I Finally Started Our Tax Return

I used to love doing our taxes. It almost always meant a nice refund because of our lower income at the time. The last couple years have been different, though, since we make more money now. Our withholdings with our employers are calculated to give just enough to Uncle Sam for our taxes.

I had a nagging feeling that we didn’t have enough taken out of our paychecks for our state taxes. Every year, it seems like we underpay for the state. Usually we end up owing under $50, so it’s not a big deal. But I was worried this year. We’ve made the most money we have ever made (we broke $50,000) and this is brand new territory for us.

I finally decided to do them especially since the rebate checks are dependent on our tax return. The federal turned out nicely. We will get about $250 back. I continued on to the state and for once we actually overpaid. I couldn’t believe it. I still don’t believe it.

The software I was using calculated our overpayment to be around $150 for the state. That has never happened before, and Michigan takes a pretty flat percentage of your income. As soon as I get a chance, I’ll calculate our taxes by hand and compare. After we made a mistake on our 2005 return, I am hesitant to trust the software I’m using 100%. I’d rather be safe than sorry from this point forward. I do not want another tax bill popping up.

This weekend I’ll finalize our returns and we may have another $400 soon that we can put towards our debt

Posted by Tricia on February 20, 2008 at 12:05 AM in General Personal Finance | 12 Comments »
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JW Thornhill responded:
Posted: February 20th, 2008 at 6:49 am
I just calculated our taxes yesterday and had a similar result with our Michigan state taxes. Maybe its not just an anomaly.
Michelle responded:
Posted: February 20th, 2008 at 8:18 am
You can thank the tax cuts for that! Let’s hope between the Democrats and Rep-ocrat running for office that they don’t get increased next year!!
danielle responded:
Posted: February 20th, 2008 at 10:00 am
I’m glad you are getting something back. I remember last year, you owed quite a bit, right?
We got $1928 back and had $1150 in credit card debt. So we paid it off and then paid next month’s rent. It felt really good, but I want to get it back down closer to zero. We figure, if we don’t do anything this year, that “boost” in May (if it really happens, snort, snort) will put our next year’s refund closer to what yours is.
SavingDiva responded:
Posted: February 20th, 2008 at 10:46 am
I’m a big fan of TurboTax. I use the online version. It found a few state deductions that I would have missed on my own.
Todd responded:
Posted: February 20th, 2008 at 11:09 am
I have an accountant do my taxes… I hate doing them. Plus, it’s just another deduction next year… so it’s really “free”. That and I have rental property losses, expenses, and blech…it’s annoying to do.

I’m one of those who over pays by $3,000/year on average. I could adjust my W2’s, but I honestly like the big lump sum in February. This year it’s funding a family vacation to Disney World in August.
jesse responded:
Posted: February 20th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I have been putting taxes off, and then I wrote an article saying not to put them off, so I made myself promise to do them this weekend, pretty much dreading it. Thank God for turbotax. To Todd above me: you realize you are just giving the government a 0% interest loan of $3000 for the year? (well accumulated over the year). If you took that extra out in an automatic withdrawl into another account, say a high interest savings account, you’d get an even BIGGER lump sum from yourself at the end of the year (if you wanted).
Jiggypete responded:
Posted: February 20th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
We will end up owing some this year due to my wife being self-employed, but the money has been sitting in our money market account earning us interest, so it won’t be too bad. We had an adoption credit last year that carried over to this year, so that was a nice boost to cut our overall tax bill this year.

Also, Todd-
“Plus, itâ€™s just another deduction next yearâ€¦ so itâ€™s really â€œfreeâ€.”-It is actually not free, since you can only deduct a certain percent of the actual cost. If it were a credit (i.e. dollar for dollar return) then it would be free.
Matt responded:
Posted: February 20th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
That’s a nice little surprise – thanks for the reminder that I should start getting my Tax stuff organized (I’ll probably owe the gov’t money this year so I’m dragging my heels)
Sherri responded:
Posted: February 20th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
This was the first year I got a state (CA) return too! It was small, something like $60, but it was nice not to owe!
Prince of Thrift responded:
Posted: February 22nd, 2008 at 8:05 pm
I wish I could figure my taxes this early like I used to, but I won’t have all my information for another month yet.
determinedsinglemom responded:
Posted: February 25th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
I too finished my taxes last night and am getting a refund of $571! This will go directly to boosting my Emergency Fund. Although I would love to see a credit card balance drop by that much I know an Emergency Fund is a piece of the financial puzzle that I’m lacking and must be taken care of too. I feel very fortunate to live in a TX too at this time of year- we don’t have a state income tax
chaser35898 responded:
Posted: August 16th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
I have 2 Chase credit cards and those SOB’s have raised both interest rates one from 9% to 13.90 and just 1 month later, this month it’s 15.30 and the part that really pisses me of is they take the payment out of our bank so it has never been late. The other card went from 13 to 26% but didn’t get that one yet for this month to see if they raised it again. I would pay them off but don’t have the money. Wish I could screw them like they are screwing us. Any idea’s. Thanks for help