The gist: Your state tax refund is taxable by the IRS because it was called a 'refund' rather than a 'stimulus'.

Blood thirsty CUNTs

You can blame the state legislators who apparently can't read tax law.

If you don’t itemize, it’s not taxed (in MA).

This only affects you if you itemized, which unlikely impacts most of us peasants.

Actually this is on Chuckie Baker. His administration rushed to return to taxpayers that 14%. If he had waited for the Legislature to act like they had said they would, they could've done it in a way to avoid the federal tax liability.

The legislature wanted to try and retroactively change the law so that they would they could determine the amounts, as opposed to what the law currently allows for. There was pretty substantial disagreement in the legislature about how they would actually do it, let alone if Baker would sign what they sent him. All this would’ve done was delay and likely reduce the payments people would’ve got.

Nice. Tax the already taxed money lol

If you used it as a deduction on your tax return, then it wasn't already taxed. It's not taxable if you didn't use it as a deduction.

I think my jest is that it was because they claimed we as a state went over the tax threshold so here ya go. Made me just go it’s the money we paid in taxes, but I get what you mean. This is why I’m not in any sort of finance tax job l

Only 13% of taxpayers itemize, so 87% automatically won't have to pay tax on the refund. Out of the 13%, only those who didn't pay at least $10k in state tax will have to claim the refund as earnings. Since the vast majority of people who itemize are high earners, this is a very small number of people. I'd suspect the percent of people who will have to pay tax on the refund will be in the very low single digits, maybe even 1% or less of the population.

Interesting, thanks for the info

I’m still screwed for 2021… oh working yourself into debt I love the American dream. Feels like someone holding your head underwater whilst picking your wallet. Game isn’t worth the candle I really wanna just give up.

I still can't file my taxes because the IRS fucked up some obscure line item, and TurboTax is shitting itself over it. The planned fix is "someday."

It was always a cash advance.

Could they make this shit any more confusing?

>Could they make this shit any more confusing?

What they're doing, which is treating it like any other tax refund, actually is the simple thing, since it's just applying all the ordinary rules, the way most people assumed they would.

OK, those ordinary rules are complicated (but only if you itemize, which most don't)

But this particular refund check not being "special" compared to other refund checks is the simple thing.

Want to argue it shouldn't be taxable at all? Well, that wouldn't go over too well, because it actually is a refund of taxes paid, and for a handful of people it is very large refund - which is to say money they've never paid federal taxes on. So if you were going to make it not taxable for little people, but still taxable for the handful who got big checks, then you have to go make it complicated again by writing new limit or phaseout rules.

That's why ruling it should be treated like any other refund check is the simplest thing that could have actually worked.

This guy taxes

Just find a CPA.

Anyone know if this will be updated in TurboTax? I’m not sure where I would enter this manually.

Doesn’t matter, this is a nothingburger.

The state returned payments to you, so you didn’t pay state tax. Since you didn’t pay the tax, the tax you didn’t pay is now not deductible elsewhere (for the small percentage of people for whom this matters).

I hope the state government refunds even more tax next year. Good that Baker set the precedent for how this must be done which will make it very difficult for Healy to do it another way.

Should we now be expecting additional 1099 from ma, or should we just look it up in our bank accounts and report it?

Wondering if I should wait or just scrawl it on paper for the accountant. I really want to drop my stuff off already without more waiting.

No. Stimulus wouldn't be distributed fairly. I wouldn't get a dime from this stimulus. I'm ok paying the feds because that's the money I would pay anyway if the ma tax was lower.

No. State taxes are not taxed.

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same.. Mine is because of some silly student loan interest that they made a mistake at certain income.. apparently it will be fixed by the 19th.... we shall see

Taxation is still a Ponzi scheme.

No issue providing for schools, emergency services, roads, healthcare for the elderly, and social security...

But the bullshit that's been woven into the US tax process to leech off of people is fucking vile.

So what if I already filed and got my return? Do I need to amend it? I didn’t itemize not sure if that matters.

You should have gotten a 1099-G from the state.

Enter it just like you would any other state tax refund received in 2022.

The question is whether you itemized last year (2021 tax year). If you didn’t, then you don’t have to include the refund on your 2022 taxes.

Ok I will check it. I just filed all that stuff away as it arrived and didn’t stop to notice it included this payment. Thanks

Thank you for the reply, no I haven’t ever itemized.

Are you sure it’s the IRS and not Turbo Tax? It could be either.

Nope, definitely the IRS. Its happening to people using H&R Block, too.