Lucid Tax 1985 Page 1 INSTRUCTIONS FOR LUCID TAX CALCSHEETS FOR 1986 Mark Lutton Compuserve: 73106,1627 Delphi: MARKLUTTON Revised for 1986 February 7, 1987 The following files have been put into the DL database: TAXINS.DO These instructions F1040.SRM Form 1040 for Super ROM SCHEDA.SRM Schedule A for Super ROM SCHEDB.SRM Schedule B for Super ROM TAXTBL.SRM Tax Tables for Super ROM F1040.LUC Form 1040 for old Lucid (before Super ROM) SCHEDA.LUC Schedule A for old Lucid SCHEDB.LUC Schedule B for old Lucid TAXTBL.LUC Tax Tables for Super ROM HEX2CA.100 Lucid Hex to .CA conversion utility (in UTILITIES database) DOWNLOADING AND PREPARING CALCSHEETS These are 4 LUCID calcsheets in .DO form as processed by Rick Perry's CHANGE.BA program. In order to use these you must have the LUCID spreadsheet ROM or Super ROM from PCSG. The first thing you must do is decide whether you have the old Lucid or Super ROM. If your ROM program includes Lucid, Thought, Write and Lucid Data you have Super ROM. If it has Lucid only you have the old Lucid ROM. The old and new Lucids use different files, and Super ROM files are not compatible with the old Lucid. If you attempt to use the wrong combination you can cause a cold start! If you have the old Lucid, you need F1040.LUC, SCHEDA.LUC, SCHEDB.LUC, and TAXTBL.LUC. If you have Super ROM you need F1040.SRM, SCHEDA.SRM, SCHEDB.SRM, and TAXTBL.SRM. Whichever you choose, download them into your Model 100 as F1040.DO, SCHEDA.DO, SCHEDB.DO and TAXTBL.DO. You will also need HEX2CA.100 (or CHANGE.BA if you prefer) and TAXINS.DO (which you are reading right now). Convert the four calcsheet files to Lucid form as follows: load the program HEX2CA.100 (as HEX2CA.BA) and F1040.DO into memory. Run HEX2CA. It will show a list of files. At the "File to convert?" prompt type F1040 and hit ENTER. It will say "Working..." and sit for several minutes. When it is done it will beep and say "Kill input file?". Type "y" and hit ENTER. Then save the file F1040.CA to cassette or disk or whatever you use for storage. Do the same for the other Lucid Tax 1985 Page 2 three files. FILLING OUT YOUR TAX FORMS These five calcsheets will make it easy for you to do your Federal income tax (assuming you use the long form and Schedules A and B). Note that I am not giving any guarantees as to the accuracy of the sheets. I have made them as general and as accurate as I could; however, there may be mistakes in them -- you should check all the arithmetic when you fill out your final tax forms. Also, there may be things you need that I have left out. You can add these things easily. I tested these forms by filling in the numbers from the examples in "Your Federal Income Tax" from the IRS and the totals came out right -- proving that there is at least one set of numbers for which these calcsheets are accurate! Note that these calcsheets do NOT produce printed forms as required by the IRS. This would be impractical in a small-screen, small-memory machine. (There are Lotus 1-2-3 templates available for the IBM PC that do this.) The easiest way to use these templates is to enter the figures and let the computer do the calculations and then read the numbers from the screen and write them by hand into the tax forms. All cells into which you can enter data are unprotected and contain a line of dashes. Lucid treats dashes as 0 for calculations; if you do not need to enter data into a line you can leave these as they are. (On the tax forms themselves, you can either enter "0" or draw a dash.) All other cells in the worksheets are protected. If you need to change a value, you can unprotect a cell by hitting F7, Enter, F4. For instance, if you do not use Schedule B, you can delete the references in F1040.CA in cell C8 (line 8 of the form) and cell B9 (line 9A) and replace them with 0. Protect the cell after changing it if you wish. Load F1040.CA, SCHEDA.CA, SCHEDB.CA and TAXTBL.CA into your Model 100. I assume you itemize your deductions and have interest income; if not, you can make changes where necessary in F1040 to delete references to unused schedules. Let's start with F1040.CA. There are three columns visible; Column A has labels. Column B is for line items that are entered in the middle of the form (for example lines 24 through 30); column C is for line items on the right-hand edge of the form (for example lines 7, 8, and 9c). Be sure to put the amounts into the proper cells or the totals will not come out right. I recommend you use the "whole-dollar" method of Lucid Tax 1985 Page 3 reporting. You will notice that the sheet is already set up that way. Check off box 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 on the form and put the number of the box you checked into cell C3. This is extremely important; it is used to calculate tax. After finishing item 6, put the total number of exemptions (line 6e) into cell C5. Put wages, salaries, tips etc. into C7. Leave cell C8 alone; it will be filled in automatically after you do Schedule B. Likewise leave cell B9 alone. (Notice that 9a and 9b go into column B because they are not in the right-hand column on the tax form.) Put exclusion, if any, into cell B10. Continue down this side of the sheet. Now that you have side 1 of Form 1040 done, go and do Schedules A and B. (Notice that you do most of your filling in into Column B on Schedule A, and mostly into Column C on Schedule B.) Then come back and finish filling out Form 1040. After you have put in all the information, perform the following ritual, and do it again any time you change any information: Call up SCHEDB.CA. Hit F2 (calc), F8 (exit). Call up F1040.CA. Hit F2, F8. Call up SCHEDA.CA. Hit F2, F8. Call up F1040.CA again. Hit F2, F8. Call up TAXTBL.CA. Hit F2, F8. Call up F1040.CA again. Hit F2. The reason you have to do it that way is: Interest from Schedule B must be calculated and put into Form 1040 (lines 8 and 9), then line 33 from Form 1040 goes into Schedule A (line 4), then line 26 from Schedule A goes into 1040 line 34a, then you go to TAXTBL to calculate the tax, and finally back to 1040 to enter it. Now save your LUCID files to tape or print them out. Now you have done all the hard part and the fun begins. Put $2000 into an IRA (F1040 line 26a, cell B32) and see how it affects your tax. Give $3000 to your favorite charity (Schedule A, line 15b, cell B25). Give yourself a $100 raise on F1040 line 7 (C7). The dollar difference on line 55 (C71) is your "marginal tax bracket." That is, if a $100 raise increases your tax by $33 you are in the 33% bracket. Lucid Tax 1985 Page 4 Thinking of refinancing your home? Figure out how much interest you will pay under your current mortgage and enter it on Schedule A. Then figure out how much you will pay after refinancing. Don't forget deductable closing costs if any. How much more (or less) tax will you pay? What about that tax shelter your brother-in-law suggested? One last thing: Please don't write to me asking for tax advice. I don't know any more about taxes than you do. But write or leave a message if you find bugs in the calcsheets or discover interesting "what-if" things to do. Also, if there is a schedule you need and you feel like taking the time to set it up as a calcsheet, I hope that you will upload it here for the rest of us to use. Mark Lutton