Taxes

kak125 · #1 02-18-2011, 10:34 AM

Ugh I am annoyed and need to vent. I think its ridiculous married people that make good money and have no kids get taxed so much. I thought I was going to get money back this year since my hubby and I both claim 0 and they took out so much in taxes this year. So I did my taxes on tax slayer and we owe $347!! Grr, I am beyond annoyed. Meanwhile all the people I know that have kids are getting between 2-8k back. What I also thought was crap was my friends with no kids who are trying to get preggers were able to write that off as well. I mean come on. Thats just ridiculous!!! I get to hear about how my friends are all taking vacations and buying stuff for their house which is beyond annoying. Everybody tells me I should be happy I make good money but in reality my hubby and I pay so much in taxes that we really dont make much more than we did 5 years ago.

HejiraNYC · #2 02-18-2011, 11:03 AM

Oh please. At least you get a break as a married couple. When you're single with no dependents, you really, really get it up the backside. To add insult to injury, I was slapped with AMT last year. And I barely take home half of what I earn as it is. And NY/NYC has the highest state income tax and property taxes in the nation. And NYC sales tax is very high too- 8.65% I really wonder where all of my money goes... it surely doesn't go towards pothole repair!

kak125 · #3 02-18-2011, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

Oh please. At least you get a break as a married couple. When you're single with no dependents, you really, really get it up the backside. To add insult to injury, I was slapped with AMT last year. And I barely take home half of what I earn as it is. And NY/NYC has the highest state income tax and property taxes in the nation. And NYC sales tax is very high too- 8.65% I really wonder where all of my money goes... it surely doesn't go towards pothole repair!

yeah i guess the married thing helps but then again we got cash back last year so i guess i find it so odd to owe this year. its just annoying when everybody i know is getting so much money back and i am scraping to pay my real estate taxes. grr!! i feel for you with paying so much in taxes. that sucks. what is AMT if you dont mind me asking?

estranged4life · #4 02-18-2011, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kak125

I think its ridiculous married people that make good money and have no kids get taxed so much

before Debbie passed, we always got about $600-$700 every year, just by claiming "joint married at a higher amount" on our tax papers provided by work. Hell, we were both would've been happy to not have to pay taxes even if it meant no refund...And we never paid taxes one single time to either state or federal, always a refund.

Only thing that annoyed me tax wise since her death was the IRS LOSING all my paperwork last year I mailed in for the "First Time Homeowner Credit"...Instead of having the refund by the usual time of the beginning of March - it was the first week in JUNE!

I received a letter from the IRS in November stating that if I moved from the residence (Within the next 3 years) I claimed on the credit I would have to payback the amount of the credit...Gee, if one pays off their 'mortgage' doesnt that sometimes mean they're planning on STAYING in the home?

On the positive/humourous side of taxes - I was trying to decided in December 2010 if I needed to split my "property tax" for the home into 2 payments (Which is an option in the county I live in - One payment before December 31,2010 and the other is due before March 31,2011) but decided "why split a tax bill of $12.84 into 2 payments?"

kak125 · #5 02-18-2011, 11:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by estranged4life

before Debbie passed, we always got about $600-$700 every year, just by claiming "joint married at a higher amount" on our tax papers provided by work. Hell, we were both would've been happy to not have to pay taxes even if it meant no refund...And we never paid taxes one single time to either state or federal, always a refund.

Only thing that annoyed me tax wise since her death was the IRS LOSING all my paperwork last year I mailed in for the "First Time Homeowner Credit"...Instead of having the refund by the usual time of the beginning of March - it was the first week in JUNE!

I received a letter from the IRS in November stating that if I moved from the residence (Within the next 3 years) I claimed on the credit I would have to payback the amount of the credit...Gee, if one pays off their 'mortgage' doesnt that sometimes mean they're planning on STAYING in the home?

On the positive/humourous side of taxes - I was trying to decided in December 2010 if I needed to split my "property tax" for the home into 2 payments (Which is an option in the county I live in - One payment before December 31,2010 and the other is due before March 31,2011) but decided "why split a tax bill of $12.84 into 2 payments?"

yeah we both claim 0 but we didnt choose the withhold at higher single rate option. i tried that once when i first started working at pitt but they ended up taking an extra $400 a month in federal and that was just way too much. i was really shocked this year to not get any money back since you figure our mortgage interest was around 10k alone. we gave some money to charity and donated stuff and things like that so i was really expecting a nice refund. $347 isnt much to owe thats for sure but its just odd to have to owe when we are getting so much taken out of our paychecks.
that is crazy about the IRS losing paperwork for the first time homebuyers credit but i have heard about that happening more than once thats for sure. i think they purposely say they lost it or something. that is crazy to know that you would have to pay that money back if you sold your house in 3 years. thats so stupid especially since you paid off your house, ha! idiots!
wow now that is some seriously low propery taxes!!! awesome! i thought that the $1354 a year i was paying was low -ha ha!! sweetness.

kak125 · #6 02-18-2011, 11:34 AM

one thing that confuses me when doing my taxes online. there was a question where it asked if you got a refund last year and i said yes and then it had me enter the amount. i put in the $715 we got back last year and noticed it added it as income. so if this is the case wouldnt all the people i know that get 2-8k back have to put that as income on their returns too? if so i would think that would jack up their income enough that they wouldnt get nearly as much back next year right?

HejiraNYC · #7 02-18-2011, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kak125

yeah i guess the married thing helps but then again we got cash back last year so i guess i find it so odd to owe this year. its just annoying when everybody i know is getting so much money back and i am scraping to pay my real estate taxes. grr!! i feel for you with paying so much in taxes. that sucks. what is AMT if you dont mind me asking?

To be honest, I still don't quite understand Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). You can read about it, but it's all gibberish to me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_minimum_tax

In a nutshell, it used to be a way to make sure "rich" people don't itemize their way out of paying income tax. However, the threshold for AMT was set a very, very long time ago when nominal income was much lower and is now totally out of sync with the times; "middle class" people are starting to get hit with it. I had to pay for an additional worksheet plus paying some amount in addition to my customary returns. Good grief!

HejiraNYC · #8 02-18-2011, 11:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kak125

one thing that confuses me when doing my taxes online. there was a question where it asked if you got a refund last year and i said yes and then it had me enter the amount. i put in the $715 we got back last year and noticed it added it as income. so if this is the case wouldnt all the people i know that get 2-8k back have to put that as income on their returns too? if so i would think that would jack up their income enough that they wouldnt get nearly as much back next year right?

Correct. Anything you got back last year is considered "income" since you technically didn't pay taxes on it when it was withheld from your paycheck.

kak125 · #9 02-18-2011, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

To be honest, I still don't quite understand Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). You can read about it, but it's all gibberish to me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_minimum_tax

In a nutshell, it used to be a way to make sure "rich" people don't itemize their way out of paying income tax. However, the threshold for AMT was set a very, very long time ago when nominal income was much lower and is now totally out of sync with the times; "middle class" people are starting to get hit with it. I had to pay for an additional worksheet plus paying some amount in addition to my customary returns. Good grief!

yeah i dont understand it all either but its total sh*t. ridiculous!! they need to change the threshold for the AMT like STAT because these days even making 100k really isnt that much. everything costs so much more now. i feel for you for having to pay extra for that crap. its so not fair!

kak125 · #10 02-18-2011, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

Correct. Anything you got back last year is considered "income" since you technically didn't pay taxes on it when it was withheld from your paycheck.

gotcha! thanks i was wondering about that!!

GODDESS6 · #11 02-18-2011, 11:47 AM

my husband claims 2, there are 3 of us~ we usually get 2-3 grand back, but this yr we got 4500.00 because i had to put in a new furnace & got a tax credit for that~ they tax the crap out of my husband's pay because he works buko overtime, so even when we didn't have a kid, we got back around 900.00~

HejiraNYC · #12 02-18-2011, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by estranged4life

before Debbie passed, we always got about $600-$700 every year, just by claiming "joint married at a higher amount" on our tax papers provided by work. Hell, we were both would've been happy to not have to pay taxes even if it meant no refund...And we never paid taxes one single time to either state or federal, always a refund.

Only thing that annoyed me tax wise since her death was the IRS LOSING all my paperwork last year I mailed in for the "First Time Homeowner Credit"...Instead of having the refund by the usual time of the beginning of March - it was the first week in JUNE!

I received a letter from the IRS in November stating that if I moved from the residence (Within the next 3 years) I claimed on the credit I would have to payback the amount of the credit...Gee, if one pays off their 'mortgage' doesnt that sometimes mean they're planning on STAYING in the home?

On the positive/humourous side of taxes - I was trying to decided in December 2010 if I needed to split my "property tax" for the home into 2 payments (Which is an option in the county I live in - One payment before December 31,2010 and the other is due before March 31,2011) but decided "why split a tax bill of $12.84 into 2 payments?"

Good grief. Don't you people have schools and roads to fund?

My property tax this year will be over $6000, and that is considered cheap for the area! And my lot is tiny- barely a third of an acre. Supposedly it costs each child attending the local public school system something like $12,000/year, which is basically like a university education. What is all this money being spent on? Ipads? What happened to just teaching reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic? Sure, I am all for increasing education spending if there was actually something to show for it. But these kids are just as smart/dumb as ever, despite the parabolic increase in spending over the past decade. It's seriously time to stop spending money on polo, swimming pools and golf.

kak125 · #13 02-18-2011, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GODDESS6

my husband claims 2, there are 3 of us~ we usually get 2-3 grand back, but this yr we got 4500.00 because i had to put in a new furnace & got a tax credit for that~ they tax the crap out of my husband's pay because he works buko overtime, so even when we didn't have a kid, we got back around 900.00~

wow that is awesome! i am soo jealous!

kak125 · #14 02-18-2011, 11:56 AM

you know another thing that kinda bothers me is that my hubby and i dont plan on having any kids. so i think its crap that we have to pay school taxes for other people's kids. there should be a tax deduction or something if you dont have kids or if you do have kids and they arent going to a public school. no reason to have to pay for it if your not using it. i know i know this will never change but its annoying!!

HejiraNYC · #15 02-18-2011, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kak125

you know another thing that kinda bothers me is that my hubby and i dont plan on having any kids. so i think its crap that we have to pay school taxes for other people's kids. there should be a tax deduction or something if you dont have kids or if you do have kids and they arent going to a public school. no reason to have to pay for it if your not using it. i know i know this will never change but its annoying!!

Well, I do think that access to a quality public school education is a right for all citizens, and as a fellow citizen I am willing to pay my share of it. It's a good idea that is poor in execution. The school systems around here are full of micro-districts full of highly paid administrative staff who really do not do any kind of teaching whatsoever, yet they receive incredibly generous union benefits and pensions. Schools should be administered on a county or state level rather than on a town-by-town level. And there is so much money spent on expensive pursuits that don't improve test scores and don't prepare kids for higher education or life in general, e.g., ice hockey, water polo, golf, tennis, etc. The priority should be on math, science and English, period, as well as some life skills like home economics. Only kids who excel in these areas should be allowed to pursue extracurricular activities (at parents' expense). With all of this excessive access to technology in the classroom, kids are no longer required to learn how to think or learn how to solve problems. Why bother when all of the answers you need are just a few swipes away on your iPad, right?