Am I the only one excited that it’s time to do my taxes?
Probably not, but I’m sure I’m in the minority. I love tax time. It’s a bit of a game to me – to see if I can get the numbers just right so that I have a small refund. No tax free loans to the government for me! I mean, if I suddenly got a huge refund, I wouldn’t be upset, though I would change around my withholding for 2010. But in an ideal world, I will come very close to zero.
If I’m honest with myself, I’m probably going to owe money. One of the downsides to being a saver with no mortgage (yet). That interest income starts to hurt, even though it’s not all that much. I do a good job of tracking everything and taking every single deduction I can, but ultimately, I end up owing money. It’s just a question of how much.
I’m pretty good on the federal tax side. It’s the state taxes that tend to throw me off. So we’ll see how things go! I use TurboTax and my copy arrives tomorrow. Of course, I don’t have any of my paperwork yet, so I can’t really get started, but it’s still exciting.
How do you feel about tax time? Do you dread it? Put it off til the last minute? Do you use your tax refund as a savings method? I know people who purposefully have a chunk of money withheld because if they tried to just save it, they would end up spending it. Thus, even with the interest-free loan to the government, they have more money than they would otherwise. If that’s what works for you, then it makes sense to me. Just make sure that if you’re supposed to pay your taxes, you’re paying them. Breaking the law is never good.
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
I don’t know why I love tax time, either – but I do! I usually get a small return – but this year I screwed up my withholdings and will owe about $500. I used to cover my whole family on medical, but DH started a job that pays 100% of his medical premiums, so my pre-tax insurance cost went down by $2400 over last year, hence $2400 in additional income/the screw-up in my calculations. I use turbotax online and track my charitable deductions throughout the year, then when they open up the 2009 version in December, I’m on it – putting in my projected income, etc. By doing so, I realized my tax burden (initially calculated at $1300) and was able to make a couple of evasive maneuvers – paid January’s mortgage on Dec 31 ($600 more in deductible interest), did a closet-cleaning that resulted in one more trip to goodwill, etc. I haven’t received any 1099’s or my w-2, but I’m prepared and will probably file in early March.
I love tax time. From the minute I receive my first W-2, I’m on TurboTax to get an initial idea if what I will get back. I try to owe money each year, but my deductions always bump me into around a $1,500 return including state. (thanks to home interest and school deductions). I should probably increase my allowances on my W-4, but it’s kinda nice to have a big check come in Feb-March.
Honestly, taxes just confuse me. I go through turbo tax and answer all the questions and plug in the numbers, but I wonder if I could be getting back more money.
I like it! My taxes are simple — I use TaxAct. I enjoy getting a small refund, somewhere between $500 and $1500. It isn’t really because I would spend it otherwise, but because getting an “extra” check early in the year makes me happy and is totally worth the measly interested I may have earned on that money!
I love taxes, too! This will be my second year doing my own taxes. I got about a $1,300 return last year but am only looking at about $500 (or less!) this year… which is perfectly okay by my standards. 🙂
I used TaxAct last year (free fed, $13.95 state) but am considering doing free e-file for both fed & state this year.
I just completed my taxes tonight and i got my W2 in the mail yesterday. I <3 tax time.. I received around 700 for fed and $89 for state (MA)..which I think is a good balance. Although that $14 extra bucks per paycheck would have been nice.