Comments on: Weekly Roundup – Is It Tax Time Already?

By: lucy

lucy — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:37:48 +0000

I have run a small business for over 8 years, never put a penny away, out of almost 300K.its all been spent here there are anywhere. Should I set up a SEP or a SIMPLE? and how can I determine my maximum contribution?

By: Savvy Stepmom

Savvy Stepmom — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:53:02 +0000

This is the first year I’ll be married and able to file taxes with my husband, who gets to claim two of his kids. He gets less, but I don’t have to pay in- YAY! In previous years, I put off filing my taxes for as long as possible. Now I’m actually eager to get my W-2.

I wish your blog had been around when I first entered the professional working world. I might have budgeted for my taxes throughout the year and wouldn’t have been hit with the amount owed all at once!

By: Cyn@momportunity

Cyn@momportunity — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:42:56 +0000

Since I started to work online, I haaaaaaate tax time. It used to be fun to see that final refund amount pop up on Turbo Tax. Now, it’s depressing to see the amount owed. I put it off until the last minute, hoping it will all go away if I ignore it long enough. :\

By: DavidK

DavidK — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:59:30 +0000

@FrugalDad, ah those W-4 exemptions, I always forget that people do different things with those. I prefer to keep it at a single exemption when I get a job and just have a big ol’ return come February or March. It also helps me work my budget on less money each month so that if a raise comes around I can increase my retirement savings without affecting a change to the bottom line.

Glad to hear you’ve made headway with your side hustles. You must be pretty close to being (mostly) debt-free. After that, it’s the mortgage and retirement.

By: Frugal Dad

Frugal Dad — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:47:31 +0000

@DavidK: I made a medium-sized pile (LOL!). I should probably ratchet down the number of exemptions on my W-4 at work to even things out. I’ll see how the dust settles.

@Luke: I do the same thing–toss about a quarter of my side hustle income into an ING fund for “taxes.” Then I transfer to checking to pay quarterly estimates.

By: DavidK

DavidK — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:03:19 +0000

@FrugalDad, I would have thought that between your joint deduction as well as the dependents deduction, along with claimed mortgage interest and the child tax credit that you would actually be getting money back this year. Unless you really made a pile of money from your side hustles. In which case, congrats to you good sir.

I will be eagerly awaiting my W-2 as if it is anything like last year, I’ll be getting back a sizable return due to my student loan and mortgage interest. Of course, it’ll go straight to a credit card as soon as I get it, but that works out great for those debt-free goals!

By: New-Dad-Blog

New-Dad-Blog — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:34:08 +0000

Ahh tax time. The only time of the year I am happy about how much interest I pay on my mortgage!

By: the weakonomist

the weakonomist — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:51:37 +0000

I’m eager for my W2 so I can go ahead and take care of my taxes. My CPA screwed up my filing last year and I didn’t get my stimulus. I don’t think my return will be as handsome, but I take that as a sign I filled out my tax forms properly.

I’m sort of proud I get to pay some taxes on self-employment income this year as well.

By: elementaryfinance

elementaryfinance — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:34:56 +0000

I think you brought up some great points here. On my site, I advocate finding money within your current budget to “pay yourself” If you made coffee at home rather than buying it at the local coffee shop, “pay yourself” that $4 straight in to your savings account. Read my article (linked here) to read the rest. I agree that the economic sentiment may be worse than what it actually is.

By: Luke

Luke — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:52:25 +0000

Hopefully you budgeted throughout the year when you made that extra money! I am in the same situation, I made some extra money on the side, but I stuck 25% of everything I made in a “2008 Taxes” envelope in my budget in NeoBudget.

With a little bit of planning ahead, even if I owe the IRS money this year, I’m pretty sure I will not owe everything I saved. Essentially I’m giving myself a tax refund.