Just finished using TurboTax and E-filing. Made an interest free-loan to the Feds and State of California, so I will get decent refund check (which I will use to pay down the Home Equity Line of Credit I tapped to pay for my Solar System).
Fun statistics according to TurboTax:
Effective Federal Tax rate: 13.56%
Effective CA State Tax rate: 9.6%
Just be careful - that’s how I ended up $10K in the hole. Not that I actually regret doing it. I needed that money to live on during the six months that it took unemployment to get to my appeal. But that penalty was a killer.
Ours are done. We’re getting refunds from the feds and the state of Michigan, as well as the city taxes. But the city will be a bit delayed. We realized we didn’t sign the return, so it will be sent back to us for a signature first. That was a small amount, though, so I’m not too worried about it.
I’ve got the paperwork filled out but won’t mail it off until oh, April 14th. I have to send Uncle Sam a fat check this year. I am also changing my withholding Monday morning.
I got my refund last week. Waiting for the state one, hoping CA doesn’t go broke again. Not bad this time, though I discovered I had to pay self employment tax on my 1099 income even though I more than hit the limit for my job. $11, so no big deal, but I thought TurboTax screwed up until I looked at the form more closely.
Just finished mine last night. Getting about $2400 back in Federal, which is the first time I’ve gotten a refund in about 8 years. Last year was an unusual year for income and I was having trouble keeping up with adjusting my withholding. Oddly, I’m paying $35 in State taxes.
I did mine and had it in on the first possible day - I HATE the end of the year and all its uncertainty - “I’m going to pay more this year” “No, wait, they will owe me.” “Nope, actually I owe them.” It was made worse this year by my accountant getting swine flu and being totally out of action in October which is when we normally have a state of the finances meeting where he can warn me what things need pulling together by the end of the year. This is my small business which is all done in Japanese, so I need the help!
In the end I owed the equivalent of about 250 dollars on the state taxes which I was able to pay right away. Next year’s city taxes, and health insurance are calculated on last year’s income so I won’t get those bills till May or June. But then I’ll have ten months to pay them in, either in ten installments or slightly discounted for two installments or further discounted for one full payment. Pension and health are going up slightly this year for everyone apparently. I’ve got enough saved to pay about half of them right off, which will give me time to get the rest of the cash together later.