What if we all stopped paying Taxes?

[sadie]

And any other tax song you want to sing today. Some of us are singing the refund aria, others the "money due" blues. Stock market tanking, and at least in the high tech area things still look shaky, at least in the Northeast...

How are things shaking out for others??

[DavidEB310]

Let the stock market tank.

Take those refunds and invest, invest, invest -- if you're uncomfortable with stocks, go with Index funds or Mutual Funds. Buy low now, and even if not low by today's standards, it will be by market standards 20 or 30 years from now.

[sadie]

That's a great philosphy David- and if history repeats itself will be a good strategy down the road.

Most of us have teenagers(did I recall you have 4!!!!), college expenses, etc....what strategies do you and other Beethoveneers use for short term? Are you finding these are good times or do we yearn for those days when the Market was roaring?

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Mine got mailed last night, since I had numbers in the "BALANCE DUE" cell. $33 to the state, more to federal.

If I'd had a refund coming, those returns would have gone in months ago.

[mmichaelson]

Mine was mailed last week - owe in close to 600.00 thanks to my job not taking out enough percentage. Stupid cows. I have now changed my W9 to take out an extra 15.00 per check in the hopes that we break out even or better next year.
<sigh>

[mamagrabber]

Mine was mailed the first of the week. The great state of Kansas can't seem to get their brackets right for withholding so we owed them more than $900.

I just had to reply to Sadie's question. Here in middle America our economy just seems to be stagnant. With 2 in college, 1 in high school and fuel prices going through the roof it is a challenge. But I agree with David. We are still investing everything we can looking to the future. We definitely cannot depend on social security for our retirements.

ko

[Nicole Marie]

Damn Bush! He upped the level of interest on your student loans that you can claim as exempt on your taxes so this year I had to pay over a $1000! DAMN IT!

[barfle]

Taxes? What taxes?


Oh, crap.

[piqaboo]

NM- they raised the threshold level of interest you can claim? Wow. Bummer.

Can you income average over 5 years? That used to be a great option for folks just starting and leaving the workplace.

Here comes my new hobby horse - the AMT needs fixing!!!!!!! Fix the AMT! Fix the AMT! Fix the AMT! (by "fix", I mean - raise the bloomin' threshold that triggers it.)

[Trumpetmaster]

Originally posted by barfle:
Taxes? What taxes?


Oh, crap.

Barfle -
Report on the news says it takes an avg of 27 hrs to do the 1040. Go for an extension!
TM

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

27 HOURS? Who are they averaging with me to come up to that number?????!!!

Took me more time to remember which shoebox I stuffed with the 1099's and W-2's and statements with deductible numbers than it did to run the tax program. Load software, check for updates, answer questions, enter numbers, run the error check, print, attach money (ouch!), finished.

I love computers. I love the internet. This stuff is getting easier all the time.

[piqaboo]

I tried Turbotax once. I hated it. I didnt understand the questions it asked, so stuff got entered in multiple categories, etc.
I need to get TT for morons. Dummies are too smart.

I'm in the average - home sale (never did that before), married (never did that before), baby (never did that before), etc. Estimate - 12-15 hours.

[analog]

Originally posted by sadie lady:
what strategies do you and other Beethoveneers use for short term? Are you finding these are good times or do we yearn for those days when the Market was roaring?

Avoid debt.
We drove $1500 cars, because they last half as long as $15,000 cars. Doubled up house payments instead, and when mortgage was gone switched that cashflow into 401K(pretax) and prepaid college for the kids.
Of course, we were always "The Clampetts" of the neighborhood.

Every roar of the market has seemed to announce a new round of inflation that erased the gains. My best returns were from real property, namely the house and an occasional vacant lot in the path of progress.

What if we all stopped paying interest?

<small>[ 04-16-2005, 01:20 AM: Message edited by: analog ]</small>

[dai bread]

Originally posted by analog:

What if we all stopped paying interest?

I'd be broke.

[barfle]

Actually, my wife did the taxes (using TurboTax) a few days early. I got chewed a bit for not having a receipt for a professional association membership that was $135, although I do have the receipt for this year.

I wish she wouldn't shred my credit card statements...

We owed about $30 to the fed (would have been closer to a wash if I had found that dues receipt) and are getting back several hundred from Vahjinyah. Might pay for some of that laundry room rebuild that keeps on keeping on.