from each page, but I generally start at the top of the page.  Sometimes the page title will use information, such as your name or your car make, so mine won't match.  If the page title is long, I may discontinue with a ... but you should be able to tell where I am.
  • If I skip pages, I'll write "more pages" so just keep clicking continue and answering questions until you get to the next page I talk about.
  • I'll indicate new pages on their software by separating information with three asterisks - ***
  • I'll indicate that you should be entering something or clicking a button by using the # sign
Page Instructions:

After logging in and creating an account, you will enter personal information (use 2 Crew FBM Submariner as your occupation), as well as information from your W-2's and other documents, advancing using the continue or Yes/No buttons.  Eventually you will get to the Deductions and Credits portion and then shortly you will get to the pages that matter:

***
How Do You Want to Enter Your Deductions and Credits?

# You can click "Walk me Through Everything" and go through all the questions, making sure to answer "Yes" to the "Did You Use Your Own Money to Pay Job Expenses for 2014" question, and then continuing until you get to the Employment Expenses Related to W-2" screen.  You can also click "I'll Choose What I Work On" and click the "Start" button next to "Job Related Expenses".

***
Employment Expenses

# Yes
***
Teacher Expense

# No
***
Employment Expenses Related to W-2?

# Yes
***
Other Types of Expenses

# Yes
***
More Pages
***
Tell Us About the Occupation You Have Expenses For.

# 2 Crew FBM Submariner
***
Do Any of These Uncommon Situations Apply?

# None of the Above
***
Home Office Expenses?

# No
***
Any Vehicle Expenses or Sales?

# Yes
***
Tell Us About Your Vehicle

# Enter asked for information (should be auto or truck <6000# unless really BIG)
***
Do You Own...

# Answer as applicable
***
When Did You Acquire...

# Enter date
***
When Did You Start Using ...

# If on Boomer when car acquired use choice one, otherwise use choice two.
***
Are You Still Using...

# Yes
***
Is Your ... an Electric Vehicle

# Click Yes or No
***
Did You Purchase New?

# Yes or No
***
Did You Trade In Another Vehicle to Purchase...

# Yes or No

If you click Yes it will ask for the purchase price excluding the trade in

# Enter what you paid in cash or with a loan for the car
***
Personal Use of Your...

Was your ... available during non-working hours?

# Yes

Do you have another vehicle available for personal use?

# Answer Yes if the household has 2 or more vehicles
***
Mileage Records for Your...

Did you keep track of your mileage when you used this vehicle for business?

# Yes (The command letter and Boomer Deduction Worksheet should be sufficient)

Did you document your business miles for this vehicle?

# Yes
***
How Do You Want to Enter Your Mileage?

# I'll enter the total miles I drove for the year

Total miles driven for year

# Enter in the box ALL the miles driven by the vehicle for ANY reason (12/31 minus 1/1 odometer)

Miles driven for JOB

# Enter in box the number from Line (N) on the Boomer Deduction Worksheet

Commuting miles

# Enter in box the total miles driven to and from work when NOT on off-crew or Refit Assist

Round trip average daily commute

# Enter in box how far to and from the pier
***
Was Your ... Used for Hire?

# No
***
How Many Vehicles Did You Use for Business in 2013?

# Click the 0-4 box
***
Rural Mail Carrier

# No

Comment: Take a look at the refund amount, you should start seeing this number change soon, and you can see how much this Boomer Deduction is helping - keep an eye on it.  You can thank me later :)
***
Did You Use the Standard Mileage Rate?

# Yes
***
You've Got a Standard Mileage Deduction of...

Do you want to see if your actual vehicle expenses give you a bigger deduction?

# No
***
Vehicle Summary

# If you used more than one vehicle you will need to click Add Vehicle and go through the process again.  You will need to make sure to divide the Business Mileage from the Boomer Deduction Worksheet between the vehicles as needed.

# Click Done
***
Did You Buy or Own Any Items for Use on Your Job?

# This is generally NO for military.  You can't take haircuts or cell phones as a general rule, and uniforms are generally reimbursed or non-deductible if they can be worn off base.
***
Do You Have any Leftover Deductions from 2012?

# No
***
Any Other Expenses?

# Enter Line (K) amount from the Boomer Deduction Worksheet on the Travel Expenses Line
# Enter Line (M) amount from the Boomer Deduction Worksheet on the Meal and Entertainment Expenses Line
# Enter any other lines as appropriate (though for military it is generally only professional publications)
***
Job Related Expenses

# In the Description Line put "Laundry and Cleaning"
# In the Amount Line put Line (L) amount from the Boomer Deduction Worksheet
***
Reimbursements for Your Expenses

# No
***
Any Special Situations?

# No
***
Job Related Expense Summary

#Done

That's it!  Hopefully this worked for you.  Feel free to ask any questions at taxadvisor@email.com.  I will try to answer quickly but I do get busy during tax time, so don't feel slighted if it takes a while.  Feel free to ask questions in the comments, that way we can help everyone.  Please share with your fellow Boomer Sailors!  If you want me to do your taxes, I can do them via mail or email with no payment until you are satisfied and with secure online review and approval.  I will also check tax returns for free, and, if I find errors, I will tell you the difference and offer to fix for a price (if I check and find no errors I back it up with my companies standard guarantee.)  I encourage you to take advantage of that, I have seen some bad things on Military Tax Returns (I am a retired submarine Master Chief BTW.)

These posts have more info on the Boomer Deduction, with links to references.  If you do your taxes yourself, make sure to do your due diligence.

http://supertaxgenius.blogspot.com/2012/10/boomer-deduction-history-and-references.html
http://supertaxgenius.blogspot.com/2012/03/more-boomer-deduction-information.html

Please make Amazon purchases using the link or DONATE - this was a pain!  And I had to pay $107 for the software just to test it!

1 comment:

  1. Some have pointed out that BAH and BAS can be considered reimbursement. I'm on the fence on this. If you want to include it, here's how I would do it:

    Take BAS and divide by 30 and multiply by (I) from the Boomer Worksheet. Note the smaller of this and (M) from the worksheet. We'll call this (O)

    Take BAH and divide by 30 then by (H) from the worksheet then multiply by (I) from the worksheet. Note the smaller of this number and (K) from the worksheet. We'll call this (P)

    Reimbursements are (O) + (P)

    You would answer "Yes" to were you reimbursed and include this number as reimbursement.

    ReplyDelete

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