Hi! I’ve done my own taxes for almost 15 years, but this last year there were a lot of changes and I’m not sure I feel good about doing my own taxes.
Married filing jointly
Income (including RSUs) 315,000
RSUs had tax withheld when distributed (35%)
State: Colorado
1 child, born 2025
Both my spouse and I took CO FAMLI leave
We did about 25,000 to our 401
5k to kid’s 529
4k to HSA
We “own” a home, so paying interest
Have some student loan interest
Some HYSA (about 1,500)
The RSUs make me nervous. I know I probably should get money back since they were taxed at 35% and our highest bracket for our income should be the 24%. I haven’t even started putting the info together (note: newborn life is rough) so I don’t even know how things are looking.
Should I get tax help from a professional? And is that just a local CPA? We are also hoping to work with a financial advisor soon as well if that’s the better option. I still want to do all the math and stuff on my own because I’ve always loved filing taxes – I just don’t know if I should get it checked this year. Any advice is appreciated!
ETA: this is the first year of the RSUs, never had them before! The account for just over a third of our income this year. I have three more years of RSUs to vest.
RSUs, new child, do I need tax help?
byu/Right-Tomato-701 intax
Posted by Right-Tomato-701
3 Comments
I am guessing your RSU were withheld at 22% flat plus FICA and state. This is probably 2% too low given your income.
The only notable (major) error that you could make in your situation is not using the correct basis on Form 8949 for your RSU sale, assuming you sold the shares.
If you have actually prepared your own return (not had a robot do it for you) for 15 years, I really don’t think anything here should make it dramatically more difficult. But, as always, if you feel more comfortable with someone doing it for you, that can be a service worth paying for. It’s all about the comfort level.
In general, if you want to pay more than $50 for professional assistance I would strongly recommend a local EA or CPA, as the retail tax shops like H&R Block are overpriced for being basically no better than robots.
Yes, there are accountants that specialize in RSUs, and if you have exercise options, they should be able to help you with that (tax timing vs they are worth something now so I better exercise). Your local tax mill CPA is not your person. You want Advisory focused, they will cost more but if your options / compensation is high, they will be worth it.
I do my own RSUs. If you are good with the investment portion of filing online it should be pretty easy. I use TurboTax Premier. I don’t think the Deluxe version will cut it. Biggest mistake is to keep track of the Vesting price. If the vest does not require a sales of shares, it is easy since your payroll took take of the purchase and took out taxes. If you had “Sell to Cover” the brokerage sold shares to cover so those shares you will need to show the sale and might need to put in the cost basis. Many times for default on the tax forms so need to be changed.