Tax Time

[curlyfat]

You remind me of my next-door neighbor. Nice guy. He works for a company that does very seasonal work (installing in-ground lawn irrigation systems), so every late fall, his boss "lays him off" so that he can draw unemployment benefits. And then every early spring, he magically gets rehired. During the "laid off" period, my neighbor submits false reports of attempts to find work so he can continue to draw the benefit checks. He's been doing this for about 10 years now, and he doesn't seem to feel any sort of shame or embarrassment over it.

And the real kicker is that he likes to bitch about the taxes and honestly can't figure out why they are so high. And he likes to rail about freeloading minorities.


By the way, curlyfat, you could very easily "give back" a bigger portion of that money to a charity that supports people who are actually struggling. Surely there are local charities in your area that could use the cash. Maybe buy yourself just one conical with "my" money.

Well, at the end of the day, I am a hypocritical ass. My "chunk" I give is 50% to a few local carities I believe in.

Legally, I'm required to file my taxes, and who wouldn't take money they're legally required to get?

As noted, I know I'm being hypocritical by bitching about the system that I currently benefit from. If it makes you feel better, I am striving to become one of those folks that is required to give away half their income...hopefully then karma will be balanced.

I really hope you aren't comparing me to a fellow who fraudulently collects unemployment. I work 60+ hours a week, year round, managing a business. The screwed up part is that the Government somehow thinks that my income isn't enough to get by on. Rail against the policy makers that continually increase the money us "moochers" receive. Don't get all high and mighty with me, I'm on your side!

Feel free to come by and I'll gladly discuss it over a pint from my ill-gotten kegerator.


EDIT: Oh! And I know a few folks that are "struggling". They are on food stamps, get a much bigger tax "return" than I do, and bitch about how the price of cigarettes and cable TV is going up. They think they are somehow "owed" the food stamps and big returns, and seem to spend most of their money from employment on things that have nothing to do with improving their family's situation. These are people I employ and consider friends (on some level, anyway). One fellow quit his second job because the extra income decreased his food-stamp allowance. That sort of thing just drives me nuts. There's no sense of making it on your own.

I am sorry my donations don't meet your standards. Like I state multiple times, I think this system is retarded at best, and there is no reason I should be receiving forced charity, but I am just greedy enough to accept it.

To the OP:

I'm buying two stainless steel 14g conical fermentors!:rockin:

 

[BendBrewer]

Nice! Do you adjust your W2 withholding every year to match the decline in your mortgage interest deduction to make sure it zeroes out? If so, color me insanely impressed.

I do actually after learning that lesson 2 years ago after refinancing and getting a much better rate. That was a "WTF happened........Ohhhhhhhhhhhh" moment.

 

[dmbGator]

Can't wait, think I'm gonna get the Blichman 3 tier system with two burners and a stand.

 

[Flomaster]

SWMBO works day care at home, claiming it, but haven't paid taxes all year on it so 1099 = money out of my pocket.

I work and pay taxes just more than needed to not OWE to the IRS, my extra will likely balance out what my wifes owes seeing as she only made 6K in 2010. we have a mortgage payment and one child.

I might get money back and if we do its going towards debt. damn the economy for crashing and me buying stuff on credit hoping for another HUGE bonus. tis my own fault and I have no one else to blame but my self.

-=Jason=-

 

[cedar_lake]

I used to be one of those "Don't give Uncle Sam an interest-free loan" people, but for the last couple of years my wife and have been using high withholding as a separate little savings account, a chunk of money we don't count on to live off of and that we only see and make decisions about once a year. It's easy to piss away a couple grand a year on nothing, a lot harder to hold it all in your hand once a year and make an irresponsible decision with it. Our tax refund usually goes toward the next home improvement on our priority list, or into savings.

 

[milesvdustin]

This year I budgeted so my whole refund is gonna buy me four more better bottles and a kegging setup.

 

[culturejam]

Well, at the end of the day, I am a hypocritical ass. My "chunk" I give is 50% to a few local carities I believe in.

Well good for you. :rockin:

Do you deduct that at the end of the year? haha, just kidding. :cross:

Legally, I'm required to file my taxes, and who wouldn't take money they're legally required to get?

I guess I've just never been in a situation where the government gives me back all the money I paid in plus some extra. I'm not sure how I'd feel about being financially okay but still taking money from the dole. Hopefully, I'll never find out.

If it makes you feel better, I am striving to become one of those folks that is required to give away half their income...hopefully then karma will be balanced.

It's not about making me feel better. If you feel that what you are doing is ethical, and you don't lose any sleep, then that's all that matters. Karma is individual. What I think of you is irrelevant. What you think of yourself is what matters.

Don't get all high and mighty with me, I'm on your side!

I'm not judging you. Obviously you're in line with the law. I just don't think I could be okay with that situation. But as I said above, if it doesn't bother you, keep on with it. I'm a believer in situational ethics. Morality is subjective.

I am sorry my donations don't meet your standards.

Stop being sorry.

 

[curlyfat]

Sorry.

I appreciate your detailed response to my rant!

My last post probably should have been in the drunken ramblings forum...

It's a stupid system we have set up in this country. Perhaps it'll change to a flat tax someday, but I doubt it.

Let's get back to the question at hand: If you get a "refund", will you buy any cool brewing toys?

 

[culturejam]

Let's get back to the question at hand: If you get a "refund", will you buy any cool brewing toys?

I'll probably get something, but it won't be huge. Probably a new, larger kettle or maybe one of those small Minibrew conicals.

The rest is going to a) pay down debt and b) squirrel away for the old "emergency" fund.

 

[Stratotankard]

We used to try to balance out to get a small refund ($100 or so) but with varying deployment cycles and the tax free and hazardous duty pay it's difficult to estimate what exactly you'll be claiming in a given year. So far we've always overestimated our taxes and have gotten back more (sometimes much more).

I remember one year when both SWMBO and I were deployed a total of 18 months in the year between us. The CPA was having nightmares over our return. He was convinced we had to be cheating somewhere but he was damned if he could figure out where.

 

[remilard]

I guess I've just never been in a situation where the government gives me back all the money I paid in plus some extra. I'm not sure how I'd feel about being financially okay but still taking money from the dole. Hopefully, I'll never find out.

About half of households pay no federal income tax. Most of those have a "negative income tax" because they have a credit which exceeds their tax liability net of deductions.

I was in that situation throughout college. I'm now very much in the situation of paying a lot of FIT. If you walked out of your parents house making the 30K or so single or 50K or so married with kids that you have to make to have a positive FIT burden, good for you.

 

[ChandlerBang]

About half of households pay no federal income tax. Most of those have a "negative income tax" because they have a credit which exceeds their tax liability net of deductions.

How about the IRS say no to negative returns. If your return says you should get more money back than you actually paid in, then a net zero is all you get. How big of a dent would that make in the deficit?

 

[remilard]

About half of households pay no federal income tax. Most of those have a "negative income tax" because they have a credit which exceeds their tax liability net of deductions.QUOTE]


How about the IRS say no to negative returns. If your return says you should get more money back than you actually paid in, then a net zero is all you get. How big of a dent would that make in the deficit?

Probably a fair amount but, like them or not, having incentives to have certain family structures (specifically a one earner household with children), to own a home, to educate children, etc are things that we have chosen to provide economic incentives for. I'm not defending all of this. While I benefit from the mortgage interested deduction my DINK household is not very tax efficient. I could divorce my wife and our net income would increase by thousands of dollars. Interesting incentives I guess but the true incentive is for her to quit her job and pop out some little remilards.

 

[culturejam]

If you walked out of your parents house making the 30K or so single or 50K or so married with kids that you have to make to have a positive FIT burden, good for you.

Well, I was in college for 5 years, and my income at the time was negligible, but my parents claimed me as a dependent so I wasn't really eligible for tax credits. But as soon as I graduated, I got a job making more than $30k, so since I've been a working adult I've always paid taxes (and not gotten most of it back).

I had no idea it was so unusual for people to pay taxes.

 

[curlyfat]

Well, I was in college for 5 years, and my income at the time was negligible, but my parents claimed me as a dependent so I wasn't really eligible for tax credits. But as soon as I graduated, I got a job making more than $30k, so since I've been a working adult I've always paid taxes (and not gotten most of it back).

I had no idea it was so unusual for people to pay taxes.

Just for the record, in the interest of showing how silly it is, I make a lot more than 30k, a lot more than 40k. I paid a lot of taxes when I was younger with a much lower income, But with three kids and a stay at home SWMBO, "they" think I'm too poor, and I pay negative taxes. Pretty dam silly, isn't it?

Personally, I've said for a long time thagt negative taxes should go away. It is forced welfare that no one notices.

 

[culturejam]

But with three kids and a stay at home SWMBO, "they" think I'm too poor, and I pay negative taxes. Pretty dam silly, isn't it?

I gotta start having kids!!! I always thought they cost money, not made money. :rockin:

 

[dmbGator]

so i just got out out college dec. 2010 and got a job around july making 40k. my parnets don't claim me as a dependent anymore but i paid my own way through college and have a good amount of debt. i also believe i claimed 0. i know i should get the interest i paid on my loans tax free, but do you think i should get a pretty good refund?

sorry about no caps, i had to remote in from work and it wont let me use the caps lock button

 

[knotquiteawake]

Refund is going to be applied directly to the ol' college loans. SWMBO and I are aggressively paying down the student loans of mine... Hopefully we'll be debt free in 9 or 10 months. Guess it will depend on the size of the refund.

 

[tekknoschtev]

I'm pretty sure I'll be getting a non-insignificant return this year, though part of that is due to how my employer paid out bonuses. They effectively tacked on an additional paycheck one month, which bumped everyone to the next tax bracket (feds thought I was making twice as much as I was...) and so it was taxed higher.

No complaints from me. I'd like to keep it in the range of getting a small refund every year. I've had to pay before, and while I have an emergency fund to cover things like that (I didn't know, and my employer didn't know that I had to pay City taxes, so there was a good chunk of change!), I'd rather not have to worry about it.

That said, depending on the amount, most of it is likely going into savings. I want to buy a house this year! I'll maybe use a small amount to buy some supplies like extra grains so I can brew whenever I want, bulk hops, etc.

 

[flatrockbrewing]

We setup S Corporation status for our brew store and our CPA said we could write off brewing equipment purchased for testing.

 

[JNye]

You remind me of my next-door neighbor. Nice guy. He works for a company that does very seasonal work (installing in-ground lawn irrigation systems), so every late fall, his boss "lays him off" so that he can draw unemployment benefits. And then every early spring, he magically gets rehired. During the "laid off" period, my neighbor submits false reports of attempts to find work so he can continue to draw the benefit checks. He's been doing this for about 10 years now, and he doesn't seem to feel any sort of shame or embarrassment over it.

And the real kicker is that he likes to bitch about the taxes and honestly can't figure out why they are so high. And he likes to rail about freeloading minorities.


By the way, curlyfat, you could very easily "give back" a bigger portion of that money to a charity that supports people who are actually struggling. Surely there are local charities in your area that could use the cash. Maybe buy yourself just one conical with "my" money.

If he's not working during that time then what is the problem? He's not "layed off", he's layed off. His employer pays into unemeployment INSURANCE and he's entitled to claim it when not working. He knows he'll get called back, so? He should be calling about work weekly and keeping records, but that isn't too hard. I wouldn't expect him to go work at the gas station when he knows he's got a job that pays 2-5 times more in the spring? Maybe you do?

PS, I'm buying a fence with my little interest free saving account I have set-up with the government, stupid maybe, but I still like that big check once a year.

 

[weirdboy]

This year we are getting a large check thanks mainly to the first time homebuyer's credit. Our taxes were completely unpredictable this year as we had a bunch of different deductions and credits from rental property, mortgage interest, etc.

All the money is going to pay property tax and insurance.