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April 15th is over. How did you come out for the 2013 tax year?

How did you come out for the 2013 tax year?

  • Overall I paid in more than 50% in taxes.

    Votes: 1 4.0%
  • Overall I paid in more than 20% but less than 50%.

    Votes: 10 40.0%
  • Overall I paid less than 20% but more than 10%.

    Votes: 4 16.0%
  • Overall I paid less than 10% but more than 5%

    Votes: 2 8.0%
  • Overall I paid less than 5% but more than 0%

    Votes: 1 4.0%
  • Overal I didn't pay any taxes.

    Votes: 7 28.0%
  • I am just guessing. I didn't calculate it. I could be lying.

    Votes: 1 4.0%
  • I calculated it my answer. My answer is true.

    Votes: 2 8.0%

  • Total voters
    25
  • Poll closed .
I still don't see how sales tax or property taxes are connected to April 15th. There are people who keep up with the amount of sales tax that they actually pay. Non-profit organization do this. I have heard of individuals who do that but they are extremely rare.

What is your motivation for keeping every single receipt and adding up the sales taxes that you pay? It seems absurd. To be honest I doubt that you did that.

We get a refund at the end of the year...well...we used to. But, adding the sales tax to an itemized return will save you hundreds to thousands of dollars. Some years it is the difference between writing a check and getting a check.
 
I'll get a refund enough to set aside for a Mac Mini whenever they decide to update it (or if I become desperate enough, another windows machine), so I can have some security if this laptop decides to go south.
 
I paid dearly. Not to mention all the other taxes and fees and licenses I paid throughout the year. But I did get a decent return, nonetheless.

I bought two round-trip tickets and a week's stay at a fat condo at John's Pass, FL with it. I truly wasn't expecting it. So when I got it, I figured, since I had already considered it gone, why not just blow it on a good time?
 
Paid just under 30%.

Refund was in the neighborhood of $12,000.
 
I had to amend my taxes and the IRS still owes me 500 bucks.
 
Here is my personal situation:

Income from all sources = $33,016.66
Federal Income tax, Social Security taxes and Medicare taxes = $3,018.66
Federal Refund = $5,116.00
North Carolina Income tax = $1,133.16
North Carolina refund = $456.00

My federal taxes were at an effective rate of -6.35%
My state taxes were at an effective rate of 2.05%
My overall effective tax rate was -4.30%

I voted for the 6th and the 8th option.

so you are part of Romney's 47% who need to get their life in order
 
Paid just under 30%.

Refund was in the neighborhood of $12,000.

so you lent the government $12,000 this year interest free? Thank you.
 
Isn't this all a little personal? Damn, you guys are candid.
 
We get a refund at the end of the year...well...we used to. But, adding the sales tax to an itemized return will save you hundreds to thousands of dollars. Some years it is the difference between writing a check and getting a check.

You get an A+ for record keeping. When I took a tax class at (A certain company) the instructor had seen one client that saved all of his receipts to add his sales tax to his itemized deductions. He had been doing tax returns for 20 years. The same client did it every year.

That's quite an accomplishment.
 
Isn't this all a little personal? Damn, you guys are candid.

So we should solve our nation's problems by lying? Should we try to ignore our problems because we never hear about them?

I hate liars. What I hate more than liars are those who bury their heads in the sand. How can we have a real discussion while bringing false data to the table?

What do you see as the biggest problem with me telling the truth about my tax situation? Presidential candidates divulge their personnel tax data without any harm coming to them. I honestly don't see the threat.
 
I paid more, but, I made more...lots more, it was a good year.:)
 
Has your spouse ever told you that you spend too much money?

Lol...no...it is the other way around.

But saving receipts is not hard. Throw them in a box, record them in excel in Jan and ad them up. Takes a couple of hours at most.
 
I paid more, but, I made more...lots more, it was a good year.:)

Which would you rather have? A $30,000 income and no income tax or $250,000 income and $125,000 in taxes?

Which would make your life better? Which would make your life worse?
 
So we should solve our nation's problems by lying? Should we try to ignore our problems because we never hear about them?

I hate liars. What I hate more than liars are those who bury their heads in the sand. How can we have a real discussion while bringing false data to the table?

What do you see as the biggest problem with me telling the truth about my tax situation? Presidential candidates divulge their personnel tax data without any harm coming to them. I honestly don't see the threat.
I just find it a little odd, is all. Where I'm from, people are generally tight-lipped about their finances.
 
so you lent the government $12,000 this year interest free? Thank you.

Yeah.

If I were more "financially savvy" I probably would have put that money in the bank and taken the $2.20 APY (total) it would have earned me over the year.
 
We get a refund at the end of the year...well...we used to. But, adding the sales tax to an itemized return will save you hundreds to thousands of dollars. Some years it is the difference between writing a check and getting a check.

I itemize, but never thought of adding sales tax. I will be talking to my CPA about this. I keep every receipt I have for each year. Thanks for the tip.
 
Yeah.

If I were more "financially savvy" I probably would have put that money in the bank and taken the $2.20 APY (total) it would have earned me over the year.

Yes. I had an accounting teacher that tried to tell us that it was dumb to get a tax refund. I just smiled and pretended that she was a genius. After all, her logic was sound but low interest rates really rips that logic to shreds.

$1,000 for 12 months = $7.50
$1,000 for 11 months = $6.88
$1,000 for 10 months = $6.26
$1,000 for 9 months = $5.63
$1,000 for 8 months = $5.00
$1,000 for 7 months = $4.38
$1,000 for 6 months = $3.75
$1,000 for 5 months = $3.13
$1,000 for 4 months = $2.50
$1,000 for 3 months = $1.88
$1,000 for 2 months = $1.25
$1,000 for 1 month = $0.63

It probably would have been around $48.79 but that is a reasonable penalty to pay for a forced savings account in my opinion. Someone with more money and/or more discipline than me might disagree. I can see the logic either way but it is dependent upon the past spending habits of the individual.

For most broke or undisciplined Americans it is a wise thing to use the federal government as a savings account. Most refunds aren't $12,000 so the argument becomes weaker if the person is getting a $6,000 refund.
 
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I itemize, but never thought of adding sales tax. I will be talking to my CPA about this. I keep every receipt I have for each year. Thanks for the tip.

I call people who do this 'awesome' or 'dedicated'. It's very impressive to keep up with all of that mess. I have personally never been able to itemize because the standard deduction is around $12,000. My mortgage balance is only $19,260.33. The biggest deduction that I could get would be $1,155.62. I only donate around 10% of my income to charitable causes but sometimes I give that to individuals. That is less than $4,000. Even if I spent all $33,500 of my income (which I don't) the sales tax would only be $2,345. I am a long ways from reaching $12,000. I don't think it pays to itemize unless you have a really huge mortgage.
 
so you are part of Romney's 47% who need to get their life in order

Why do you refuse to give me valuable input on how to get my life in order? Don't you want me to get my life in order?

What was it that Romney said? That I wouldn't vote for him? Guess what? He was wrong and so are you.

I voted for Mccain. I voted straight ticket Republican in 2008. I voted for Romney in 2012. I didn't vote straight ticket Republican in 2012 but that was because of some local RINO's at the county level. I voted for Richard Burr and Walter Jones. Both are Republicans. Romney was an idiot. I was an even bigger idiot for voting for a guy that insulted me by spreading lies about me.

Surely you are smarter than Romney. Am I wrong?
 
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For most broke or undisciplined Americans it is a wise thing to use the federal government as a savings account.

I don't really consider myself to be broke or financially undisciplined and I still think it's a good idea (or I wouldn't do it).

I've got to take into consideration any stock I may sell over the course of the year, how my and my wife's bonuses are taxed, and potential changes to the tax code.

To me, the little bit I forgo in opportunity cost on over-withholding is more than made up for in terms of the time/effort I'd have to expend calculating every financial move I make down to the penny OR hiring an accountant to do that worrying for me.

I like having that "padding" there to ensure that I'm not going to have to write a check at the end of the year. You never know what's going to happen over the course of the year and if my wife or I lose our job in, say, July of a given year we'd have to burn through a lot of savings to make ends meet (as we did this year, and though severance more than covered the spread this time the possibility exists that it wouldn't have, or might not at some point in the future). If I was counting on using savings in the event of a potential underpayment and I HAD to spend that savings over the course of the year on something else before tax day I could end up in a bit of a fix and then have to scramble to sell stock (and then have to pay capital gains on that) to pay the tax man.

Too much trouble.

If the $1000 a month overpayment was going to make or break me I'd look at it a lot harder. As it is I feel that I'm getting more than my money's worth in peace of mind.
 
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