I’m excited to share a tax planning tool that I’m thrilled to have discovered prior to the end of the calendar year. I’m not one to over promise or underdeliver, and this thing is simply amazing.
I had previously spent hour upon hour creating a spreadsheet of my own to best approximate my 2020 tax liability to test out how some of the many tweaks available to me would impact various facets of my upcoming tax return, including:– The Sec 199A QBI Deduction– The Child Tax Credit– My Marginal Tax Bracket– Capital Gains Tax Bracket
If you’ve never tried to do this yourself, I’m here to tell you, it’s complicated. One change impacts several calculations, and what might seem like a good idea can be a very bad idea, and vice versa.
Kathryn from Making Your Money Matter proved me wrong. It is possible, and after I published my 2019 tax return, she wrote to me, sending me her ridiculously thorough tax planning spreadsheet that she had pre-filled with the data from my 1040 that I had revealed.
This thing is incredible. She also sent me the 2020 update (one sheet that’s copied and pasted into the “Key Tax Input” sheet), and I got to work plugging in my projected numbers for 2020.
With this powerful tool, I was able to confidently make some year-end tax decisions.I decided to make only traditional, tax-deferred contributions to my individual 401(k). I opted not to make any Roth conversions.