2005 Tax Season

[Grandmaster]

Yeah, it's a shame we have to pay taxes to support our country, isn't it?

I think he meant paying for tax you don't owe. I don't the know details of how exactly it happens, but returns are money that you're government should not have taken from you in the first place. Think about it.

 

[tdinc]

I use to do my own. years ago, but since I started my career and bought my home plus other things. I have a CPA to do mine. Do not have any time for it

 

[Petros]

Yeah, it's a shame we have to pay taxes to support our country, isn't it?

Income taxes, yes. When we tax everything else under the sun every time it moves, why do we have to pay money on the cold, hard cash we need to eat, sleep, and clothe ourselves? For me, giving to charities has a double bonus: helping those in need and keeping a money-grubbing unecessary IRS out of my pocketbook. But that's for another thread entirely.

I'm just saying it's a shame that we should OVER-pay, then have our money returned to us with no interest.

 

[kcnychief]

Yeah, I mis-interpreted your original post, and agree with your point.

My apologies

 

[j79zlr]

Returns are useless. I'm sickened (saddened?) that people actually look forward to them. Oh, thank you, IRS, you gave me back my money that I never even owed you in the first place! And you've given me zero interest in return!

With a little discipline and understanding of how much you should owe, you can invest the money you would have normally gotten in a tax return and make a modest amount of money on top of that.

I used to think this way too, but lets look at it logically. Say you know you owe $20,000 in taxes. Now instead of having the right amount taken out every two weeks, you invest it. Lets say you do really well with your investment and return 25% in a year, so you made $5,000 in capital gains. Assuming you are in the 25% marginal tax bracket, that money is taxed last, so you have to pay 25% for Fed, 17% SS, and 3% State, so you are paying 45% interest on a risky investment, netting you a relatively small amount of $2750. Thats great and all, but you have to ask yourself is the risk of the investment worth the relatively small return.

Now imagine you lost 5,000. You can claim up to $3,000 losses in capital gains as a tax credit, but you still owe the $2,000 difference. In all honesty it just doesn't seem worth it when you look at it that way.

Just my $0.02.

 

[kcnychief]

Interesting perspective J79zlr, as always

 

[Steevo]

It's pretty easy, but when you make as much money as Steevo you can afford such lavish services

FU :smoker:


Just increased my 401K dollar takeout. Speaking of that I need to move to some global funds. Big winners.
http://www.bloomberg.com/analysis/calculators/401k.html For anyone not doing this I would suggest it.

 

[kcnychief]

I did my Federal Taxes last night, nice chunk of change coming back for this guy

 

[Mastershakes]

I used to think this way too, but lets look at it logically. Say you know you owe $20,000 in taxes. Now instead of having the right amount taken out every two weeks, you invest it. Lets say you do really well with your investment and return 25% in a year, so you made $5,000 in capital gains. Assuming you are in the 25% marginal tax bracket, that money is taxed last, so you have to pay 25% for Fed, 17% SS, and 3% State, so you are paying 45% interest on a risky investment, netting you a relatively small amount of $2750. Thats great and all, but you have to ask yourself is the risk of the investment worth the relatively small return.

Now imagine you lost 5,000. You can claim up to $3,000 losses in capital gains as a tax credit, but you still owe the $2,000 difference. In all honesty it just doesn't seem worth it when you look at it that way.

Just my $0.02.

I'd rather have the money to invest. They get about a year to play with the revenue they've taken early in a tax year, until they are forced to give part back around 14 months later. Multiply it by what, about 170 million taxpayers? TONS of money that does not belong to them, but they can play with it while they have it.

I want to play.

 

[j79zlr]

There is nothing stopping you, you do not have to have the taxes taken out, except for the fact that you are in Canada.

 

[Son Goku]

I used to think this way too, but lets look at it logically. Say you know you owe $20,000 in taxes. Now instead of having the right amount taken out every two weeks, you invest it. Lets say you do really well with your investment and return 25% in a year, so you made $5,000 in capital gains. Assuming you are in the 25% marginal tax bracket, that money is taxed last, so you have to pay 25% for Fed, 17% SS, and 3% State, so you are paying 45% interest on a risky investment, netting you a relatively small amount of $2750. Thats great and all, but you have to ask yourself is the risk of the investment worth the relatively small return.

Now imagine you lost 5,000. You can claim up to $3,000 losses in capital gains as a tax credit, but you still owe the $2,000 difference. In all honesty it just doesn't seem worth it when you look at it that way.

Just my $0.02.

Depends on the investment. WRT the tax return, they could invest people's money into something short term such as a T-bond, which would be safer then playing the stock market. And then return the people's money to them, with the interest the bond had brought to it as well....

 

[kcnychief]

I did Erica's taxes, she's gonna be LOADED :s

My state taxes are a pain, this cross-state stuff blows