I don't know how it went for you single people, but for the first time I feel I'm not being penalized by the tax man just because I'm married.
This year, my husband and I made the same amount of money, paid the same amount of daycare, and we ended paying this year.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I dont get it.... Who does taxes help? Everyone I know thats on welfare - got at least 3000.00 back in taxes. Thats totally not fair - in my opinion. Groove on
Always seems that no matter how you go at it you lose when it comes to the tax man. Built into the system. I am thankfull that we don't have things like the others of the european countries where someone comes ot see if you have paid taxes for owning as a stereo reciever or tv. I think that would really bite...
If you are in the middle class then you helped make it possible. Doesn't that just give you a warm feeling in your heart? (Said with all the sarcasm I can muster!)
Here in Old Blighty I feel like I'm being emasculated by the tax man. In the last few years I've had several tax benefits cut. First off, was tax relief for home owners. Then they cancelled the 'married man's allowance'. Then they brought in tax relief for parents but I don't get it being a higher rate tax payer. Even though I pay tax at source, PAYE (pay as you earn) as it's called, I had to submit a self assesment form last year. Due to a foul up on my part the nice tax man thinks I owe them 14,000 pounds sterling. Due to a foul up by them they are charging me a 5% surcharge for late payment followed by 4-5% interest per month. Grrrrr. As Wet1 points out we pay taxes on just about everything. 17.5% on 'valued added taxes'. That is, anything not deemed to be a essential to live on. It's meant as a sales tax on luxury goods but the Gummint thinks hot food sold over the counter is a luxury. Tax on fuel is exorbitant, Petrol/Deisel is about 73p a litre here. Roughly $6 a gallon. Most of that is tax. I could rant at length here. I work for what I have, the kids lack for nothing but we hardly have a expensive life style. So why do families on benefit around me have kids walking around in designer clothes, buying new computers and DVD players. I'm all for the state helping the unfortunate in times of need but that does not include expensive luxury goods.
I still don't get that Conservative angle The so-called "marriage penalty" only seems to have come up in recent times, ever since Dan Quayle and his "family values" tantrum against Murphy Brown, the Defense of Marriage Act under the Clinton Administration, and a certain tax law shortly after the DMA giving married persons a deduction on the sale of their home. It was all well-coordinated, I admit, but I still have no clue what the "marriage penalty" is. The best description I could get of it from news sources and listening to politicians rant about it creates an image of people wanting to have kids and not wanting to pay for the public services benefiting those children. On the other hand, who says one should be rewarded for getting married? thanx, Tiassa Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
<i>"This year, my husband and I made the same amount of money, paid the same amount of daycare, and we ended paying this year. I dont get it.... "</i> I don't either. I plugged the numbers into the computer program and it shows us getting a hefty return. It might be the interest on our morgage, our two kids, or something else--I'm not certain why to be honest. I'm going to run it again. And I have yet to plug in the numbers which we paid for health insurance, too. <i>"Everyone I know thats on welfare - got at least 3000.00 back in taxes. Thats totally not fair - in my opinion."</i> We're not poor and we're not rich. We're somewhere in the middle, I guess. Strange that you are paying. <i>"The so-called "marriage penalty" only seems to have come up in recent times..."</i> It's true. Before my wife and I were married, we did very well around tax time, but that changed soon after we were married. We went from tax return to taxt payment. Only in the last few years have we started seeing returns, this year being the best thus far.
Ask your employer In addition to a freakish tax code to begin with, one of the problems I have with my taxes is that my employer never actually withholds the right amount. How the actual sum withheld is calculated is beyond me, but the lower taxes allegedly get, the more I pay out on tax-day. This is an issue that has to be resolved with the people actually withholding the money--e.g. your company's accountants. I know people who have been furious at having to pay until I asked them what the percentage was. It's hardly across-the-board, but in many cases they were complaining about having a lower tax bill overall, and their employer simply did not withhold enough. thanx, Tiassa Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I can remember the marriage penelty being talked about in the late 60's. With all of the "additions" in tax rates, (read increases), it only got worse. By the time it was adjusted it was really out of whack. It isn't that there should be a reward but why should you pay a hefty chuck to be married? After all it comes from the same pocket? If both of you work then you are hit with another hefty chunck of taxes that you would not pay if you were single as the tax code looks at it like one person made it all and that slides you higher on the tax bracketts. Now I am all for helping those who could not survive in today's world without some kind of social help but I don't want to be robbed blind in the process. Supposededly that was addressed some years but with the changes to social welfare but nowhere did I notice my taxes going down to reflect it. On tiassa's note of withholding taxes, you can request your employer to withhold extra taxes. I have done so. That insures that at the end of the year I do not owe. It is easier for them to pay me than it is for me to pay them. They are not quite so understanding when you owe them the money, much as thed as mentioned.
<i>"On tiassa's note of withholding taxes, you can request your employer to withhold extra taxes."</i> Some people, rather than have their taxes taken out of their check, will stick that money in an account and gain a little interest during the year before paying their taxes.
Bowser The annoying thing over here is that tax is deducted monthly based on <b>the previous years</b> earnings. It's not as straight forward as that but tax is deducted at source, every month, unless you are a company director or self employed.
What do you people think of a simplified tax system, where everyone pays the same rate without exemptions? Something like ten percent, regardless of income?
Bowser In theory, great idea. As I said previously, I do agree in paying for a welfare system. Those that earn more should pay more of course. Just not me, OK. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! It irks me that the few tax breaks I have, have been squeezed and squeezed.
Today's tax code, with their minimum ceilings to meet to qualify, special interest groups interests, and adjustments are a nightmare to interpret. It takes folks that go to school every year to figure your taxes, unless you use the simplified form. Not even the IRS (in charge of collecting them) can get you a correct answer, inspite of offering free tax advice. What is wrong with this picture? The rate on inherited property is insane. Lots of people use other methods to distrute their life's savings to get around the taxman taking such a bite from the inhertance. The only thing really bad about a flat rate is that you can be sure that it won't stay there. At some point our law makers find a way to spend it all and need more. There has been a long fued with some of the tax dodgers that congress did not have the right to allow the IRS to collect their taxes. Our monies go for far more than originally intended. It is a shame to have to work so much of the year just to meet a tax obligation before the money you earn can be yours. It isn't then because there are things like sales taxes, school taxes and property taxes. The total burdern of tax is an immense load on the consumer. Not only that but across the nation, things like city taxes vary from city to city. New Orleans has a 10ยข per dollar sales tax rate. One of the highest in the nation as of a few years ago. Mississippi has an extremely high car tax rate. I once paid $600 for an annual car tag on a Toyota Celica. That is not insurance for the year, brake tag, or anything else. Just a car tag...
Yeah...the tax code is a bad joke. I read that 80,000 blacks claimed the slavery rebate on their taxes, a result of an urban myth, leading some into believing that it actually exists. Here in Oregon they have tried to cram a sales tax into our pocket, but the voters have given them only the middle finger in response. Damn, I love this state! <img src = "http://www.sciforums.com/t6725/s31515e4ff9135b2dcea112e385502fd1/images/icons/icon10.gif"> We have had a bit of a tax revolt here during the past decade.
That "bit of a tax revolt" is a national attitude. It becomes harder and harder for polticians and municipal enities to raise taxes for public works. So much is missing from your paycheck that everyone is getting enough of that "instant bill" that keeps taking an ever larger chunk of your available funds. In the last few yreats more tax increases have failed than have passed. You have only to look at the local news to see it. It will not get better as the new generation becomes of age and the baby boomers begin to retire. With less population to spread the taxes amoung the pinch will be on to come up with new means to finance anything that involves more taxes. (Unless the new generation is more giving than any preceeding ones have been) Some how I doubt their altrustic feelings when it comes to their paychecks being ravaged. They will be no different than the preceeding generations. They are not working for the government but for their families.
