Income Tax Time...

Tonight I started working on our income tax return.

I just use the Basic system on HR Block's online site. It's cheap and easy to use, and since I have never had enough deductions to itemize the standardized deduction works really well for us.

Cathy and I both had different ideas for how to deal with taxes at the beginning of the year, apparently. I had my stuff set up so that I would get a decent return (yah, I know, I shouldn't give the government a free loan, but it's a good way for me to make sure I get some money saved) and she had her's set so that she wouldn't get any return...the problem?? She had her stuff set so low that it ended up eating up all of my return. That's alright, as a couple we still ended up coming out on top.

It looks right now like we'll end up getting about a $120 refund from the Federal Government. That's not too bad. About two months ago I used a quick calculator and it said we were going to owe about $600. Cathy changed hers really quickly and then the massive amounts of taxes they took out of our bonuses really brought us back on track.

I'm still waiting for Cathy to get her interest form from her savings account before I can finish the thing completely...but I'm pretty sure my guess of $120 is about right, if not a little low.

From the State of Michigan, on the other hand, we'll be getting a nice little sum of about $350. I am hoping to get that return done and submitted so that we can get it before we go to Las Vegas. That would be a nice chunk of money to have to spend while we're there.

We also will get about $100 from the City of Lansing. We had an issue with Lansing taxes this last year...even though we don't live OR work in the City, we were still having taxes taken out by our payroll department because the airport has a Lansing ADDRESS. But it's not in the city limits, and we don't live in the city, so we don't owe the city any taxes even though we work at a Lansing address. That got taken care of pretty early, and we'll get everything we paid them back...

So, all in all it looks like we'll get ABOUT $550 or so back. Like I said, I'm hoping to get the Federal and the State one back before we go on our trip so that we can put it towards that. If not, I guess it's not that big of a deal.

Either way, it's better than owing anything, which is what I thought was gonna happen!!!