Drumroll please
Feb. 12th, 2026 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hrjI think I now have all the data and documents and forms assembled to do my transition-to-retirement-year tax returns. Today's task was to turn last year's financial spreadsheet into my usual yearly summary, then put the relevant data from it and all the various W2s and 1099s and whatnot into my tax data template (which needed to be updated for several new types of documents and data).
Because of how my brain works best, I'm going to go to the length of printing out paper copies of the forms to noodle on, even though I'll be filing online. And I'll be reading through the pdfs of the instruction booklets and highlighting everything that looks relevant. But on my first skim through, I think this is going to be easier than I feared. The schedule C stuff (writing business) is the same as always. And although the worksheet to calculate how much of my social security income is taxable is convoluted, the instructions walk you through it step by step.
One new wrinkle is that they now have a separate "1040-senior" form, evidently to simplify the instructions for the enhanced standard deduction for seniors (which get convoluted if you're married filing jointly but only one of you is a senior). I'll compare it point by point with the standard 1040 to make sure it doesn't do anything else bizarre.
And despite the rather chaotic nature of how my withholding is set up for the various retirement incomes, I think it's still pretty close to the right amount. Once I have this year's returns done, I can probably do a mock return for next year and see what adjustments I should make on the withholding.
Because of how my brain works best, I'm going to go to the length of printing out paper copies of the forms to noodle on, even though I'll be filing online. And I'll be reading through the pdfs of the instruction booklets and highlighting everything that looks relevant. But on my first skim through, I think this is going to be easier than I feared. The schedule C stuff (writing business) is the same as always. And although the worksheet to calculate how much of my social security income is taxable is convoluted, the instructions walk you through it step by step.
One new wrinkle is that they now have a separate "1040-senior" form, evidently to simplify the instructions for the enhanced standard deduction for seniors (which get convoluted if you're married filing jointly but only one of you is a senior). I'll compare it point by point with the standard 1040 to make sure it doesn't do anything else bizarre.
And despite the rather chaotic nature of how my withholding is set up for the various retirement incomes, I think it's still pretty close to the right amount. Once I have this year's returns done, I can probably do a mock return for next year and see what adjustments I should make on the withholding.
no subject
Date: 2026-02-13 01:02 pm (UTC)I haven't checked the continuing availability of free-file fillable forms: the Orange Mussolini was talking about eliminating all that woke nonsense about people being able to file their own taxes without paying a private company. I may still end up with TurboTax again this year anyway, as the reporting of employer-granted stock RSU's is complex and error-prone (I got it wrong a few years ago and had to pay some back taxes and interest when the IRS discovered the error).
no subject
Date: 2026-02-13 04:31 pm (UTC)