AARP Tax-Aide Tool List (2024)

(AKA Pension Exclusion Calculator)
Given the taxpayer's retirement date (first retirement paycheck) and taxpayerand spouse birthdates, calculates an exclusion table by year and a sample form forTaxSlayer^® input. Also handles the Public Safety Officer insurance exclusion.

Rather than search through the entire list of business codes,click on headers to expand that portion of the list until a suitable code is found.

A Colorado-specific table that lists the city and county local sales taxrates for use in Schedule A for those counties you select.

Is a dependent a child or relative? What benefits might the taxpayer claim as a result?This tool is a combination of all the Pub 4012 charts - without the charts.Choose the various taxpayer and dependent options and see a list of benefits.If they don't qualify for a benefit, click on it to see why not.

There are four different ways to claim education credits,each with their own limits and types of expenses allowed.There are also different funding sources that can be used tax-free for differenttypes of expenses.This calculator provides a way to determine which is best among the most common two (American Opportunity Credit, Lifetime Learning Credit)and can determine the amount of unrestricted scholarships that can be made taxableto maximize the taxpayer's refund.Note: It's best to do parent and dependent student tax returns at the same time.

This tool is for the ERO who has experienced an IRS tax return submission reject due toa mismatched EIN and payer name. The entries in this list has been accumulated fromseveral unverified lists and is by no means complete but may help you find the rightEIN if digits are reversed or entered incorrectly. You can enter either the name or EINfrom the incorrect tax return and indicate the number of mismatched digits for whichyou wish to search. DO NOT USE THIS LIST AS A PRIMARY SOURCE FOR EINS; due to mergers,many companies retain multiple EINs. Links to other suggested sources are also provided.

This is the Form 1040-ES form with considerable expansion,used to estimate taxes for the next year.
This can also be used to do an MFJ/MFS comparison if there are nocomplications in the taxpayers' situation (such as living apart, etc)

This is a combination of the Head of Household Worksheet 2-1(Cost of Keeping Up a Home) and the Pub 17 Worsheet 3-1(Worksheet for Determining Support) — due to the similarity withhousehold expenses used in both worksheets.Once in the tool, select which you want to use.

An implementation of a home sale worksheet that asks the questions needed todetermine if the taxpayer qualifies for an exclusion and assists incalculating the basis of the home being sold. Provides input information forthe TaxSlayer^® home sale worksheet and/or direct entry as a capital gain or losson Form 8949. Does not support partial exclusions (although indicates if thetaxpayer may qualify) and does not support homes that have been used for businessor have sustained casualty losses.

A worksheet for Form 8606 Parts I and II for Nondeductible IRA contributions.It can handle up to 5 IRAs for each taxpayer and indicates the amounttaxable for each IRA if deductions or conversions are taken from more than oneIRA. (Form 8606 computes the total for all transactions.)Also provides the totals for input to create the TaxSlayer^® Form 8606.

MFJ/MFS Comparison

If a home mortgage includes a portion of the funds that were usedto pay expenses for other than for the home or improvements to that home,or if the average monthly sum of all mortgages exceeds a limit,not all the interest is deductible. This may occur for a second or a refinanced mortgage,especially during first few years of the mortgage.Such other expenses might be to pay credit card debt, medical expenses,vacation trips or a new car, as examples.This worksheet helps determine how much of the interest paid on the mortgageis deductible.

TaxSlayer^® provides no assistance in determining the portion ofincome (other than W-2s), adjustments and deductions available fora part-year resident.This worksheet is tailored to Colorado state tax returnsand provides TaxSlayer totals for input to the"Income Subject to Tax" section.

Railroad retirement Tier 1 amounts are not handled correctlyby TaxSlayer^® on Colorado state tax returns.Tier 1 amount is included in the retirement exclusionwhich is limited to 20K/24K and should not bebecause RRB benefits are not taxable and have their own exclusion line.This worksheet determines the amounts that should be removedfrom the pension exclusion and calculates the amount that should be addedas the RRB benefits line on the State Return section of TaxSlayer.Although designed specifically for Colorado it may work for other statesif the problem is the same.

A worksheet for totalling income items, sales tax on large item purchases,and other nontaxable income to be used with the IRS Sales Tax Calculator.See Pub 4012 (NTTC version), section F.Includes many items we often don't remember to ask about.

Can't find the latest version of the Earned Income Tax Credit plots?This tool presents a graphical presentation of the amount of credit available for varioustax credits vs AGI.For simplicity, it assumes all income is earned income and provides options for comparingtax years, filing status and number of children (or students for education credits) orseeing how various credits kick in for a particular year and filing status.The effect of combinations of credits is not considered but will, of course,change the results in a real tax return so you can't just add them together.

TaxSlayer^® determines the taxable amount of the state tax refund based on sales tax andcomparison with the standard deduction.If the taxpayer made estimated payments to the state or had negative taxableincome (may show as 0), there may be a better solution.This calculator includes those other comparisonsso you don't have to do the math.Taxability of other refunds, such as medical repayments, are also includedand can be quite complex when a state tax refund is also present.

This great tool, contributed by [a tax volunteer in Washington state],creates custom forms for training.Create them and then save them on your PC for later use and modification.Last updated in 2023, it produces forms for the current, prior and next calendar year.The zip file contains two installation files - one for Tax-Aide and one for VITA/TCE.
Installation: Copy the executable in the zip file to your desktop.When you run the executable, a new directory is created with the support filesand a desktop icon is (optionally) added.
Note: Some users have reported that a virus is detected on download.The author assured me that the app is clean and the virus alert is erroneous.