I Hate Tax Season

Post by **racketboy** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:27 am

I had my taxes worked on last night -- turns out between Federal, State, and City, I still owe about $1000.
And I was thinking I was going to get at least a small refund.

How depressing....

Post by **Ivo** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:10 pm

I never understood how taxes worked in the U.S.

But then again, I never understood how taxes worked.

You'd think that the WHOLE system would have become sort of automated someway (like VAT is automatically tacked on purchases), for simplification and less chance of evasion? But what do I know, there's probably good reasons why it is a complicated mess (is it?)

Ivo.

Post by **ImportBoy** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 1:15 pm

You'd think that the WHOLE system would have become sort of automated someway (like VAT is automatically tacked on purchases), for simplification and less chance of evasion? But what do I know, there's probably good reasons why it is a complicated mess (is it?)

No, that would take more commonsense then our politicians have...

Post by **racketboy** » Wed Mar 14, 2007 4:25 pm

Ivo wrote:I never understood how taxes worked in the U.S.

But then again, I never understood how taxes worked.

You'd think that the WHOLE system would have become sort of automated someway (like VAT is automatically tacked on purchases), for simplification and less chance of evasion? But what do I know, there's probably good reasons why it is a complicated mess (is it?)

Ivo.

We have different types of taxes.
Sales tax (6% in my state) come out of purchases and go to the state. Federal and in some cases State and City income taxes come from your paycheck and, if you work for an employer are usually taken directly out of your check.

However, since I have a side business (this site and its store), I have to pay income taxes on my earnings. I could take my chances and not report the income, but I'm a decent citizen (and don't want to get busted), so I do my thing. If you are self-employed, you have to send the government the money yourself.

Post by **extrarice** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 12:34 pm

racketboy wrote:We have different types of taxes.
Sales tax (6% in my state) come out of purchases and go to the state. Federal and in some cases State and City income taxes come from your paycheck and, if you work for an employer are usually taken directly out of your check.

However, since I have a side business (this site and its store), I have to pay income taxes on my earnings. I could take my chances and not report the income, but I'm a decent citizen (and don't want to get busted), so I do my thing. If you are self-employed, you have to send the government the money yourself.

Having a self-employed type of business opens the door to massive deductions on just about everything that touches that business. Hosting, software, hardware, internet access, electricity for your "office", any books bought, meals where you talk business, etc., etc.

Post by **racketboy** » Thu Mar 15, 2007 2:06 pm

extrarice wrote:
racketboy wrote:We have different types of taxes.
Sales tax (6% in my state) come out of purchases and go to the state. Federal and in some cases State and City income taxes come from your paycheck and, if you work for an employer are usually taken directly out of your check.

However, since I have a side business (this site and its store), I have to pay income taxes on my earnings. I could take my chances and not report the income, but I'm a decent citizen (and don't want to get busted), so I do my thing. If you are self-employed, you have to send the government the money yourself.
Having a self-employed type of business opens the door to massive deductions on just about everything that touches that business. Hosting, software, hardware, internet access, electricity for your "office", any books bought, meals where you talk business, etc., etc.

Yeah, I know. But that doesn't wipe everything away.
I run a pretty tight ship expense-wise. Deductions don't make the stuff free, so I still have to watch what I spend.

Post by **Luna** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 12:39 am

Take some school classes. I think you can write off up to $10,000 (or is it 20???) from paying to schooling. Although I guess that just works for me cus my job pays for m schooling, but they dont pay until the next year O-o.

Post by **racketboy** » Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:04 am

Luna wrote:Take some school classes. I think you can write off up to $10,000 (or is it 20???) from paying to schooling. Although I guess that just works for me cus my job pays for m schooling, but they dont pay until the next year O-o.

The thing is you have to spend money to write money off.
And you only get about 30% of that money back.