One interesting thing about our income taxes for this year’s returns was the differential between fed and state. We’ve been doing a little every year to both reduce our tax burden and reduce our refund.
Yeh, I know that’s backasswards for some folks, but it makes sense. Our income is increasing by tiddly lil baby steps—which is fine for our situation. At the same time, we’ve been fine-tuning things here and there a little to decrease the bite the various governments take out during the year, so we have more of our money to work with throughout the year, thus a lower refund.
The ideal, as long as income taxation remains the norm, would be: do returns and owe nothing, get nothing back. Even steven.
This year, our total refunds—state andf fed—were well under $500, so although we e-filed, I did not request (or pay the fees for) direct deposit, simply requesting checks. The largest check by a good deal was to come from the state. (Need to work on state witholding/payments—overpaid too much during the year and the state had our money to play with instead of us having the money.) Yeh, it was still not much, but still, any overpayment is too much.
But here’s the cool thing. The check from the state was here three days after the return was e-filed (still waiting on the piddling lil check from the feds, naturally).
That’s as good as—or better than—some years’ direct deposits.
Wanna make sure that state treasurer keeps her job…
🙂
Still, alla this would be unecessary if we were to have a non-slavery tax put in place: The FairTax.
