TAX TIME!
 

So - are you finished? Stressing and finishing? Filing an extension?

Mine are filed. Whew.

i'm finished... but, i did wait until the last minute (filed on thursday last week) =AND= my tax lady didn't use my direct debit info... so now i need to figure out how to f'ing send a check or something b/c i've never had to actually mail anything before.. grrrrrr on her.

i'm going to file tomorrow...
sigh...

Yay for free online taxes for those of us who are poor!

Boo for finding out I actually qualify for Food Stamps...

I did mine this weekend, but since I didn't have a calculator at hand, I want to go over all the figures tomorrow first. So, mine will be done tomorrow.

I did mine a couple weeks ago. I'm still bitter that I owe the state of Michigan money even though I only lived there for 30 days last year. Oh well, at least it's only $14. I hope this year I live in one state for the whole year. Can't efile when you do partial year residency.

Yea for FreedomFile!!!

I had mine down in February, but I had to wait until my parents filed last week! Of course they claimed me so I lost $400 and my stimulus check!
And then I got roped into doing my little sister's (biological) taxes too!

Yay for states with no state income tax!

I had to write the federal government a check for $1 and the state a check for $5 . . . give me a break!!!!!

You pay more other places though...

I filed back in March, after reporting one of my former employers for refusing to mail me my W2.

Also, I'm pissed about the stimulus payment, the government is operating at a deficit, and yet they're spending more money they don't have by mailing out checks?

I did mine in March. I should have claimed the kid and would have gotten more back, but I let her dad claim her. I'm containing my excitement of receiving my $300 stimulus check; I will try so hard not to blow it all in one place. :rolleyes: It's going into savings for a condo.

co-sign!

My husband and I typically hit things pretty even-Steven come tax time... either very small refund or very small amt owed. In 2005 he started getting income from various employers, and somehow we wound up owing $4300 last year! Ouch!

To make sure that didn't happen this year, he did the quarterly pre-pay taxes AND claimed the highest deductions on his main paycheck. We were hoping that this would help keep us from owing so much this year and get us back to even-Steven status. Well... I finished the taxes this weekend, and drumroll please.....



$7100 refund!!!!:D:D:D:D:D

Holy Moly!! I am thinking some new bedroom furniture is in my future!

I filed in February and alredy got our cash back from the Feds - which all went straight to paying off bills! And I owed the state a small amount. I hate living in the city and working in the 'burbs.

I finished my taxes months ago - they're so easy right now. Luckily, the Conservinator was worried I didn't spend enough time thinking about the IRS and so I got the special treat of doing his taxes too! (I better get a good graduation present.)

We got a direct deposit of $4 from our state taxes... not the refund we were hoping for! I take solice in knowing that I didn't participate in giving the government interest-free loans of my hard earned cash this year. Sigh, though, we had to pay the federal government a little over $200. We'll get it back with our stimulus package, so we'll just have to wait :(

I did mine in early March. I hope that I get my refund soon.

Mine will be submitted tomorrow.

I once got a refund of $1 from the State of Idaho, which they mailed to me in the form of a check. It probably cost more to process and print the paper, then mail it than $1.

They... are... in...

I want my refund check!

I hate tax time! We always get a decent refund from the feds, which we have to turn around and use for the huge amount we always owe Georgia.

I heart Texas.

No state tax!

You totally beat me. I had to write a check to the Feds for $12!

But high property taxes and sales tax.

States without income tax make you pay the same amount other places.

Are you sure about that?

Some states tax more than others. For example, Californians pay very similar taxes to Washingtonians, but the former pay income taxes on top of it. And in states with no income tax, still your overall taxes would depend on what you purchase/own...for example, someone that rents an apartment (therefore no property tax) and takes public transportation to work (fewer gas taxes), AND has no state income tax, would probably pay far less in taxes in the end.

Some states are more efficient than others with their dollars, or they have different philosophies for how money should be raised/spent.

Last year I got back $5 from state and had to pay federal $138:mad::mad:!!

This year I get $9 from Federal and $21 from State!

Boy am I happy:rolleyes:

Where are these states? I need to RELOCATE!

Texas and Tennessee are 2. I think Peppy lives in Washington.

I did my taxes back in February. I took my refund and opened a high-interest savings account. Which turns out to be not-so-high-interest. But I'm too chicken to hand it over to a stock broker or anything like that.

You do pay an income tax in Tennessee on some investment income (i.e. stocks). Just an FYI, and another reason Texas is better than Tennessee. :) AND TN taxes food, which TX does not. I was amazed at that.

Finally got ours filed Friday. They've been done for a while, we've just been waiting for Mikey's Social Security Number to come in. After nagging our mailman for weeks, I about kissed him on Thursday when he rang the bell and handed it to me. :)

Yep. The state we live in has an income tax, but its overall tax burden per taxpayer is one of the lowest in the country. People always get overly butt hurt about income tax. Now.. Texas property taxes -- those are scary.

My God. We agree on something in public policy besides puppy mills.

Alabama has a wonderful "use tax"—a way that they stick you at tax time for stuff you bought in the previous year that you didn't pay state sales tax on (primarily Web purchases). :mad:

You're in TX, right? Your property taxes are so high that they add up to more than my state income tax and my property tax. Plus, while you don't pay sale tax on food, it is made up for by higher sales taxes on other items.

Also, you think that is you rent that you aren't paying property taxes? While you aren't filing them or writing the check, your rent is inflated so that the landlord is still making a profit on the property. Bus ticket prices go up as cost of fuel increases, though since bus lines are usually subsidized, they really don't have to worry about raising prices until gas jumps significantly.

Also, this person that your talking about that doesn't own a house and doesn't own a car, probably doesn't have enough income to qualify to have to pay state (OK) income taxes anyways.

Oklahoma = lowest tax burden as a percentage of income in the nation.

-- of course, that is probably because most of us don't qualify for the higher brackets.

First of all, I do NOT live in Texas. No offense to the Texans on this board.

There are many people in metropolitan areas that live in apartments and ride public transportation to work. It doesn't mean they don't own a car; they just drive their car less often, and probably just don't like sitting in traffic and paying for expensive daily parking. So I'm not sure where you get this idea that people who don't own homes and choose not to own cars or drive them to work every day don't make much money. Try telling that to New Yorkers, or San Franciscans, or Seattlites.

I happen to live in Washington - Seattle area to be more specific - a state that overall just has a higher cost of living. I live in an apartment, because it costs a fortune to buy a house here and it's not easy for most single people to do. I do own a car, but I used to park it every day and ride the Express bus to work because I didn't like sitting in traffic and paying $21 a day to park in my office tower. Now that I've changed jobs, I'm back to driving my hour-or-so commute. This state has the highest gas taxes in the country, which for me makes a difference but for those who take the bus/train, it doesn't mean as much. Our sales tax is higher than average, and according to this chart, our property taxes aren't crazy either.

What I'm saying is that clearly people in certain states are taxed more than others...all is not fair in love and taxes.

ETA: I forgot about another tax my state collects, but most people don't have to pay it - Tobacco tax. Washington's is one of the highest. But again, it's another example of lifestyle choices driving your tax burden.

Here's a chart on how states rank in taxes: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com...sForTaxes.aspx

Seriously! There happens to be a bus stop in front of my apartment and drops me off in front of the hospital I work at. Now that gas prices are over $4 here in Crazytown, I am definitely taking the bus to work and paying $.50 each way. $1 a day is definitely better that $4.11 a gallon. And I can assure you that I definitely make enough money to pay taxes!

I am super annoyed with the procrastinators. The main post office across the street from my apt complex is open until midnight. I sat for 15 minutes to get to my apartment because everyone is in line to get their taxes in time. I don't think I can leave for fear that I can't get back in. Half the lanes are closed and police are directing traffic. Its insane.

Ummm . . . have they heard of e-filing?

According to my divorce decree, I get to claim daughter #2. She is now living with deadbeat dad. Has deadbeat dad's lawyer bothered to get this changed? No. So I'm claiming her - ha ha ha ha!

I filed my own taxes earlier today! Yay! I mean...it was only a W-2 on a 1040 form...I think. Lol I was super confused. I had to call my mom to figure some stuff out. I think I'm getting $30 back. Yes!

Sorry, for some reason I thought you were in Texas.

But, the point I was trying to make was that people that don't have a car or house here, in OK, where we do pay income tax, most likely do not have a high enough income to have to file taxes.

The people in major metropolitan areas pay for their property taxes through their extremely high rents, and they pay the rest through the higher sales taxes. Income tax seems like a lot when you have to write the check, but when I added up the entirety of sales tax, it was so much more. All I'm saying is that even without income tax, you're still paying that tax somewhere, it's just called something different.