I don’t know, I think it might be. Like, line 1a on the 1040 just says enter your w2 income. It’s the first thing they want. And it’s one of the few lines they already know. And the instructions will tell you simply to enter the total income reported in a specific box of all w2’s you’ve received. Then between lines 1b+ and lines 2+ and lines from additional schedules you account for income from other sources. And this is all before getting to business income and capital gains and stuff with different tax treatment. There are like 30 lines to report different types of income that will be treated exactly the same as wages. It’s not clear why the IRS cares to split these up but clearly the accounting matters to them.
FWIW I think you might be on the right track. The accounting shouldn’t be the hard part. Collecting documentation can be hard if you don’t have good records. Subjective valuations of deductions and adjustments is where you need professional help. Neither of those are the case here. This is almost certainly a common enough situation that the IRS has specific rules on how to handle it and the accounting should be as simple as put this number in this box, put this number in this other box, perform basic arithmetic. I’d look through the instructions for the paper forms if you haven’t already, they cover the accounting pretty thoroughly and can give you good insight even if you’re using turbo tax. Specifically for the 1040, schedule D, and 8949. Ask HR how they got their numbers, why it was accounted for differently between 2021 and 2022, check their answer against your records of the stock purchase/sale and your understanding of how it should be accounted. If there’s a mistake have them correct it. Then do your taxes again using the correct numbers and correct accounting. Sanity check the results to ensure that the income/gains/losses/tax all look correct. If the inputs look right and the accounting looks right and the results look right it’s probably right.
We have a business so once we switched over to a CPA I will never go back. I guarantee I’ve done no worse on money and then when you add it the time savings…. And I probably pay about 1500 a year. They also handle some payroll duties for us as well. Seems expensive but it’s worth it. I think the personal side is 500-600 range.
My return isn’t that complicated. It’s still under an hour with turbotax once all the documents (which I would have to gather for an accountant anyway) are together.
I’ve just started looking for another house. I don’t personally know any realtors in the area but I got a recommendation and Googling confirms she’s at least full time with active listings. We’re starting to look at stuff tomorrow and it looks like I’ve been passed off to a “showing specialist.” I believe this person works under the realtor as an assistant, not another realtor that will be taking over entirely. I know realtors hate being buyer’s agents cause it’s the more time consuming side and as a practical matter I only want someone to open doors and submit paperwork so maybe an exploited assistant is the way to go. Can’t help but feel a bit snubbed though. Should I care enough to do anything about it? Find another agent? Say something about it? Is it better to be passed off to an assistant vs some other agent in the realty group? I assume I’ll need to sign some exclusive agreement tomorrow so I want to make sure I’m judging everything correctly.
If you’re going to use a buyer’s agent, the main benefits are:
They can screen the MLS for you.
They can pass on general knowledge about the process, as well as specific knowledge about the neighborhood, the history of the house, the opposing realtor, etc.
They can help you either negotiate or at least be the face of your negotiations.
I’ve never bought a property with a buyer’s agent, but if I did I don’t think it would matter to me who was accompanying me when I first viewed a property, especially since I assume on an initial visit that the seller’s realtor is going to be there and leading the tour.
Also, keep in mind that if your realtor is successful, then presumably she has at least a reasonably competent assistant whose works enables the realtor to be successful.
1 is not happening so far, all of the properties I’m viewing today have been a result of my own screening and saying “I want to look at this one.” Which is maybe a red flag, idk. I’ve bought two houses before and both times those realtors were pushing properties for my consideration right out of the gate. I’d like to think I can screen my own properties cause I know what I want better than anyone, but the last house I bought was one I wrote off in my own screening until the realtor convinced me to check it out anyway. Also I kind of just want the realtor to be pushing stuff so I know she’s motivated and I’m not dragging her away from something else she’d rather be doing when the perfect house comes on the market and I want to view it ASAP. So yeah I guess it’s a red flag. But also maybe dealing with the assistant will alleviate that cause it’s the kind of grunt work she signed up for.
2 and 3 are TBD I guess. The head realtor at least seems like she’s knowledgeable cause I was naming property addresses and she knew the houses I was talking about without even looking them up. To include a home that sold 6 months ago that I mentioned as an example of what I wanted to find.
I ended up finding a new realtor. I had basically no communication with the first one that I didn’t initiate. The “showing specialist” that she had us working with was in fact another realtor with near zero experience who was recently hired to do the grunt work, and I realized that does kind of matter. She was completely passive and I remembered the last time I bought a house it was actually nice working with someone who was actively critiquing and finding things and thinking about stuff that I wouldn’t have thought of.
The loan officer she wanted to use was horrifically bad, I had to correct him on some basic facts and he tried to tell me “don’t worry about the interest rate so much cause they’ll be back down soon and you can refinance.” Maybe not a dealbreaker in a vacuum cause I can find my own loan officer but I gotta question her judgment overall if she wanted to use him.
Full dealbreaker was we viewed a house on Friday that I had some interest in, the showing specialist got word that there was an offer on it like an hour later, she had enough sense to talk to the seller’s agent and get them to hold off so we could submit a competing offer, I texted the head agent to see what we could do, and… silence. For 3 hours. First thing I heard back was that the house got sold. Then I made it clear that it would be nice if they could find some properties to tour so I’m not doing all the work, maybe find some premarket listings that I can’t see myself, and that I was free all weekend. Silence again until Monday.
Probably, but again that seems like bad judgment. Unless I’m underestimating the margins involved in writing loans the kickback can’t be anywhere close to the absurd realtor commissions. That can’t be worth your reputation. And now I’m not going to trust her home inspector or appraiser or closing agent and I can’t evaluate those on my own until they’ve done their jobs for me so it’s pretty important that I trust she’s recommending good people.
In my experience there is never a reason to use a realtor’s recommended lender as anything except one competing offer and maybe a pre-qualifying letter. Inspector, sure I would get a recommendation, but lender is something you should find on your own. I’m sure you have a bank or credit union you already have a relationship with you can get an offer from them along with another big bank or online option.
Yeah that’s what I do. Used my bank for an initial pre-qualification to get a realtor to talk to me, use the realtor’s preferred loan officer to write commitment letters for offers, shop around when an offer is accepted. I do think it’s nice though to take the best offer back to the realtor’s person so they can match it. Both because I’ve abused them for letters while shopping so it’s the least I can do and because it’s important for the realtor and loan officer to communicate well to arrange everything for closing and I assume an existing relationship helps there. No way I’m using someone for the final loan if I don’t trust their basic competency though.
Brag: my realtor not only recommended a lender that had lower rates than anywhere I could find published online, not only reviewed my application and sent me a pre-approval letter within hours, but also on demand would personally called seller’s agents to promise a quick and smooth underwriting process to facilitate closing, a promise that they then delivered on.
My realtor gave a host of reasons to use her lending contact, primarily their rate would be as low as anyone and big banks didn’t move fast enough to be remotely competitive in a market where a lot of properties received all cash offers. I was insanely skeptical but she turned out to be correct and on the up and up.
There’s going to be an enormous gap between a successful realtor that actually closes 2+ deals per month in a major market vs a wannabe that does 2-3 deals in their entire (rather short) career I’m guessing. I would expect 90%+ of the realtors out there to be the latter type.
And generally speaking I really don’t like other salespeople, but respect where respect is due… the people with volume usually have volume for a reason.
California is giving people a 20% down payment if they’re first time homebuyers, with the catch being you repay the loan when you sell, refi, or transfer ownership of the house along with 15-20% of the equity in the home you buy.