No Increase In Us Taxes For Year 2010?

[puyaidon]

For those who are US citizens, I found the draft 2010 1040 Forms and instruction book on the net from the IRS. I filled out the form and found:

Would you believe that I made the exact same wages (remember our CPI has not changed) as year 2009 and I am having to pay more income tax. I file as single so you can take it from there. It sure is nice that we are taken care of so much by the living God in DC.

[lomatopo]

Without a bit more detail it is impossible to comment, in case you were looking for feedback.

Do you maintain your primary residence in Thailand? If so, I assume you know that you can exclude foreign earned income up to $91,400?

How much more do you think you'll pay for CY2010 than you did in CY2009?

I am not aware of any significant changes for 2010 which might account for your dilemma.

[lanny]

If you made the same income in 2010 as in 2009 you should actually pay less tax. Assuming all other things are also unchanged, the indexing of personal exemptions, tax rates, etc. should result in a lower tax liability. If your income was in Thai baht, sdditionally, the US tax would be even lower.

It seems to me that you must have made a mistake somewhere. There have been no significant new laws or rulings that would account for an increase.

[puyaidon]

Tax Withholding changed during the last year so they withhold less than before. As a single taxpayer, my taxes are simple. But now will pay more. The only thing that will help is if they increase the standard deduction which will not be known until late next month.

To the reader that says I don't have to pay tax on foreign income, my income is a military pension (US) and US Social Security. No tax breaks for me as it is rather specific that my pension is taxable under US tax laws no matter where in the world I am.

I read the tax manual very well and have even helped friends with their taxes after long and extensive research. I am doing my own return this year as I don't want to pay a tax preparer for such a simple return. I have used them in the past and now as a single taxpayer, consider them a waste of money.

Edited November 16, 2010 by puyaidon

[lomatopo]

Thanks for the additional information. You used the term "wages" in your original post, which means Line 7/W-2 wages, salaries and tips, i.e. earned income, so that threw us off a bit. Pensions and SocSec are not earned income so no foreign earned income exclusion.

Further I would still like to see the comparison between your total tax obligations for 2009 and 2010. Total tax obligation equals any amounts withheld plus any additional payments.

You mention that less money was withheld during the year, so that would indicate that you would have to pay more come April 15, 2011 as an additional payment in order to pay the same amount as in 2009.

I am pretty sure the Standard Deduction ($5,700) and Personal Exemption ($3,650) remain unchanged for 2010. There may be some changes in 2011, which may be what you are thinking?

Unless your additional payment is somehow greatly different than the amount need to cover any decrease in withholding you may be making some errors.

I would suggest using a free tax software package like TaxAct in order to check your manually-prepared return noting any significant differences.

Regarding withholding it is really an individual's responsibility to insure enough money is withheld and/or paid quarterly.

For 2011 I would expect your situation to stay the same or improve slightly, unless you are in the top 1.5% and earning more than $200,000, in which case you may end up paying slightly more in tax.

Edited November 17, 2010 by lomatopo