Those dreaded words
 

Yes, citizens. It's INCOME TAX day, April 15th. Death and taxes are 2 of life's certaintys.
I've done paid one and received from the other already this year. I have always wished I could pay in exactly what the scale called for and just break even but it has never worked out that way, even though she and I claimed single and zero dependents. So many years ago the wife and I began paying in an additional 20-25 $ on each paycheck to try to stay ahead of a tax shortage. It usually worked out in our favor. I just hate having to pay in a chunk more at tax filing time.

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You would be better served putting the extra 25 away every week into an account than giving it to the goberment . My BIL and sister always get a big refund and they thought it’s was great . Till I said to them how’s it feel giving the goberment an interest free loan every year .

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This is what the wife and I have done also ,, from day one..

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Eh, having that little bit automatically withheld from paychecks is the easiest. We never got large refunds anyway. Everybody's situation is different of course.

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We hired a new tax accountant who counseled us to not pay any taxes last year. My wife handles it, because when I was working (commuted and traveled) and she was staying at home, it was easier. She used to do it but with her mother's estate, we got the accountant. He guesstimated wrong and it cost us a couple hundred bucks in penalties. :( We're paying taxes quarterly this year.

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I think that you should always owe the government a little. They get enough $$ that they shouldn't need to borrow mine interest free.
Having said that ..They have made the w-4 withholding form extremely complicated. The instructions are 3 pages long and the form is one page.

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I had a driver who owned a large bit of personal acreage and when the gas drillers came through poking all those gas wells, he came into a sizeable pile of cash over a year or two. At tax filing time he said he was penalised and even scolded for not paying in estimated taxes during the year. Now how was he supposed to know how much to expect he'd be receiving and if he was supposed to do so? Tax bidnezz can be tricky.
I've got two gas wells right across the road from me and we've received about enough to dine out somewhere. They capped one off (struck oil we're told) and never pumped any gas out of the other one. My luck. :lol:

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This year was about as close to break even as I could guess. Got a few bucks back from the state that I turned around and sent to the feds for my shortfall. I have extra taken out of my bonus checks so it tends to help us get close to even. What I don't want to do is dwell on how much I paid to the feds, state, and SS. I would cry myself to sleep for a week.

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Estimated taxes are a completely different story . If you don’t pay them because of a windfall like the well drilling they will go after you . But most people get a paycheck with weekly biweekly deductions . So if you get a refund every year you need to change the withholding .

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I agree that it may not be optimum to get a large tax return at tax time but the truth is most people don't have the financial discipline to save the difference and still have it at the end of the year. I hear people blame the school systems for not teaching personal finance but the biggest part of personal finance can be covered with 4th grade math (with the exception of compound interest and the future cost of money). Grade school does teach us not to use drugs or smoke, you can see how well that works.

I have a buddy who sells lower market cars and most of his sales are from tax returns.

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I have a different outlook on giving the government an interest-free loan every year, then getting a fat return. I see it as an interest-free savings account and the interest a savings account with a bank yields is nothing to get excited about. The government uses our money to operate our nation, then gives it back. I guarantee, if everyone stopped this practice the government would come up with other ways to get that money, like raising taxes. Many would not save the amount of their return in a year. Since the return feels like a windfall, it boosts our economy since most feel pretty free about spending that money. The tend to buy bigger ticket items they'd have a hard time gathering the money for. It's how this country has been running since before any of us were born

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that's how i see it, a big fat return.
with how complicated the tax systems are, pretty tough to come out even-steven with the gov every yr.
believe it or not i don't mind paying taxes, not all of them but it is what it is, but what i do not want is to owe more to the gov in the spring. for the past 40 or so yrs i have the secretaries at work take an extra $50 off every pay. my paycheck is roughly around $2500 every 2 weeks, so i don't miss that 50.
and $50 times 26 checks per yr is about 1300. i consistently get back 1500-2500 every yr, so i actually see it as a cheap investment..
wife did our taxes a couple weeks ago, just waiting for my big fat refund check for $1900, which among other things will be getting me a new set of 285 M/T's for my new truck. didn't have to budget for them, save money or pay a bit here and there- free money that don't come out of our household budget

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I hate it too, 6400 this year. I claim 3 exemptions though, its just me. Got to change that, freaking gov. Charges "interest". Man, I did a job for a guy, heavy and nice, discount rate. Gov. Would take 35 percent, ca. Style. Unless someone pays me my rate plus 35%, I no longer work for a 1099, but will accept gifts. Be damn, I value whats left my body and time.

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i paid a butt ton this year. one of the wifes siblings is irresponsible as hell and threatened bankruptcy to force a sale of a sibling owned property given by the paternal grandmother, so capital gains there. my side hustle sold more in q4 than all other quarters combined so about 41% effective there too. and even though I claimed 0-single exemptions at the engineering job I was still in the hole because of the obama care loophole where i have to fund it because i dont need it, 4k there as well.

i am sure others definition of a butt ton is different and i am not complaining, but it was hard to write that check for sure!

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Exactly! Several months of trial and error to get it right.

I’m ready for a flat tax. Everything would be so much simpler!

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We usually get back a very small amount, had to pay one time because of a miscalculation on my part on deductions for some largish commissions I made.

I have zero problems paying my taxes. I do have a problem with government waste. Giving them extra is silly in my book, others view it differently.

My guess is the vast majority of our leaders have never actually run a business in the private sector. I think if they did maybe (?) they would spend tax monies better.

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"I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you."

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The most dreaded words in all of history.

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wife has been doing my taxes for 34 yrs. in that time only once has she made a mistake.
well for the second time in 34 yrs, she made another mistake. i was all over her like ugly on an ape about getting my taxes done so i could get my refund.
because of my pressure, she forgot to add one of my tax credits in.
always nice when a mistake is in your favor...instead of $1900, here's my revised return...hello, going shopping today :lol:
Attachment 2357170

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I have had to pay every year for several years now. Not a lot usually about 2k-3k but still hurts. I am going to start putting away more money in retirement fund and since it is taken out pre-tax that should help bring down end of the year payment. Last year the IRS wrote and said I missed calculated our gross income somehow they found an extra 6k. I still have no idea where that monies came from. Even with what they said I supposedly made did match what was in the tax table of the booklet. I still do ours on good old paper and mail in. I am wondering what is going to happen this year, owed federal 2k but state gave us back about 1k.