"Oh what a relief it is"....Woohoo! I just finished my taxes. Have you?

It's just one of those things that procrastinators (such as myself) tend to put off, but drive ourselves crazy thinking about. It feels so great to finally get it done.

:bounce:

Ironically, you'd think someone like me would want to do it ASAP since I get money back... :shrug:

I don't even think about taxes until the last minute.

I can remember one year (in my more irresonsible days) having to leave work early in order to finish and get the postmark on them displaying the date April 15th.

Online and direct deposit.

refunds are already in the savings account. Hopefully they'll last longer than the refi money has.

I owe money because I had to report my scholarships as income...

And I am extremely PO'd (mostly at myself) for not catching the legislation. I'm a State Rep. and we have approx. 3000 bills go through the Maine Legislature every session. There is no way one single Rep can keep up w/all of them, so we often must rely on the Committees to do the right thing. But sometimes they don't. If they put out an unaminous report, it'll usually "go under the hammer" unless someone objects.

Something as stuiped as this would NEVER have gotten through prior to term limits. And sadly it happens all too often now, since inexperianced lawmakers have only the bueaurcrats and lobbyiests to rely on for info. Thus the "unintended consequences" are not often explored. There no longer is the "intitutional memory" that used to keep this sort of thing in check. The lobbyiest and beaurocrats run the show now.

But I digress. The point is that you have a right to be angry about that. My daughter is a freshman @ Syracuse and it'l probably hurt her too.

but my total income wasn't high enough to be taxed.

The problem was when I imported the data from federal to state...Illinois will tax every cent at 3%. Didn't qualify for deducting it since my mom is still claiming me as a dependent.

This is the first time I've ever done taxes :grr: so I have no idea what I'm doing outside of what the computer tells me.

or some other sort of tax pro to help you sort this out. It maybe that you are missing $ you are entitled to by not claiming credits, deductions or whatever.

I've had to resort to that (experts) after lifestyle changes myself. I would then follow their model thereafter. And now it's even easier since it can be done online. No more calculators and scratch sheets! :-)

Nonetheless, I'm no expert, (hopefully someone here is) but I would suggest you pay the measely 75 bucks- or whatever it is) to get this thing right... It makes no sense to me why a college student would have to pay in (even if they consider some of your grants "income") Unless you have other sources of income. And in my humble opionion that other source of income would have to be pretty good before they would (or rather should) tax it.

Now, your mom using you as a dependent could be the problem but there again I have no expertise in this area. I'd like to know the answer to that myself. Anyone? :shrug:

and I get $88 back on the federal return. Probably not worth it.

My total reported income was about $4500--I'm a starvin' college student.

New York State demands that you pay sales-and-use taxes on out-of-state purchases. You can itemize or you can pay an amount based on your income bracket. So New York State has authority over interstate commerce!

I'll start tomorrow.

I think it sucks that the fed and state govts don't even send you forms any more. My local library had run out of state forms long before I got there. I know I can download a form, but there's no way I'm going to download the whole instruction booklet. I'm also afraid I may owe taxes again: because I've been working part-time jobs, my checks don't get enough taxes taken out and I end up having to pay out several hundred dollars--despite the fact that I don't make enough money to cover my bills. I'm not one of those anti-tax folks; I'd have no problem with paying taxes if I could earn enough money to support myself.

That's how it works in NY. I get both forms in the mail every year. I don't know what you need to do to ensure that.

Not sending it in until the very last minute!

At least I'm getting some nice cabbage back this year.

Now I have to do my kid's return. Its a bitch to have to do a tax return for a ten year old. (She was bequethed money by her grandfather and the investment returns are enough to require her to file though not enough to owe.)

As soon as my W-2 arrived, that bad boy was done! I wanted my money; I wanted to start earning interest on it! :P

:hi: MM!

But, I have a new fridge and we have no charge card debt. :hi:

and had to pay in about $95 to the state of GA.

Needless to say we submitted the fed forms back in January, got the refund, and then sent in the GA forms and payment.

since I work in CT, I have to file out a "non-resident" form.

Generally speaking, between my 401K and my IRA, I get a considerable amount of tax cut.

I usually get a refund from the federal, get zonked on the NY state (owe money), and get a refund on the CT. Netwise, I end up either owing a small amount (a couple hundred $$) or getting a small refund.

But oh boy! I gotta be careful for next year! Considering a few stocks I cashed in (for hefty profit) I gotta figure out this capital gains stuff! Thankfully, it's all long-term, so it should not be too bad.


:kick:

And my refund was direct-deposited on the 20th.

And I even didn't procrastinate on the FEC-3 (left over from Vince's campaign) because it's due April 15, same as taxes, and I didn't want to be standing in the big line at the post office on April 15. (I'll be standing in what will hopefully be a shorter line tomorrow.)