For Stage 1, assume you are single, age 30, independent of anyone, and have no dependents, and have the following cash inflows in 2014 (you graduated college about 9 years ago): If you neglect to attach Schedule A you will fail Stage 1.
- Pre-tax salary at General Electric (GE) of $80,000 (see below for federal income tax and state income tax withholding; assume FICA (social security) tax withholding was accurate).
- Interest from IBM bonds $1,000 (don't bother with Sched. B).
- Interest from municipal bonds $150,000 (these are private activity bonds, a type of muni bond we will learn more about in ch. 12 and which will be important in Stage 2).
- Gift of cash from your grand-aunt $14,200.
- Gift of $1,000 from your ex-spouse.
Assume for Stage 1 you had the following cash outflows in 2014. Assume all these items have appropriate documentation to validate the deduction if the tax law indeed allows deduction for such item.
- paid $2,000 in charitable donations to local churches organized under US law and $1,000 to a church organized and located in Indonesia.
- paid $2,400 to a CPA to do your 2013's income tax returns you filed in April.
- own a condo apartment for which you paid real estate taxes of $8,000 and mortgage acquisition debt interest (not home equity loan interest, this will be important in ch. 12) was $7,000. You also paid $2,100 of loan principal on your mortgage.
- incurred (i.e. accrued) $26,650 of medical expenses, of which insurance paid about half. Of the remaining amount, you paid $11,650 in 2014 and will pay the rest in 2015.
- on December 31, lent a former college roommate $14,600.
- during 2014, GE withheld from your salary federal income tax withholding of $2,000. You also had withholding for state/local income taxes of $7,000. In April 2014, paid cash of $1,000 balance due to settle the state and local income taxes owed for 2013 state/city income tax filing.
- you paid $1,100 of state estimated income taxes (SEIT) in January 2014 for the 2013 year ( and fyi you paid $1,220 of SEIT in January 2015 for the 2014 year). [Make sure you understand this before the relevant exam(s); many students mix up DEDUCTIBILITY rules for STATE est. tax payments on federal income tax return (ch. 10) with how FEDERAL {state} est. tax payments are CREDITED on federal {state} income tax return (ch.13)]
- paid $200 in early 2014 for a pair of skinny jeans, which were rendered unusable because you did not follow washing instructions.