<< Back to all Blogs
Login or Create your own free blog
Layout:
Home > Taxes almost done

Taxes almost done

February 4th, 2009 at 10:55 pm

I stayed up kind of late last night and finished off our taxes. I hadn't been able to take more than cursory glances at them since I got the last of the paperwork, and every time I did I got a wildly different estimate. So sitting down and reading through everything, double-checking numbers and all, I was pleasantly surprised that instead of owing about $300 (the worst of my rough estimates), we will be getting just over $2000 back.

What did I do wrong the other time I estimated? Forgot about the MN marriage credit, didn't factor in the portion of AS's education that was taxed as income (and therefore could get us a tax break), underestimated taxes NT and I paid in '08 (I only counted withholdings and forgot to add what we owed last year), and forgot to carry the 1 in one of my scribbled equations, a $1000 error. Smile

$2000 seems like a reasonable cushion for three people, especially since I did owe something to MN, so I don't think I'll change my withholdings (unless there's a way to increase MN withholding only). I don't mind owing taxes but I hate the possibility of penalties if you owe too much, so I'd rather play it safe.

Still trying to decide what to do with the money. We've been saving for a couch, so I may use about $250 to pay for that, and I think a small cash bonus of spending money would be much appreciated by the family. We've decided we want to do two days of outside-of-Vegas sightseeing rather than one, so I'll put about $60 in to cover an additional day of car rental, insurance and gas. I think those are the only things we want that we haven't already paid for, so the rest will probably go to the baby/emergency fund.

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

5 Responses to “Taxes almost done”

  1. Caoineag Says:
    February 4th, 2009 at 11:26 pm 1233790017
    1233790017

    Opposite here, always have a state refund and always owe the fed's just under the penalty. You can adjust them separately but its probably more trouble then its worth.

  2. cptacek Says:
    February 5th, 2009 at 05:31 am 1233811870
    1233811870

    Just curious...how are you filing for three people? How does AS's tuition go on your taxes? Are you filing two returns for federal and two for state?

  3. ceejay74 Says:
    February 5th, 2009 at 03:09 pm 1233846589
    1233846589

    Caoineag, I think as long as we keep having a bigger tax amount every year on state, we won't get a penalty. If NT and I start earning less, though, I'll err on the side of caution with state withholding.

    cptacek, you got it. In the eyes of the U.S. government, NT and I are married and AS is single, so we file a joint married return and I prepare a single return for AS. Her tuition goes on that. All the things I mentioned above factored into my wrong estimates, but on different returns.

  4. gamecock43 Says:
    February 5th, 2009 at 04:32 pm 1233851571
    1233851571

    I didn't know they penalize you if you owe to much! ouch!

  5. kdmoffett25 Says:
    February 5th, 2009 at 04:37 pm 1233851854
    1233851854

    Yes, I am finding out that this year, but if you withheld the same amount or more, which in my case, it was more, they won't penalize you. At least I hope that is the case! LOL

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]