We have been using TurboTax Estimated Taxes
(https://estimatedtaxes.intuit.com) to calculate, schedule and make
quarterly payments as necessary.

The site not only exchanges data with TurboTax on the PC, but the paid
subscription also allows for free electronic transfers from your
financial institution to the IRS, with confirmation.

I recommend it highly, but unfortunately they are no longer accepting
new subscriptions. However, they do offer to notify interested parties
by e-mail of service re-activation.


"Chris Cowles" <spam_magnet[at]remove-me-bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:#jXmBWKXIHA.1164[at]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
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Thanks for the reference to Turbo's tax estimator. We may try it for 4/08
quarterly estimated payment. Yea, the interest earned on avoiding the free
loan to the government ain't enough to retire on, but it might take us out
to dinner or at least fund the wine. Rather that than leave money for
Treasury to blow on <name your favorite mismanaged program> . I did notice
that there is no input place for qualified dividends. Guess one would have
to lump those into long-term cap gains.

- quote -

"Chris Cowles" <spam_magnet[at]remove-me-bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:%23jXmBWKXIHA.1164[at]TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...

- quote -

The tax estimator at the same site has been updated for 2008. The
inputs for it are exactly the same as for the withholding estimator.
I'm not clear why the withholding estimator hasn't been updated, too.

Money's estimator said I'd owe $2,100 more than is being withheld;
TurboTax says I'll owe $2,995 more, based mainly on AMT. Ouch. I don't
feel confident about either since I escaped AMT this year only by last
minute changes. I can't count on that.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

"XB77" <XB77[at]My-Deja.com> wrote in message
newsw6lj.2408$hk4.972[at]trnddc03...
- quote -

The estimator at
http://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools...hholding.jhtml
is pretty robust but has not been updated for 2008. I don't know if a
financially unsophisticated user would find it friendly.

I don't like floating free loans to the government, either, but for
the purposes of cash flow, prefer not to write the hefty checks. The
cash would have to remain liquid and the nominal interest I'd make in
my MMF isn't worth the hassle. As I wrote in my previous post, my goal
is a very small refund, the intent being to simply avoid paying
additional taxes. I'm paying $400 additional for 2007 (estimated so
far, not all forms received yet) but would just as soon be exactly
even.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

My experience has been that I can get decent estimates--once I find all of
the glitches like this. Unfortunately finding these glitches basically
suggests that I have one or more alternate ways to do the estimate which
renders Money's estimator kinda useless.

"XB77" <XB77[at]My-Deja.com> wrote in message
newsw6lj.2408$hk4.972[at]trnddc03...
- quote -

I have found that Tax Estimator is only a rough approximation, estimating
one's liability HIGHER than it actually turns out to be after one has
calculated one's return (fair warning about State taxes vs. Other taxes in
Estimator). What I wish was that TaxCut or TurboTax sold a product that
would continue to be useful for estimating quarterly taxes for the upcoming
year, as Money is flakey. There is a function in TaxCut, but it isn't much
better than back of envelope and it allows one to print out ES stubs to send
in with one's quarterly estimated payments--big deal. We generally try to
avoid floating free loans to the government (making the April payment as
large as possible, subject to avoiding underpayment penalties).

"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com wrote in
message news:uTO$hZsWIHA.1132[at]TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
- quote -

(edited for correction)
There's also inaccuracy in the withholding estimator. My scheduled
paychecks correspond to the actual paychecks as to withholding
amounts. Those paychecks stop in the future and are followed by a
second series of paychecks. Those include a conservative raise at our
anniversary dates to better estimate annual income. Other budgeted
income amounts are realistic estimates.

The tax estimator says I'll owe ~$2K more this year than I'm having
withheld. That may or may not be true and I'll use other tools to
corroborate. When I go from the tax estimator to the withholding
estimator to calculate appropriate allowances, the shortfall carries
over correctly. Taxable income is accurate in the paychecks, as are
frequency and next pay date.

My goal is a refund of $200, to allow a little buffer. Money
recommends 0 allowance + $0 extra tax for me, and 1 + $10 for my wife.
If I edit those to 0/0 on both to reflect present settings, the
estimated FIT withheld is off by $40 - $50 from what's actually
withheld by our employers. That's pretty bad.

Clearly I'll have to use a more sophisticated withholding estimator,
and adjust my scheduled paycheck accordingly. Why Money's estimator
can't come closer is beyond me. It seems it should be just a basic
table calculation, and the inputs are correct. Small business owners
use IRS-published paper charts all the time. Is it that hard?
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

"Dick Watson" <littlegreengecko[at]mind-enufalready-spring.com> wrote in
message news:uTO$hZsWIHA.1132[at]TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
- quote -

There's also inaccuracy in the withholding estimator. My scheduled
paychecks correspond to the actual paychecks as to withholding
amounts. I have a second series of paychecks to estimate a
conservative Other budgeted income amounts are realistic estimates.
The tax estimator says I'll owe ~$2K more this year than I'm having
withheld. That may or may not be true. I'll use other tools to
corroborate.

When I go from the tax estimator to the withholding estimator to
calculate the allowances necessary to prevent a big bill, the
shortfall carries over correctly. Taxable income in the paychecks is
accurate, as are frequency and next pay date.

My goal is a refund of $200, to allow a little buffer. Money
recommends 0 allowance + $0 extra tax for me, and 1 + $10 for my wife.
If I edit those to 0/0 on both to reflect present settings, the
estimated FIT withheld is off by $40 - $50 from what's actually
withheld by our employers. That's pretty bad.

Clearly I'll have to use a more sophisticated withholding estimator to
determine what to do, and adjust my scheduled paycheck accordingly.
Why Money's estimator can't come closer is beyond me. It seems it
should be just a basic table calculation, and the inputs are correct.
Small business owners use IRS-published paper charts all the time. Is
it that hard?
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

The Tax Line Manager shows a "tax category" (my term for lack of a better
name--these are kinda cryptic like budget groups) called "State taxes" as
being associated with Schedule A. I have a category "Taxes : State Income
Tax - previous year" associated with "State taxes". Tax Line Manager shows
amounts from transactions categorized as "Taxes : State Income Tax -
previous year". So far so good. And there it stops.

Tax Estimator doesn't add the amounts from this "State taxes" tax category
into the "Deductible Taxes" value of the estimate. Nor does it use it
anywhere else in Tax Estimator. Put in a gazillion dollars against the tax
category "State taxes". The Tax Estimator's result doesn't change. This
despite the fact that Tax Line Manager correctly suggests that State taxes
go on Schedule A.

The work around is to redefine any real categories you have associated with
the "State taxes" on Schedule A tax category to be associated with "Other
taxes" on Schedule A tax category.

This is another example of what I often stress: you HAVE TO validate the
results from Money. It's pretty apparent Microsoft never has.