Monday, April 14, 2008

$1

We are getting a tax refund for the first time in 5 years (since we've been self-employed)! We're going to receive a refund of $188 from the feds.

We owe $187 to the state. Hahahaa...

Do you think we could get the IRS to just forward our refund to the state?

Where are these fairy tale economy boosting checks we're supposed to be getting? I think we're going to do something wacky and pay down some debt with ours. BJ says that that defeats the purpose, and if everyone pays down debt then the boost to the economy won't help. I say that I'm not going to let a government that's a squjillion dollars in debt tell me how to manage our family's finances.

Oh, how I hate April.


Even with the day of taxes looming, though, I had a very nice birthday yesterday. Thank you to all of you who made it so nice. If I can get my laptop to come back to life, I'm going to spend my iTunes gift card. Anyone have a 19.5 V - 6.15 A laptop charger lying around?

My family wants dinner - gotta run...

3 comments:

Rob Monroe said...

We lost one total dollar one year. We owed the state one dollar more than we got back from feds. Argh.

Well Happy Birthday! I didn't know or I would have.....well, I didn't know. :o)

Anonymous said...

you can go on irs.gov and find out when you'll get your "incentive money"... you get it quicker if you got "direct deposit" for your refund, which I did, and depending on the last two digits of BJ's social security number... but go there and check... ours should be in the mail the end of May. I'm doing the same thing you are... paying off the last credit card and never looking back!!!!!!!
Connie

Unknown said...

I maintain that a $1 tax refund is exactly where we want to be.

Sure, a large check on the order of a few hundred or thousands of dollars in April/May would be nice - perhaps to pay down debate, down payment on a new/used car (as car dealerships propose), home improvement projects, or whatever. But, refund checks are not extra income.

It's important to remember that a tax refund check is exactly that - a refund. It's your money. If you get a refund, you were just kind enough to allow the government to hold onto, interest-free, for you. It's money that could be working for you throughout the rest of the year - earning interest in an IRA, helping you to pay down debt on a higher and more regular interval (thereby reducing the interest paid), and so on.

'Course, if you have trouble saving (and I'm not saying that I'm very good at it), a large refund check may be just what you want. Just be sure to go to the bank and not to Dewy Cheatem and Howe's Used Cars.

I also want to make it clear that I'm not claiming any fiscal wizardry at getting the taxes to come out to $1. In fact, quite the opposite. Nonetheless, I'm pretty happy about it.