Let’s talk about taxes. More precisely, let’s talk about filing your federal income taxes. Have you done it yet? If you have, then feel free to skip to the next entry, as you already know all about the subject matter of this entry, but if you haven’t I encourage you to read on.
Okay. Have you heard about The Making Work Pay Tax Credit yet? I remember mention of it back when Obama and the Dems rammed their stimulus mumbo-jumbo through Congress a little over a year ago, but, despite the fact that I like to think of myself as fairly well informed on matters such as these, I guess I never fully understood what this aspect of the stimulus entailed. In short, it amounts to this — expect to see your federal income tax return smaller this year to the tune of four Benjamins.
Whuh?!
No, your tax rate didn’t go up; you see, you already received the money, little-by-little, over the course of the year. $400, divided by 52 weeks, works out to roughly $7.69 per week (or $15.38 per paycheck, if, like me, you’re paid bi-weekly). Technically, for 2009, it was a little more than that, as the money was parceled out in less than a year, but that’s what it will work out to for 2010. If you’re salaried, you probably noticed your paychecks slightly largely, but if you’re like me and no two paychecks are ever alike, then you had no clue this was going on. Or at least I certainly didn’t.
I filed my taxes for 2009 two days ago. It’s probably better that I waited a couple days to compose this entry, because my language would have been a bit more colored 48 hours ago (you should have seen some of the status updates I posted to and later redacted from Facebook). I’m hardly rolling-in-the-dough, but I’ll go ahead and admit that I had my best year ever, income-wise, in 2009. (Let’s just say there were a lot of 50- and 60-hour weeks, especially in the second half of the year.) Needless to say, I was expecting a pretty sizable tax return this year. I was already imagining all of the things I’d do with the money, including paying down some of my credit card debt, so (please excuse my language here — I’m trying to cuss less these days, but sometimes a well-placed cuss word just seems appropriate to make a point) I nearly shat myself when I got to the end of the tax-filing process and learned that my refund wouldn’t even amount to enough to cover a trip to the grocery store. (Okay, maybe it would cover one of those quick stops when all you need is milk, bananas, and a loaf of bread, but those are pretty rare for me.) Oh, what the fudge? The Making Work Pay Tax Credit, that’s what the fudge.
I guess this wouldn’t have been such a big deal had I been expecting it. I mean, if I had known all along that I shouldn’t expect much in the way of a tax return because I was already receiving the money in bits and pieces throughout the year, then obviously it wouldn’t have been such a shock. What surprises the hell out of me is that the Obama administration has wasted millions needlessly promoting or drawing attention to various events and programs (do we really need to advertise the effing census?), and yet so little was made of this. Some people didn’t even make enough to qualify for the complete credit and will actually owe the government money when they were probably expecting a refund. If you know it’s going on, then you can plan and budget for it, but this, well, I feel like Chevy Chase in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” when he learns that his Christmas bonus, which would have been enough to cover the down payment on the pool for the backyard, has been replaced by a membership in the Jelly-of-the-Month Club. Now I know for next year not to expect much in the way of a return, but it’s too late for this year. It’s frustrating, but it’s done.
And, while we’re at it, let me talk to you about who to file your taxes through. If you make lots of money or have lots of deductions or investments or whatever, then this means nothing to you, but if, like me, you’re poor and broke and don’t own a home and don’t have a spouse and don’t have kids and the words “retirement plan” aren’t in your personal lexicon, then I suppose this is noteworthy. I have, in the past, always filed my taxes through H&R Block. I guess it was just habit, you know? Anyway, I kept getting an error message from them while I was trying to finish up my taxes (admittedly, I had made a minor error, but even after I went back and fixed it they kept telling me I had an error — grrrrr!), so I became frustrated and looked elsewhere, and that’s when I stumbled upon the online version of TurboTax. Unlike H&R Block, who wanted to charge me $30-effing-dollars to file my state taxes (in other words, basically my entire federal return amount), TurboTax was free. That’s right — free. Zip, zero, zilch, nada. TurboTax charged me exactly zero dollars and zero cents to file my state income taxes through them, whereas H&R Block had the audacity to think they could stick it to me for $30. So, (warning: another cuss word lies ahead) why the fuck would I ever want to file my taxes through H&R Block again? H&R Block, it was great while it lasted, but now you are dead to me. Dead!
Anyway, life goes on, lessons are learned, and it is Thirsty Thursday (and I’m off tomorrow!), so things aren’t all bad, right?
♥k!
Okay. Have you heard about The Making Work Pay Tax Credit yet? I remember mention of it back when Obama and the Dems rammed their stimulus mumbo-jumbo through Congress a little over a year ago, but, despite the fact that I like to think of myself as fairly well informed on matters such as these, I guess I never fully understood what this aspect of the stimulus entailed. In short, it amounts to this — expect to see your federal income tax return smaller this year to the tune of four Benjamins.
Whuh?!
No, your tax rate didn’t go up; you see, you already received the money, little-by-little, over the course of the year. $400, divided by 52 weeks, works out to roughly $7.69 per week (or $15.38 per paycheck, if, like me, you’re paid bi-weekly). Technically, for 2009, it was a little more than that, as the money was parceled out in less than a year, but that’s what it will work out to for 2010. If you’re salaried, you probably noticed your paychecks slightly largely, but if you’re like me and no two paychecks are ever alike, then you had no clue this was going on. Or at least I certainly didn’t.
I filed my taxes for 2009 two days ago. It’s probably better that I waited a couple days to compose this entry, because my language would have been a bit more colored 48 hours ago (you should have seen some of the status updates I posted to and later redacted from Facebook). I’m hardly rolling-in-the-dough, but I’ll go ahead and admit that I had my best year ever, income-wise, in 2009. (Let’s just say there were a lot of 50- and 60-hour weeks, especially in the second half of the year.) Needless to say, I was expecting a pretty sizable tax return this year. I was already imagining all of the things I’d do with the money, including paying down some of my credit card debt, so (please excuse my language here — I’m trying to cuss less these days, but sometimes a well-placed cuss word just seems appropriate to make a point) I nearly shat myself when I got to the end of the tax-filing process and learned that my refund wouldn’t even amount to enough to cover a trip to the grocery store. (Okay, maybe it would cover one of those quick stops when all you need is milk, bananas, and a loaf of bread, but those are pretty rare for me.) Oh, what the fudge? The Making Work Pay Tax Credit, that’s what the fudge.
I guess this wouldn’t have been such a big deal had I been expecting it. I mean, if I had known all along that I shouldn’t expect much in the way of a tax return because I was already receiving the money in bits and pieces throughout the year, then obviously it wouldn’t have been such a shock. What surprises the hell out of me is that the Obama administration has wasted millions needlessly promoting or drawing attention to various events and programs (do we really need to advertise the effing census?), and yet so little was made of this. Some people didn’t even make enough to qualify for the complete credit and will actually owe the government money when they were probably expecting a refund. If you know it’s going on, then you can plan and budget for it, but this, well, I feel like Chevy Chase in “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” when he learns that his Christmas bonus, which would have been enough to cover the down payment on the pool for the backyard, has been replaced by a membership in the Jelly-of-the-Month Club. Now I know for next year not to expect much in the way of a return, but it’s too late for this year. It’s frustrating, but it’s done.
And, while we’re at it, let me talk to you about who to file your taxes through. If you make lots of money or have lots of deductions or investments or whatever, then this means nothing to you, but if, like me, you’re poor and broke and don’t own a home and don’t have a spouse and don’t have kids and the words “retirement plan” aren’t in your personal lexicon, then I suppose this is noteworthy. I have, in the past, always filed my taxes through H&R Block. I guess it was just habit, you know? Anyway, I kept getting an error message from them while I was trying to finish up my taxes (admittedly, I had made a minor error, but even after I went back and fixed it they kept telling me I had an error — grrrrr!), so I became frustrated and looked elsewhere, and that’s when I stumbled upon the online version of TurboTax. Unlike H&R Block, who wanted to charge me $30-effing-dollars to file my state taxes (in other words, basically my entire federal return amount), TurboTax was free. That’s right — free. Zip, zero, zilch, nada. TurboTax charged me exactly zero dollars and zero cents to file my state income taxes through them, whereas H&R Block had the audacity to think they could stick it to me for $30. So, (warning: another cuss word lies ahead) why the fuck would I ever want to file my taxes through H&R Block again? H&R Block, it was great while it lasted, but now you are dead to me. Dead!
Anyway, life goes on, lessons are learned, and it is Thirsty Thursday (and I’m off tomorrow!), so things aren’t all bad, right?
♥k!
