Colorado has a $5k refundable tax credit for EV purchases I took advantage of in 2017 by buying an EV in 3/2017.
If I had not bought an EV, my tax liability would have been about $1,600 for the year and about $400 for Q1
Since the credit is refundable, Colorado has notified me that I'll receive a refund of about $3,400 ... but they will charge me $32 in penalties and interest for not making advance tax payments throughout the year. I am self employed. The letter notifying me of the charges states that pre-payments are due when the annual tax liability NET of credits is over $1000. So I think they agree with me that no pre-payments were late ... but they penalized me anyway.
I haven't decided if $32 is enough money to spend my time arguing with the tax authorities, but it is I think worth mentioning as a warning to those who are considering reducing tax pre-payments in order to receive their tax credit early. We all may be right, but still have to deal with the consequences of our actions. And from my past experience with the tax authorities (albeit Federal in that case,) they can be very difficult to reason with, no matter how trivial and straight-forward the issue.
If I had not bought an EV, my tax liability would have been about $1,600 for the year and about $400 for Q1
Since the credit is refundable, Colorado has notified me that I'll receive a refund of about $3,400 ... but they will charge me $32 in penalties and interest for not making advance tax payments throughout the year. I am self employed. The letter notifying me of the charges states that pre-payments are due when the annual tax liability NET of credits is over $1000. So I think they agree with me that no pre-payments were late ... but they penalized me anyway.
I haven't decided if $32 is enough money to spend my time arguing with the tax authorities, but it is I think worth mentioning as a warning to those who are considering reducing tax pre-payments in order to receive their tax credit early. We all may be right, but still have to deal with the consequences of our actions. And from my past experience with the tax authorities (albeit Federal in that case,) they can be very difficult to reason with, no matter how trivial and straight-forward the issue.
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