Taxes rant

Joe Wicked · #1 (**permalink**) 01-25-2010, 05:52 AM

Now where is that line where who makes less will pay less in taxes again? Was 250k, then I heard 175K. It appears it is much lower than that. I always do my taxes early, and I have always set up my deductions to leave me with between $100 and $500 to pay at tax time, keeping more of my money working for me throughout the year. Last year I paid $376 in at tax time. For this year I owe $1386. While doing them I found out that those of us disabled veterans that received the $250 "stimulus" last summer owe $550 in repayment. I guess Obama really did make the veterans pay for their benefits after all. I also learned that the "Making Work Pay" tax credit only applies to single people and single income families. If you have 2 incomes you are not eligible on one of them, so that is another $338. While those 2 constitute the majority of it, I still have another couple of hundred more to pay that resulted from reduced property tax credit. The kicker in that is that the maximum you can claim went up, but the % claimable went down. While I don't consider myself poor I am a long way from being rich.

Ron61 · #2 (**permalink**) 01-25-2010, 07:49 AM

Joe,

Just wait until the REAL savings kick in. I received my state tax book the other day and the rates went up and the amount you can claim as a personal deduction went down. But according to some I have heard, there is no tax increase this year.

Ron

4RE KLR · #3 (**permalink**) 01-25-2010, 08:40 AM

I have talked to a few folks that have done their taxes already as well. A couple of them have made the statement they would no longer file a tax return at all.

WOW, can you imagine the PITA it will be in the future?? I am not happy about this White House Tax mess either but I don't think income tax evasion is the answer.

Joe,
If you need a 401K, Roth or IRA set up to help with that, let me know.
I can help you with a deductible retirement vehicle as well as insurance.

Joe Wicked · #4 (**permalink**) 01-25-2010, 11:53 AM

Steve,
I sure feel like not filing, but as you said, I don't think that is a good idea. I need to make a lot of changes and I wish like hell I had made changes during open enrollment at work. If I let it ride like I did last year I may end up needing a loan to pay next years taxes.

I forgot to mention above that I did not get a pay raise in 2009, and although my wife did, she worked a lot less overtime and for the year we made $700 LESS than we did in 2008 so it is not the result of being bumped up a tax bracket.

bomelia · #5 (**permalink**) 01-25-2010, 12:17 PM

People do not believe it, but taxes go up all the time. My guess is that they build in a "COLA" if you will. And what one entity does not get (say the State), the Fed picks up.

Joe Wicked · #6 (**permalink**) 01-25-2010, 04:03 PM

We do not have state taxes in Texas, but our Property tax rates are higher than most other states including California. I moved here from San Diego and the end result is I paid the same in property tax increase that I paid in state tax.

Scott S · #7 (**permalink**) 01-25-2010, 04:21 PM

You all could be living in the whacky state of Oregon..

We are currently enduring a special election( I say enduring because we have mail in ballots) that are due tomorrow. This election will increase State income taxes on all incomes over $250K the other measure will create a gross receipts tax and raise the minimum on all corporations. We can't file our taxes here until the outcome of the measures are known.

Oregon has the second highest unemployment in the US and our legislature is going to fix the problem by raising taxes on the wealthy and business.

If these two measure pass Oregon will have the highest personal income tax, the second highest capitol gains tax, and the one of the highest corporate taxes in the nation putting us second only to Denmark as the highest total tax rates in the world.

We have one Fortune 500 company here, NIKE. The CEO Phil Knight pretty much said if the measures pass I am leaving, I bet he is lacing up his running shoes as we speak.

Scott S · #8 (**permalink**) 01-25-2010, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Wicked

We do not have state taxes in Texas, but our Property tax rates are higher than most other states including California. I moved here from San Diego and the end result is I paid the same in property tax increase that I paid in state tax.

We have those here too, on $400 K of value my tax is about $5100

cdnus · #9 (**permalink**) 01-25-2010, 07:48 PM

About the same here, on $570 K looks like this year will be about $6300 property tax. (only have interim tax bill so far)
Much harder to swallow now that I'm retired. For that I get garbage P/U & roads plowed in winter. I am on septic tank & my own well. Oh well at least I have full medical. LOL.

Craig

Excaliber · #10 (**permalink**) 01-25-2010, 08:58 PM

I must admit, I under calculated the various taxes here in Oregon. Like my water bill, it's only $10, but by the time the city finishes adding on this that and the other thing it's $40 bucks! Garbage collection here is as much as it was in Hawaii, and THEY have to SHIP the garbage to the mainland! Whats wrong with that picture? I got three cars a motorcycle and just got my Oregon drivers license. That was pushing a $1,000 by the time I was done. Income tax, NINE PERCENT?? That's crazy, throw in the property tax and they are definitely taking a bite.

Ron61 · #11 (**permalink**) 01-26-2010, 06:11 AM

Darn Scott,

I hope that California doesn't look at what Oregon is doing and decide that is a great thing. They have already ran out all of the smaller businesses around here with taxes and every tax increase their revenue drops because more people leave this area. This county is insane with just keep taxing and eventually we will get out of the hole.

Ron

Excaliber · #12 (**permalink**) 01-26-2010, 07:42 AM

I haven't been following this thing to closely but I keep hearing that corporations here in Oregon pay just $10 a year in taxes. No worries California is going to follow Oregon's lead.

Ron61 · #13 (**permalink**) 01-26-2010, 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Excaliber

I haven't been following this thing to closely but I keep hearing that corporations here in Oregon pay just $10 a year in taxes. No worries California is going to follow Oregon's lead.

Ernie,

Just hope that Oregon doesn't decide to follow California's lead in a lot of things. Such as registration of a replica.

Ron

Excaliber · #14 (**permalink**) 01-26-2010, 07:49 AM

Man I hear that Ron!!!! That's a HUGE part of why I decided to move here, just didn't want to deal with registering the Cobra down there!

Registration costs here were higher than I anticipated, but it's good for two years so that takes some sting out of it. I think it was $140 just for my drivers license!!! Which I thought was terribly high, but it's good for eight years, so...

Ron61 · #15 (**permalink**) 01-26-2010, 07:55 AM

Registration costs here are getting out of sight. And I think our drivers license are only good for five years but they don't cost that much. I went and read the article that Scott posted about and it looks as if they have some former California people up there.

Ron

Joe Wicked · #16 (**permalink**) 01-26-2010, 08:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott S

We have those here too, on $400 K of value my tax is about $5100

$3559 on $131K. This is in the lowest tax rate town of the county I live in. County, school and Community College fees are the same for everyone and City varies by each city. I live in a real small town and our rates are the lowest in the county. Your property tax rate is .012% based on what you posted, while mine is .0275 (according to my statement). .032 is the high end in the more well to do cities. Your property tax would be $11,000 in Lavon (where I live) and $12,800 in most of the rest of the county.

Scott S · #17 (**permalink**) 01-26-2010, 08:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Excaliber

I haven't been following this thing to closely but I keep hearing that corporations here in Oregon pay just $10 a year in taxes. No worries California is going to follow Oregon's lead.

Yep that's the teachers/public employee unions lie....

We pay a $10 minimum to file the forms and then pay taxes on all profits a 9%. I own a Sub-S here I have never paid just the $10 fee all of the income is reported on a K-1 and I pay the extra taxes from there.

Think of it this way if Oregon had 1 million corporations(3.5 residents per corp) at the $10 fee they say we only pay how did Oregon receive $2.4 billion in tax receipts from Corporations in 2007? Where did the extra $2.39 billion come from?

You just paid the new licensing rates for vehicles, up until last year those rates would have been $30 for four years. The Democrats took over the House and the rates went up, go figure.

Scott S

Excaliber · #18 (**permalink**) 01-26-2010, 08:39 AM

Thanks for the headsup on that Scott. I gotta tell ya, that corporations only pay $10 had a big impact on me! Like, "Well those basterds, they GOTTA pay more than that." Apparently they do!

Can't believe a darn thing you see when it comes to political advertising!

Ron61 · #19 (**permalink**) 01-26-2010, 08:52 AM

And I always thought that our California property taxes were bad. Even my cousin in Arkansas pays as much as we do here. I just wish they would lower the taxes as the value of the property has declined so much. But it just keeps creeping up even though they showed the value as quite a bit less than last year.

Ron

DanEC · #20 (**permalink**) 01-26-2010, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron61

And I always thought that our California property taxes were bad. Even my cousin in Arkansas pays as much as we do here. I just wish they would lower the taxes as the value of the property has declined so much. But it just keeps creeping up even though they showed the value as quite a bit less than last year.

Ron

Arkansas actually has one of the higher combined State/local/property tax burdens of all states - not the highest by any means, but very high. State income tax is 7%. I live in Sherwood and pay 11% tax on a meal out in No Little Rock, and I believe 12% in Sherwood. Sales tax on a mixed drink in a resturant is 35% in this city, but most resturants hide most of it in their drink pricing so as to not alarm the customers. Groceries are taxed here, although they cut the State portion of the sales tax on them in half a couple of years ago. Retiree pension pay is taxed by Arkansas also. Why so many people retire to northern Arkansas - I don't understand??

I'm afraid to start on my Fed return as I know my withholding has been just a wild guess this year after building a house last year and refinancing the mortgage on it again this year. I suspect I may be owing some additional taxes and possibly a penalty too.