How to Avoid a Huge Tax Bill & Penalties with Unemployment Benefits | 3 Things NO ONE is Telling You - YouTube

Channel: Dr. Nitin Chhoda - Ignition Time

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Hi everyone, this is Dr. Nitin Chhoda! In this training video I'm going to
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teach you "How to avoid a huge tax bill. How to avoid interest. How to avoid
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penalties with your unemployment benefits. I'm going to cover three things in this
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training video. The first is that your unemployment benefits including the $600
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week federal booster (which at the time I'm recording this video training is
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going to be available until the 31st of July) it's actually considered ordinary
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income. Number 2, I'll talk about what is ordinary income and number 3, I'll
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give you three ways to offset a huge tax bill with penalties and interest
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associated with this unemployment income. Now before I get started let me say I
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understand the situation that all of my subscribers are going through out there
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if you're receiving unemployment right now and if you don't have a job whether
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you pay taxes or not next year what is ordinary income what is state tax income
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what you need to pay that may not be at the top of your priority list right now
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in fact you might just be saying you know what I don't really care about
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withholding and all of the other things because right now my goal is to put food
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on the table my goal is to pay rent my goal is to make sure my lights don't go
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on I get that I recognize that I empathize
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with that but a lot of subscribers have asked for this training video and also
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I'm trying to help all of us not only survive the present but also plan for
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the future now for my subscribers who are unemployed or who lost their job and
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who are now waiting for an employment you need to be aware that your
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unemployment income including the $600 federal booster is considered ordinary
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income even if you see a significant drop in your total income because your
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wages your salary is gone you could see a tax bill next year because your
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unemployment benefits are considered ordinary income now the fact is a lot of
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individuals on unemployment don't even know or don't even realize that the
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income is considered as ordinary income which is why I wanted to create the
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create this training video and give you some clarity about this situation now
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what is ordinary income ordinary income refers to many different types of income
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that is taxed at the regular US tax brackets this includes wages salaries
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tips and commissions now this does include long term capital gains and
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qualifying dividends both of which have a more favorable tax
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treatment now your unemployment benefits are taxed by the federal government as
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ordinary income now as all of you probably know when you get your paycheck
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you're paying federal income tax you're paying state income tax you're paying
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Social Security and Medicare tax when you get unemployment benefits the
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federal government will get their taxes back when you file your taxes in the
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following year so once again the unemployment benefits including the $600
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federal booster are subject to federal income tax now the good news is they are
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not subject to Social Security and Medicare tax and when it comes to state
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income tax it really depends on your state so again your unemployment
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benefits are considered taxable income by the federal government just like
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wages and state taxes may or may not be applicable I've done another video
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training where I talked about state income taxes so definitely check that
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out on my channel where I talk about the differences between different states
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where as far as state income taxes are concerned a lot of states have a
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shortfall in their own budget and they're charging state income taxes for
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example California and New York are charging state income taxes even for
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remote workers in other words workers who don't live
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there but who are passing through to work let's say they had to move to a
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different location or stay with a relative during the pandemic on the
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other hand states like Texas and Florida have no state income tax to begin with
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so a portion of the unemployment benefits that you're getting now will
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essentially find its way back to the federal government when you file your
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taxes next year that's just that's just the way things are so the way this works
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is let me give you a scenario and highlight the differences between the
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two scenarios so it's a little bit easier to understand let's say you were
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living in a normal world in a normal situation you were working on-site you
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were working from your place of work you were working from your office and in
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that situation let's say you made thirty thousand dollars a year you would pay
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federal income tax you would pay state income tax you would pay Social Security
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and you would pay Medicare taxes but now in this in with the unemployment benefit
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situation let's say you get the same 30 thousand dollars a year let's just
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assume that for the sake of argument so we can compare
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with the same numbers in that case you would pay federal income tax on the
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thirty thousand dollars you'd be required to pay that tax when you file
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your tax returns next year you will not pay Social Security and Medicare taxes
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but you may be required to pay state income taxes it really depends on your
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state because every state has different guidelines depending on whether you live
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in the state or whether you work in the state depending on whether that state is
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your state of domicile in other words where you live your primary residence or
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if it's your state of work in other words you relocated for whatever reason
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to work in that state now here's the problem with this situation that I want
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all my subscribers to understand let's say you're getting thirty thousand
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dollars in unemployment benefits this year and there's no withholding in other
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words you get all the money and you don't pay any federal income tax the
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problem is if you don't pay a sufficient amount of federal income tax then by the
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time you get to the next tax filing deadline which is presumably April 15
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2021 and now you owe back taxes for 2020 and remember you unemployment benefits
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will be subject to federal income taxes if you haven't paid enough taxes you
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could not only have a huge tax bill come April 15 2021 but you could also be
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subjected to penalties and interest on the unpaid amount now I'll give you
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three options to avoid a huge tax bill when it comes to your unemployment
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benefits the first is to have taxes withheld now when you're filing for
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unemployment benefits from your state agency and again every state has its own
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specific rules ask to have 10% of your unemployment benefits withheld for
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federal income taxes now this will cover federal income taxes and if you have the
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ability to do so at the outset when you apply for state unemployment benefits
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that's something you should consider doing now if you're already receiving
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benefits and you want to make an adjustment you will fill out the IRS
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Form w-4 V which is a voluntary withholding request and what this will
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do is this will adjust your withholding you may also make changes to this every
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two weeks as and when you want to adjust your withholding so let's say your
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recertifying your unemployment claim every two weeks now remember you have to
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follow the exact guidelines the exact protocol from your state
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unemployment agency so make sure you look to them for guidance I'll include a
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link in the description below that allows you to get in touch with your
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state unemployment agency and ask them for specific advice reach out to the
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correct person so that you can adjust your whittling as needed so that you
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don't have a huge backlog of federal income taxes and you don't have a huge
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taxable when you file your income taxes next year the best website for this is
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the career one-stop website from the US Department of Labor that can now link
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you to all of the individual state and employment agencies and I'm sure a lot
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of my subscribers know this already the second option if you want to avoid a
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huge tax bill at this time next year is to file quarterly taxes now this is more
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applicable to individuals who are self-employed so if you are a wage
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earner if you are on a salary this may not be applicable to you but if you are
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self-employed you have the option to pay quarterly taxes now and you should pay
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some amount of quarterly taxes so you avoid a huge tax bill you avoid interest
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you avoid penalties come tax time next year now the third way to offset a huge
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tax bill potentially penalties and interest next year when you're filing
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your 2020 tax returns on or before April 15 2021 is to try and save 10% of your
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unemployment benefits towards federal taxes put that money in a savings
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account hold on to that money because cash is so important right now we live
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in a climate where a lot of us are struggling when a lot of us find it hard
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to pay for it to pay rent to pay for food to pay our utilities so cash is
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very important right now this would be my preferred option
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you save you set aside money because when the tax bill comes due next year
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and it will come to you next year there's no way to avoid these taxes you
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have to pay the taxes so when the tax bill comes you next year you should have
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some money set aside now the reason I prefer this option is it gives you a
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little bit more flexibility it gives you a bit more of a cushion a buffer if you
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will because you'd rather have the money in a savings account and then use it for
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something that's necessary as opposed to not have it when it comes time to pay
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taxes because then again like I mentioned you could be subjected to do
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interest could be subjected to penalties and you
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want to avoid that under any circumstances I know this is a tough
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time for all of us and I know that a lot of us really count on these unemployment
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benefits and need them to be able to pay our bills and a lot of us are in a very
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dire situation I'm trying to prepare you for what lies ahead and even though like
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I mentioned at the start of this training video even though the
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withholding and even though the setting aside money for taxes may not be a high
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priority right now even though the higher priority is to keep the lights on
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the higher priority is to buy food I completely understand that I'm just
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trying to give you information so that you can be prepared for the future as
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well because one day we will get through this and one day all of this will be
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behind us I'm with you I support you all and I appreciate you for watching this
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video if you are an existing subscriber thank you so much if you're not a
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subscriber yet please consider subscribing
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I'll give you important updates that will help you get through this situation
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so that you know your options you know what lies ahead and you're financially
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prepared for a better future thank you so much for watching please click the
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like button because it really helped so the YouTube algorithm I'm with you and
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I'll see you in the next training video thank you