PSA - Teach your kids to file their taxes

[Karen in CO]

Grrr.

I talked to my ds this morning. I've been after him since January to figure out if he made enough money to file taxes. This morning, he was shocked to find that he needed to add up his earnings so he could do his taxes today. AND neither of his roommates knew they needed to do taxes. At least all three had kept their pay stubs. At 7am, I was sitting in my jammies, drinking my first cuppa coffee and wondering where I went wrong while on the other side of the world the three of them were amazed at how "grown up" taxes are.

 

So please, teach your kids to file taxes.

[Ohdanigirl]

LOL. I sat down with the last one of my BIL's in March to teach him how to do his taxes. Next year they are all on their own.

[dirty ethel rackham]

LOL! Dh is 50 and has never done his. His dad was a CPA and did his taxes for him. After we got married, I did them. My dad sat me down after I got my first job as a teen and taught me how to do it. But, that reminds me, one ds needs to do his because he has some withholding to get back. Neither of my boys made enought to need to file, but one did not fill out his w-4 properly and had withholding.

[G5052]

Yes, I'm even emphasizing that it is a *duty* that must be planned for, period. You live in a country/state/county, and you do your taxes as part of your citizenship. Even if you have to hire it done, you do it.

 

Can you tell that I have a sibling who doesn't see it this way? It makes me sad.

[Harriet Vane]

I was never taught to file taxes, just told that I had to do it. I picked up a 1040EZ form at the library and sallied forth. The IRS bounced it back to me saying I had done it wrong. Their calculations resulted in more money for me, so I was pleased that the government chose to help, lol. The same scenario happened every single year (literally) for the next six years. I received the same IRS letter with recalculation every single year until I got married and dh took over the taxes.

[Joker]

I was never taught to do it either, but I knew it was supposed to be done. I picked up the forms from the library every year and filled them out myself. I still do the taxes myself, but now I do them online. I will let our dds know they need to do their taxes but I'm sure they are already aware because we do talk about it. If they need help, they know I will be here but I don't think I will be nagging them about it.

[Kelly1730]

I don't remember being taught to do them either. I did our taxes by hand from the time we were married until the turbo tax stuff became available and then dh decided he wanted to do them :sneaky2:. So now he does fed and state and I still do local cuz you can't turbo tax that. I did our kids taxes until they moved out and we just helped our 21yo dd do her taxes this weekend. She gets married in May so it will no longer be our problem. I am determined to teach our last two to do their taxes whenever they get their first part-time jobs!

[Karen in CO]

I've done my taxes since I was 16 which let me start with a 1040EZ. His first taxes are going to be for foreign earned income. Today, I've decided to be happy that he earned enough to file taxes. Next, we need to figure out how he can pay his student loans from his Japanese bank account. All kinds of life-lessons that young adults need which we never knew we would need to teach.

[Miss Marple]

I sat with my 17 year old a couple months ago and we went through the online filing system. He was getting money back so he was very motivated to do it. The oldest is finishing up his first year of employment and had to file his. He gets nervous whenever confronted with anything new and out of his comfort zone. Dh successfully talked him into trying to file taxes himself rather than paying his uncle (a CPA). Ds was sure it was going to be a nightmare because he was part year in one state and part in another. He is also paying tuition for his wife and they have 2 residences (2 apartments - 1 in each state). I'm happy to say that he plodded through it and got it done. And he feels very proud of himself :)

[Butter]

I am totally weird. My parents still like to talk about how when I was 16 and had my first job, in March Daddy told me he was going to get his taxes done and would take my info with him and have mine done as well. My response was that I had filed my taxes the beinning of February and had already received my refund. I'm just weird like that. I still love filing taxes.

[Jane in NC]

Perhaps this is part of the need to teach general Financial Literacy to our kids.

[Miss Marple]

Perhaps this is part of the need to teach general Financial Literacy to our kids.

 

 

Our state department of education requires a financial literacy course in high school for all students. Homeschoolers don't have to meet that requirement, but we did it anyway using the University of Oklahoma online high school. It was an excellent course. It was far more in-depth than anything I would have taught.

[Halcyon]

I was never taught. I did know i was supposed to do it, but didnt haventhe faintest clue where to begin. But i did it.

 

My sister....well, she's self employed, and always has been. She never filed taxes. Oops. When she turned 36 she called the irs to ask whether she was "supposed to". The woman on the phone just burst out laughing, she was so shocked. Needless to say, my sister had to pay a LOT of back taxes.

[elegantlion]

We learned to avoid my dad while he did taxes. He spent weeks on them and had the special folding table laid out during tax season. He never taught us how to do them though. I learned to do them on my own, including doing self-employment taxes for dh (pauses for own personal rant offline - never again).

 

You're right, I need to show him HOW to do them, not just that they need to be done. EZ forms are easy, A forms not so much, long forms UGH!. I can totally see my ds thinking he didn't need to file because he lived out of the country.

[Pegasus]

Yep. I've done my own taxes since I was a teen. While I was still a dependent, I had to calculate them twice each year because my father would make up the difference in the tax refund I "lost" by being declared a dependent on his taxes. I don't think I ever thanked him for that. *regrets*

 

Most basic returns are pretty simple these days using a software program.

[Luckymama]

I am literally, via text, walking ds through the 1040EZ efile right now. He is shocked he's getting a chunk of money back :)