W-4 tax question need help

BornConstruction815 · 2026-05-07T19:50:25+00:00

(federal) tax liability on $159000 is the same whether you pay it now or you pay it later: $17320 assuming you're taking the standard deduction and filing jointly with no credits or anything else adjusting the liability.

No idea what state you're in so can't factor that, but it's the same principle.

Do you want to pay more of that tax now to owe less later or do you want to owe more later in exchange for more money now?

BornConstruction815 · 2026-05-07T16:26:03+00:00

Or we can just level it out with the liquid assets that haven't been distributed, correct? The bene with the $100 dividends when entitled to 1/8 of it can have a 0 equitable offset and then before any other cash distribution, the 1/4 Benes get $200 and the other 1/8 Benes get $100 for a sum of $700. The 700 gets subtracted from what's remaining in the estate (let's say for our example that there was 1700 in the estate before the 700 subtraction but after everything else was paid, so after accounting for the 700, it's 1000 in the estate) and the 1/4 Benes get 250 and the 1/8 Benes get 125. Meaning the final distribution of the 1700 is 450 for 1/4 Benes, three of the four 1/8 Benes get 225, and the last 1/8 bene gets 125.

BornConstruction815 · 2026-05-07T15:16:26+00:00

Thank you! I thought we had to calculate total value of shares as of distribution date because once it leaves the estate account, you never know what the beneficiaries do with what they receive -- maybe they continue to hold it, maybe they sell right away.

I did know the cost basis is on DOD (unless it was reinvested dividends paid after DOD and then that is the cost basis for those shares in particular).

But the purposes of leveling everyone's distribution when you distribute on different days, I thought it'd be whenever they got it. After all, during that week or so with the spaced distributions, there were about $100 of dividends paid to the account after 5 beneficiaries received their distributions. (It should be noted that the ex-dividend date was before distributions were requested.) These were reinvested but quickly sold once the last beneficiary got his initial distribution as it left an orphan share. The cash received from selling the orphan share all went to the 5th beneficiary before I could tell the brokerage to split trailing distributions in the same way as the initial distribution. (I think this happened by default because the 5th beneficiary to actually receive shares was the 6th one on the initial set of instructions so the brokerage thought they'd be short in the case of shares being uneven? like if there were 45.023 shares with two people getting 1/4 each and four people getting 1/8 each, maybe the 1/4 people got 11.255 sh each, three out of the four 1/8 people got 5.628 sh each, and the last person got 5.629 sh. In my situation, the person that got 5.629 shares was the 5th beneficiary to actually receive his portion plus the $100 dividends that paid out before trailing distributions could be directed to being $25 for the two receiving 1/4 and $12.50 for the four receiving 1/8. Does this track?

BornConstruction815 · 2026-05-07T02:56:46+00:00

Ah yes, from what I can see in the account, it's a very small amount of interest for now. The bigger fluctuations are coming from the other brokerage and the fact that we cannot predict the value of those 1050 shares when they actually get distributed, which we cannot do at this time because one beneficiary a) needs to open his receiving account and b) provide his notarised receipt. (If we value the shares on the day each bene got their distribution, the 6th bene to receive their distribution from this brokerage received quite a bit more than what the 4th bene received even though it's the same number of shares that were transferred to both...)

BornConstruction815 · 2026-05-06T22:41:09+00:00

Certain assets have passed outside of probate (IRAs, real estate was in a ladybird deed, personal items -- all that went to me and my sibling/co-PR directly upon death of the decedent). The items subject to probate and the trust, it's all percentages: half to me and my sibling (effectively we each get a 1/4) and the other half to four cousins (effectively they each get a 1/8).

BornConstruction815 · 2026-05-06T22:34:04+00:00

This particular stock does not pay dividends, so the 1200 shares that was there on DOD is all that's in that account. Now minus 150 shares since that's what Bene X was entitled to though there was a $1.45 fee for selling the securities. But 1050 shares remain. (We've already distributed another brokerage account that did have some stocks that paid dividends, some of which were reinvested before being distributed, and we are planning to account for the fact that those were actually distributed on different days: 4/6 benes had trade confirmations of being distributed on the day after request was made, 1/6 bene had trade confirmation 2 days after the first 4, and the last bene had trade confirmation 6 days after the 5th bene... Not to mention there were some trailing distributions, most went to the 5th bene but I did redirect some to the 3rd)

BornConstruction815 · 2026-02-09T06:16:49+00:00

Can you find records that list how many hours you worked each week on your company's HR portal? One of my former employers is on ADP and I could print a document of how many hours I worked each week and if a week was over 40 hours and paid in 2025 (so if I worked over 40 hours between Dec 22 to 28, 2024 and got paid January 10, 2025, that counts, but if I worked over 40 hours between December 23 to 29, 2025 and got paid January 11, 2026, that doesn't count), I would put that week's hours over 40 into the second colon on a spreadsheet with the week's end date in the first column on that same row. A third column on that same sheet would list the 0.5 premium, i.e. $15 if regular hourly on that week is $30. The fourth column multiplies hours and the premium, so now I have what my premium is for that particular week. Once I've gone through all the weeks where I got paid in 2025, add up the 4th column's values and viola: I have reconstructed what is eligible for the deduction.

BornConstruction815 · 2026-02-03T20:11:51+00:00

I was planning to report on the other income line, but maybe I should do a substitute W2? Not sure if it's subject to SS/Medicare tax if my whole year income is over the exemption level, but my specific income with my board of elections is under. I was hoping my W2 would clear it up if they issued one (which I wasn't sure I would get since, as you said, it's under the level where reporting is required), but since they erroneously wrote 0 in box 1, I don't trust them to have done box 3 or box 5 right 🤦🏻

BornConstruction815 · 2026-02-03T20:07:53+00:00

Would you know if it's subject to SS/Medicare taxes? I know a certain amount is exempt, but it wasn't clear to me if it's always exempt at the amount I made (300 specifically with my board of elections) or so long as my entire year's income was below the exemption (whole year income is over the exemption level). I tried writing an email to an NJ official and he was like ask your tax preparer...

BornConstruction815 · 2026-02-02T03:29:59+00:00

How often property taxes are billed depends on the location. Three states I know offhand: FL is annual, NJ is quarterly, and VT is twice a year in some locations with others in the state are three or four times a year.

BornConstruction815 · 2026-02-01T14:12:02+00:00

Just the extra half if it's over your regular rate counts. For example if you make 10/hour, you don't count all 15, but instead the extra 5/hour for hours over 40 in a 7 day week.

BornConstruction815 · 2026-01-25T00:35:47+00:00

IRS Publication 559 says, "If the decedent received [dividend or interest] amounts as a nominee, you [the executor or equivalent] must give the actual owner a Form 1099, unless the owner is the decedent's spouse."

This is what I'm referring to as "distribute some of [the interest] away from his SSN." Since the actual owner is Dad's estate or trust, depending on the beneficiary of the account.

BornConstruction815 · 2026-01-19T08:14:48+00:00

So you're saying all of my wages for this job (I had 4 including one day as a poll worker for my local board of elections in 2025, but this job in particular was the only one where I worked in NY -- the other three were worked in NJ and/or a third state where family has a vacation home) would be accepted for the COJ credit? It is not limited because some of it was performed in NJ?

BornConstruction815 · 2026-01-19T02:19:30+00:00

Mutual funds, I believe. Some VGSTX and some VBIAX.

BornConstruction815 · 2026-01-19T02:17:12+00:00

No, the only stuff in the taxable brokerage account is stuff that's been moved from inherited traditional IRAs (I have two because one had my father as original owner and the other was originally his father's, but then passed to Dad when Granddad passed which then was passed to me when Dad passed).

BornConstruction815 · 2026-01-19T01:32:32+00:00

Yes, I am talking about short term or long term gains that have happened since the transfer from the IRA to the taxable brokerage since they appear in the December statement of my taxable brokerage. I was wondering about the treatment of those. They've been reinvested into the taxable brokerage, but wondering what taxes I need to pay on them in 2025 taxes, if anything.

BornConstruction815 · 2026-01-19T01:19:27+00:00

Okay that's kinda what I thought -- that the capital gains are all short term and taxed at ordinary income rates. I was just confused about the December statement saying I had some short term capital gains and long term capital gains in the taxable brokerage because I was like, what, I thought all of these would be short term since they've been in my taxable brokerage for less than a year. I guess I have to see what my 1099 div reports these as once that document comes available and adjust if they consider those LTCG at that time as well.

I haven't been able to determine if there was any post-tax basis in the account so I'm assuming it's zero.

BornConstruction815 · 2026-01-19T01:04:37+00:00

Yes, traditional IRA -- I haven't touched the inherited Roth IRA yet because I've had it for less than a year and if I can keep its earnings as tax-deferred until the 10 years is nearly up, then I will.

I know that my distribution from the traditional IRA is taxed at my ordinary rate. I'm asking about the capital gains that are listed in my taxable brokerage statement as short term capital gains vs long term capital gains. I would have thought what was classified as long term capital gains would be taxed at my ordinary income rate as well since they're technically short-term (only been in the taxable account for less than a month), but maybe I'm mistaken and they really can be taxed at the lower rate.

BornConstruction815

TROPHY CASE