On Dec 23, 3:42*pm, "Gil Faver" <rowdy'sb...[at]xxyz.com> wrote:
- quote -

As we said, If you leave something out you won't get the right
answer. The site you list doesn't have an input window for dividends
and interest nor how much of those dividends are Qualified, or tax
free income that would affect your taxable social security. It leaves
up to you to figure any credits or deductions. I think It would be
easier to enter the same data on a complete tax program where you know
the basis of its assumptions and find out the actual AMT for verious
situations.

ed

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"Gil Faver" <rowdy'sboss[at]xxyz.com> wrote in message
news:jnbaj.60389$MJ6.24470[at]bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
- quote -

thanks for the replies. Now, to answer my own question, here is a site that
will give you a free, rough estimate.

http://personal.fidelity.com/plannin...877&buf=999999

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<< ------------------------------------------------------- > << The foregoing was not intended or written to be used, > << nor can it used, for the purpose of avoiding penalties > << that may be imposed upon the taxpayer. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting posts > << to this newsgroup as well as our anti-spamming policy > << are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2007) - All rights reserved. > << ------------------------------------------------------- >

On Dec 20, 9:31*pm, dapperdobbs <George...[at]hotmail.com> wrote:
- quote -

The problem of having to input all your data is logical. How can you
get accurate output if you don't supply complete data? However, with
a spradsheet calculator you can omit a lot of stuff if you want
inaccurate output, or realize it is unnecessary for your problem.
What would you omit? Just as you do in completing a 1040 you leave
blank lines that do not apply to you, and if you fail to insert a
freal value your AGI will be inaccurately low.

ed

On Dec 20, 9:31*pm, dapperdobbs <George...[at]hotmail.com> wrote:
- quote -

Since you're attempting to reduce (or calculate) your installment
payments to at least avoid any penalties you need a calcuator
specifically designed to compute the AI installments for the coming/
current year, not last year. Such products are available on the net--
google 2210 tax calculator (the "calculator" is necessary to weed
out the generall 2210 comments). These are usually more current (up
to date) than last year's TT, TC or TA which do a fine job of this,
but after the fact. Also, most "tax estimators" are based on last
year's tax rates, can't compute AMT form 6251 or (usually admitted)
can't really annualize which is a bit more complicated than you could
imagine. Usually Publication 505 tries to guide you in this regard
but it is really inadequate in that it's worksheets are rediculously
complicated and fail to address credits or AMT other that to tell you
you must consider them. duh They are also a lot cheaper than even
last year's TT (since this year's TT isn't availabe until next
December).

Since these calculators don't have to deal with tax rules, just
calucations, they are in spreadsheet format, usually resembling in
some mannor an actual form 1040 and other forms, and indlude at least
auto-calucated AMT form 6251, Schedule D Worksheets and Schedule A
instead of the normal tax program Q & A format. Making a change,
such as the current AMT Exemptions revision takes the publisher oly
minutes to do so such IRS changes are usually available immediately.
As a spreadsheet, when you change an input value you can read out its
influence on other forms and final taxes immediately. State
calculators are generally not available, but each State has their
forms available on the net, which are considerable less complicated
(usually) than the IRS 1040.

ed

Gil Faver

It sounds like it would be well worth your $$ to pick up a piece of
tax software that offers a Federal and State return (Turbo Tax or
others out there). Generally, as I recall, the reason for making an
early ES payment is to max the Federal Sch_A deduction for the year in
which the early payment is made (for whatever reasons).

You can run spreadhseets with Federal and state computations, but tax
software is much more convenient. With only minimal checking to be
sure you didn't make a mistake and that the bottom line taxes due
makes sense, all you have to do is pro-forma the 1040 numbers. You can
run a very small spreadsheet to keep track of pro-forma scenarios, and
some "easy button" percentage formulas to compare effective rates
under different scenarios. (E.g. "Increase in Tax Due" / "Increase in
Income" = "Effective Rate" ... as long as that's less than 1, we're
still a country ... I heard in Germany it is sometimes > 1 :-[

The TurboTax Fed & State package is about $70 bucks I think, and is
probably available off the shelf as of a week ago. Hope I addressed
your question.

In article
<94718692-6050-45fa-aebf-af3105c7c2a2[at]b40g2000prf.googlegroups.com> ,
dapperdobbs <GeorgeCFL[at]hotmail.com> wrote:

- quote -

Of course we will have to wait for the IRS to officially issue the
forms, but from what I get from the legislation (House Report 110-431 -
TEMPORARY TAX RELIEF ACT OF 2007), they extended the same AMT provisions
that were in place for 2006 with the exceptions:

(a) In General- Paragraph (1) of section 55(d) (relating to
exemption amount) is amended--

(1) by striking `($62,550 in the case of taxable years beginning in
2006)' in subparagraph (A) and inserting `($66,250 in the case of
taxable years beginning in 2007)', and

(2) by striking `($42,500 in the case of taxable years beginning in
2006)' in subparagraph (B) and inserting `($44,350 in the case of
taxable years beginning in 2007)'.

This would appear to increase the exemption amount on form 6251 for
single or HOH and MFJ by the amounts shown.

They also changed some refundable credit

--
-Ernie-

Thank you for data. (I skipped searching the Congressional Record and
instead came here - to be rewarded with an answer.)

On the topic of this thread - how to plan ahead - I'll be doing
annualized ES for 2008 (2007 income was unusually high). It seems
planning ahead is growing increasingly difficult, and I'm not sure
Congress is the party to blame - hedge fund type activity and
participation in that type of product all the way down to money-market
funds seems to me to be the more likely culprit in distorting the
financial system away from the understandable ... and predictable.
Those "guys" (sarcasm deeply intended) run models to profit (or lose)
from 6 basis points, talking pseudo-sophisticated risk management
(hah!) and pawning their stuff off on banks, pension plans, and on
down the 'food chain' - today, anyone with money market funds has
exposure to hedge fund machinations. (Sorry about the emotional show -
I dislike hedge funds.) This, it seems, spreads the frenzy of highly
leveraged quickly changing balances. In simpler terms, it shortens the
time frame. That (in my hypothesis) makes planning more and more
difficult.

Two major factors in the infamous stock market crash of 1929 were a)
lack of disclosure and b) leverage. Today we have well-paid
professionals doing the same thing. There ain't no excuse for it.

Alan wrote:
- quote -

GWB said he will sign it.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/...:H.R.3996.EAS:

Gil Faver wrote:
- quote -

doesn't require a draft 1040. In addition, without any
Congressional action and GWB signature, the AMT exemptions that
existed in 2006 will revert back to tax year 2000 levels in 2007
and certain tax credits will not be allowed against AMT. In other
words, it's a mess.

All that said, here are the AMT exemptions for 2005, 2006 and
2007 as of this moment in time. Who knows where Congress where
set the new level.

http://www.taxingsubjects.com/Archiv...e21/art10.html

Living in a high state income tax state, I am occasionally subject to the
AMT. How do I do a rough calculation to see if it makes sense to pay my Q4
state income tax estimated payment by December 31, rather than January 15?

This year my taxable income will go up, which suggests I can pay a greater
amount of state income tax without getting hit by the AMT. On the other
hand, if I wait until January 15 for my Q4 payment, next year's state tax
payments will be extra high, with next year's estimated state payments all
being increased based on 2007 taxable income.

Is there a rule of thumb or quick calculation? The IRS AMT "assistant"
seems to want you to have your tax form completely filled out before it can
"assist".

thanks.