Taxes Filed : Feelings Mixed

Yep, spent some quality time with TurboTax this morning finalizing everything to the point where I was comfortable enough to file.

Things weren’t as rosy in 2008.

That was my final conclusion before clicking the “Submit” button.

See, our 2007 tax return landed us $3444 total. That broke down to $2643 from the federal government and $801 from the state government.

This year, our refund is just $798.

We actually owe $460 federal. That’s never happened before.

It’d be safe to say that I’m a little disappointed right now.

It’s not that I was counting on a huge sum to roll in… I guess I’ve just come to expect it. And this year, it won’t be there. That kinda hurts.

But, at the same time, I have to pat myself on the back a bit for all of those calculations I did back in December of 2007.

Without asking you to go back and actually read that original post, I adjusted my filing status and withholdings in an attempt to “balance” things more to my own benefit.

In a nutshell, I tried to increase both my take home pay and my 401k contributions by decreasing the tax withheld — but only to the point where I wouldn’t owe anything to the government come tax time.

I came pretty darn close.

In fact, the only reason that I went over is because the hockey team that I quit working for in November of 2007 (because they were *months* late in paying me) finally paid me on January 6, 2008.

Yep — that one check, just six days into 2008, resulted in a 1099-Misc. Grrrr…

In other news, I find it really aggravating that the state charged me sales tax for e-filing.

Gotta love the double taxation. Call it what you want, but that’s what it is.

More puzzling, that $0.20 works out to around a 1% sales tax.

Last time I checked, 30 seconds ago, Connecticut’s sales tax rate was 6%.

I *really* don’t get it.