Tax time!

[ls2monaro]

Tax forms are starting to come in, and my wife and I whored ourselves out with overtime in 2016 and made way too much money.

I'm looking for a good tax person in the southern California area. Preferably someone who specializes in law enforcement and/or medical related fields of work.

Any recommendations let me know!

[Tree Cutter]

Police Tax is pretty good. There are offices around LA County.

[micro911]

I use regular CPA and he is pretty good.

[jgstorm]

First place to start would be with your financial advisor. Being one myself, I always have a good group of CPAs I refer out to.

[leman77]

Kington Group
9222 Walker St
Cypress CA
714-995-6995. They specialize in LE tax returns. I use Darren, but anyone there is GTG.

[5.56]

Which tax bracket are you in? If you're in the 25% to 28% tax bracket, you will pay a nearly equal tax in the 28% bracket than if you were in the lower one. The 33% bracket is the crappy one to be in. You'll likely get bent over this year but next year try to plan on saving more into retirement to lower your taxable income(this is what I did).

Don't forget the LE specific write offs for work related expenses. Guns, ammo, uniforms, boots, flashlights(batteries too), duty related gear(even the kiwi polish), part of your cellphone bill if you use a personal phone at work, educational texts, range receipts for when your practice increased your ability as an officer, mileage off duty to and from court(keep those OT slips as an easy way to track it and itemize your mileage at the end of the year), dues towards police associations(FOP and your local POA) and stuff others could add I might be missing.

[MontClaire]

I use HR Block. Confidentiality, guaranteed representation in case of errors, etc.

[veeklog]

Kington Group
9222 Walker St
Cypress CA
714-995-6995. They specialize in LE tax returns. I use Darren, but anyone there is GTG.

Ronnalee Williamson at Kington Group is my accountant, and she is great. I too was paid a lot in OT this year, but since I claim "0" on state and federal, I am not worried.

[ls2monaro]

Which tax bracket are you in? If you're in the 25% to 28% tax bracket, you will pay a nearly equal tax in the 28% bracket than if you were in the lower one. The 33% bracket is the crappy one to be in. You'll likely get bent over this year but next year try to plan on saving more into retirement to lower your taxable income(this is what I did).

Don't forget the LE specific write offs for work related expenses. Guns, ammo, uniforms, boots, flashlights(batteries too), duty related gear(even the kiwi polish), part of your cellphone bill if you use a personal phone at work, educational texts, range receipts for when your practice increased your ability as an officer, mileage off duty to and from court(keep those OT slips as an easy way to track it and itemize your mileage at the end of the year), dues towards police associations(FOP and your local POA) and stuff others could add I might be missing.

I am in the wonderful 33% tax range for sure. Wife is a registered nurse so she has quite a few write offs as well. We own our house, have kids, etc. and I usually use turbo tax but I figure spending a little more on a tax professional might prove to be worth it.

[9M62]

Remember, taxes are progressive. So only the money you earned over the 33% bracket will be taxed at that rate, the stuff below it won't.

Also be sure to go to a knowlegable person. Anything that can be used for something other than work (think extra guns, watches, haircuts, your under shirts etc) cannot be written-off. Lots of people have, and lots of people have gotten away with it, but sometimes they get audited and screwed.

Secondly, be aware that until you meet a given threshold (I think it's 3 or 5% of your gross income) in work-related writeoffs, they won't even be counted towards a deducation for the purposes of lowering your tax rate, and only those over that percentage will.

What does this mean in the real world? In the real world it means I may have $3,500 in work related expenses - legitimately - but lets say for someone making $100,000 --- only $500 would actually count towards lowering your taxable income. What's 30% of $500? $150... so you'd save $150 in taxes and risk the audit to add all of that stuff in there.

It may be worth it, but it may not. Just something to think about before you go adding every little thing.

[keenkeen]

^^^ This.

As a W-2 earner you really don't need anything more than TurboTax...

Unless you have other things going on (investment property, side business, etc).

[A-J]

I am in the wonderful 33% tax range for sure. Wife is a registered nurse so she has quite a few write offs as well. We own our house, have kids, etc. and I usually use turbo tax but I figure spending a little more on a tax professional might prove to be worth it.

Unless you have some really outlandish income and tax issue going on, and assuming you have an IQ higher than a turnip, TurboTax is fine 99% of the time. Not to knock accounts or tax professionals, but the layperson is not going to get sufficient benefit from their expertise to offset the cost of said experise.

[Elchief]

yup couldn't have said it myself. I switched to turbotax after a "professional tax person" left me hanging. for the past 6 years i have filed with turbotax with no issues.most of my office switched after i told them to fill out their income in turbotax but not file and compare with what their regular tax person would get them.

Unless you have some really outlandish income and tax issue going on, and assuming you have an IQ higher than a turnip, TurboTax is fine 99% of the time. Not to knock accounts or tax professionals, but the layperson is not going to get sufficient benefit from their expertise to offset the cost of said experise.

[keenkeen]

^^^ This.

As a W-2 earner you really don't need anything more than TurboTax...

Unless you have other things going on (investment property, side business, etc).

Unless you have some really outlandish income and tax issue going on, and assuming you have an IQ higher than a turnip, TurboTax is fine 99% of the time. Not to knock accounts or tax professionals, but the layperson is not going to get sufficient benefit from their expertise to offset the cost of said experise.

Second verse, same as the first.

[vgourdik]

sent you a pm....concierge service very pro police.....also military taxes to include contractors (not the building type)