Accountants Field a Variety of Tax Queries
By Betty Lin-Fisher
Beacon Journal business writer
Posted Feb 23, 2010
Akron, Ohio - Volunteer staff accountants and certified public accountants fielded 114 calls Monday night in a Beacon Journal call-in program with several asking about the Making Work Pay Tax Credit, which provides a refundable tax credit of up to $400 for individuals and up to $800 for married taxpayers filing joint returns.
For people who receive a paycheck and are subject to withholding, the credit was typically handled by their employers through automated withholding changes. However, to claim the credit, filers will need to complete a Schedule M form with their return.
CPA Cindy Mitchell was asked about a woman and her husband filing separate returns, but one spouse had taken the standard deductions and the other wanted to itemize.
Mitchell told her that both spouses, even when filing separate returns, must do the same, so either take the standard deductions or itemized deductions.
Asked how spouses can determine whether it is more beneficial to file returns jointly or separately, Mitchell said typically for federal returns, it's better to file jointly to get a better tax rate. However, the exception is when the two spouses have similar salaries.
Ohio only has one tax rate and does not have separate classifications as the federal — such as single, married filing jointly, etc. So for some couples, it might be beneficial to do returns married filing separately so they can both get the lower tax rate individually instead of getting taxed at a higher rate for the second $100,000 in earnings, she said. In essence, the one rate for Ohio can be equated to a marriage tax penalty and the credit the state provides sometimes is not enough to make up the difference in filing separately instead of jointly, she said.
Mitchell suggested couples with similar incomes run the numbers for the state return to see if it's beneficial to file separately. If it is, they must also file separately for the federal return and will have to decide if the two returns together will work out better.
Ohio Department of Taxation spokesman Mike McKinney said the state doesn't give advice, but said taxpayers are ''free to look at the tax laws and to file in a manner that provides them the maximum refund or least amount of liability.''
CPA Bruce E. Manes took a call from a woman who doesn't work, so will not need to file a tax return. However, she wondered if her live-in boyfriend could claim her son on his taxes. The boy's father pays child support.
Manes told the woman that the boyfriend could not claim her son because it had to be his child or they would have to be married. Also, the boyfriend was not paying more than 50 percent of expenses since the father was paying child support.
The woman told Manes that her boyfriend had already claimed the boy and filed his taxes. Manes said the return would need to be amended and that once the father files his taxes and claims the boy, the father's taxes would most likely be rejected before being able to get it straightened out.
CPA Michael Hydell took a call from a woman with a disabled adult brother, who had been living with her for years. Hydell told the woman that she should be claiming head of household with her brother as a qualified child. His disability gets him out of the age requirement for a child dependent, but still allows her to claim him as a child dependent since he lives with her year-round and she pays for at least 50 percent of his expenses.
Hydell advised the woman to amend her taxes, but told her she would only be able to amend for the past three years.
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