Archive for the 'Taxes' Category
Free H&R Block TaxCut Software - Federal Only. No credit card necessary. Optional State is $25. Optional E-file is $15. Be sure to disable the lame ‘Download Protection’. Looks like you can even get Microsoft Money 2006 Standard for free after a $30 mail-in rebate.
Free TaxACT Software - Federal only. Free E-File included. Optional State software is $13.
For those with AGIs of less than $50,000, wait until 1/18 and see the IRS’s list of free filing options.
Posted in Deals & Offers, Taxes | 10 Comments »
Let me preface this by saying that I am not anywhere near an expert on taxes. I haven’t even itemized deductions before, since I don’t have any mortgage interest to get me over that standard deduction hump. Thus, I’m just writing what I think I’m reading, and tax gurus can correct me.
I’m trying to learn more about self-employment tax. Since you’re not splitting your Social Security Tax with your employer (you’re the employer), you get to pay 15.3% tax on your income. This is in addition to your federal, state, and local income tax. You do get to deduct half of your 15.3% tax from your net earnings, since “regularly” employed people don’t pay tax on the part paid by their employer either. Still, let’s see how much out of every gross $100 I make ends up in my pocket. This simplification assumes no business expenses.
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Posted in Taxes | 16 Comments »
My daunting task for today is to tally up my FSA receipts. I’ve been rather lazy and haven’t sent in any reimbursement requests at all. I have a manila folder stuffed with prescription medicine receipts, eyeglass receipts, doctor bills, dentist bills, you name it. I have this fuzzy total in my head that says we’re very close to the $500 we allotted for the account, but I need to make sure so we don’t waste any money.
For those of you who signed up for a Flex Spending Account but haven’t use it all yet, now would be a good time to do last-minute planning. It’s not too late to get a vision exam, eyeglasses, prescription sunglasses, or even some dental work to charge off on the plan. Other ideas for using it up include:
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Posted in Taxes | 8 Comments »
If you don’t know what your federal marginal tax rate is off the top of your head, here ya go. This way you know how much of those bank bonuses you’ll actually get to keep. (I won’t be sending 1099s for my Emigrant Direct bonuses though, don’t worry).
| Marginal Tax Rate |
[Taxable Income] Single |
Married Filing Jointly |
| 10% |
$0-$7,300 |
$0-$14,600 |
| 15% |
$7,301-$29,700 |
$14,601-$59,400 |
| 25% |
$29,701-$71,950 |
$59,401-$119,950 |
| 28% |
$71,951-$150,150 |
$119,951-$182,800 |
| 33% |
$150,151-$326,450 |
$182,801-$326,450 |
| 35% |
> $326,450 |
> $326,450 |
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Posted in Taxes | 13 Comments »
I forgot to mention that, although tuition is going to be a big expense this year, I will be eligible for the Lifetime Learning Credit. In essence, it is a 20% rebate back on your college-level expenses up to $10,000, with some restrictions. Since it is a tax credit and not an deduction, it’s up to $2,000 cash in your pocket.
You must pay these expenses yourself, not from a scholarship or a 529 plan. Tuition counts, and mandatory fees count, but for me books do not, since they are technically not “required for enrollment”. Very disapointing, sometimes the books cost as much as the class!
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Posted in Taxes | 8 Comments »
Now that it’s well past midway of 2005, it’s a good time to check up on your healthcare Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs), if you use them. If you do use them, you are probably aware that most FSAs make you forfeit any of the unused balance at the end of the year. We usually don’t have too many health-related expenses, so we only put in $500 this year. My wife ended up getting some dental work done, so it looks like we won’t have to worry about losing any of it. Nickel of FiveCentNickel writes how he hates the annoying “use-it-or-lose-it” aspect of these accounts in a recent post. This also reminded me, did you know that there is a flipside to this?
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Posted in Taxes | 5 Comments »
Ok, I’m making a dent in my blog reading. Earlier this week No Credit Needed posted the schedule for State Sales Tax Holidays, a good reminder for those that need to do shopping in the near future, especially for the kiddos.
What are sales tax holidays? They are certain time periods, different for each state, where certain items are exempt from sales tax, either by category or under a certain dollar amount. Targeted at families doing back-to-school shopping, these items are usually things like clothes, school supplies, and electronics.
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Posted in Taxes | No Comments »
Most of us pay taxes as part of our paycheck each month, as Uncle Sam mandates it to be. For many people, this means overpaying a little bit each month “just to be safe”, and getting a nice fat tax refund the following year (We ourselves got $1,046 back this year). But, as others have pointed out, this is the equivalent of giving the government a interest-free loan. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather take an interest-free loan myself. So instead, why not withhold as little as possible, invest the money you would have paid out somewhere earning interest instead, and in April pay back the government what it’s due. (Similar to taking advantage of 0% APR credit card offers.) But how little can you pay?
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Posted in Taxes | 5 Comments »
So I had all my W-2s, 1099s, stock trades and dates, etc. ready to do my taxes. I sit down at the computer and… where did my tax software go? I know I took it out of the boxes, cut out the UPCs, and sent off the rebates. I already threw away the boxes, so there should be a little stack of CDs in my office… hours later… nada. Nowhere to be found. I’m seriously losing it.
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Posted in Taxes | 4 Comments »
I bought my tax software from OfficeMax recently. There seems to be a new sale every week these days, but I got H&R Block TaxCut Deluxe, 1 free e-file, TaxCut State, Microsoft Money 2005 Stanard, and DeductionPro, all for $100 - $80 of mail-in rebates = $20. But wait! You can file for free at this link from the IRS.
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Posted in Taxes | 1 Comment »
I got my bonus! Well, most of it anyway. After all taxes I ended up with barely more than 50% of the gross amount. For some reason I have been laboring under the false impression that there is a special tax bracket for bonuses. But after some research and this article at TheStreet.com, I realize that’s a myth (for federal taxes at least). Apparently some states also have a special tax on annual bonuses?
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Posted in Taxes | 3 Comments »
