The Line of Death
Living in China …
Buying a house …
Becoming a landlord …
Finishing grad school …
No … I don’t want to do my taxes!
Since 1998. On WP for 954 days.
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Living in China …
Buying a house …
Becoming a landlord …
Finishing grad school …
No … I don’t want to do my taxes!
Since 1998. On WP for 954 days.
Post feed | Comment feed | Photo feed
April 15th, 2008 at 12:16 am EST
Wow, this is even more complicated than I thought this year … because I was only in the country and earning money for five months, I’m right on the edge of all kinds of credits and deductions and miscellaneous income.
Looks like I’m going with form 4868 … an extension!
April 15th, 2008 at 1:29 am EST
If you had been out of the country for 8 months or more, that extension would be automatic…
April 15th, 2008 at 1:49 am EST
Oh well … missed it by a month. But I just found out that if I expect to get a refund, filing the extension is unnecessary. We’ll see what happens tomorrow after I finish gathering the paperwork and look at the big picture!
April 15th, 2008 at 12:09 pm EST
if i had that many changes in one year, i would hire a CPA to do my taxes. would be the best $150 you ever spend. you’ll learn so much, and then in future years you can just copy all the stuff they do for you this year. DO IT.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:20 pm EST
Well, this is crazy. I was planning to file for an extension then hire a professional to do my taxes this year. Last night, however, I decided to plow through them myself, just to see what they looked like (and to see which numbers to put on the extension application). And I’m really glad that I did.
It was indeed complicated … lots of contributions, education credits, landlording details, etc etc etc … but the overriding factor, which I hadn’t really considered, was how little money I made in the four and a half months I worked in the states in 2007. The result? Without even deducting any of my rental property expenses, using all of my education credit, or taking advantage of my savers credit, I still had a total tax liability of zero dollars. That’s right … the feds are getting nuthin from me this year!
Well, except for the free loan they got as they held onto my cash all year. What a messed up system … give me my money back, you thieves!!!
April 15th, 2008 at 7:32 pm EST
Do you mean the bank? lol That was crap!
April 15th, 2008 at 8:43 pm EST
No, I mean how the system is set up … we give our money to the federal government all year long (it’s deducted from each paycheck), whether or not we really owe them that money. If you get a tax refund, that means the the government overcharged you all year, investing your money (and earning interest that is rightfully yours).
What would you do if your mobile phone company automatically took money out of your paycheck every two weeks, guessing at how many minutes you were using, only to discover at the end of the year that they had taken out way too much … so they send you a check, acting like they’re doing you a favor. I don’t know about you, but I’d be insulted and upset.
I’ve gotten a tax refund every single year of the last decade … sometimes in the thousands. That’s a lot of “borrowed” money.
April 16th, 2008 at 8:55 am EST
change how much they withhold! its EASY!!!!
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf
what i do is have my employer take out almost NOTHING all year long, then in september i submit a new W-4 to have them take out enough for the entire year during the last 3 months of the year. the IRS is fat dumb and happy because they get what they require before the end of december, and i am happy because i kept all the money to myself all year and only paid in at the end. (this requires you to submit a new W4 form in january of the next year to take the withholding back down, so you submit it twice a year).
at a minimum, if you dont want to scheme that much, change your withholding to have them take out just enough to cover 90% of what your tax liability will be, that is all they require in order for you to avoid any penalties for not withholding enough.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:50 pm EST
I agree, seems that maybe you are withholding too much. You can change that. Just don’t do too little and get caught with a big tax bill!
April 17th, 2008 at 12:32 am EST
My point is that the concept of withholding is flawed from the very beginning. Just bill me.
HP, I’ll have a few more questions about this for you sometime, I’m not sure that I understand how best to do all of this stuff. It’s funny how I made it through two decades of education and never had something as simple as taxes explained to me … just goes to show how relevant the three R’s really are in our world.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:21 am EST
as SIMPLE as taxes??? HAH!!!
April 17th, 2008 at 1:49 pm EST
Uy!