2.17.10: Taxes

I finished our taxes today. Ok, really Turbo Tax finished them, but I had to sit in front of the computer, call multiple offices, and enter data so that Turbo Tax could calculate for me.

We're getting a refund--which is good because I was afraid we wouldn't it. It's not a very big refund but we're getting one nonetheless. As I sat watching our refund ticker go up and down while I entered data I took mental note of the things that affected it the most. 1. Loss on our aparment. 2. Tithing. 3. Tutition.

Noting these three things, I started plotting in my head how to get a bigger refund next year. 1. Pay more money to upgrade the apartment. 2. Pay more tithing. 3. Continue to go to school and pay for tuition. 4. (This is a residual notice from last year) incur massive amounts of medical bills. We could easily do all of these things--I have a wall I'd like knocked out in the basement apartment. We could fund the building of a temple. I like school so why not keep going. And we are well on our way to massive medical bills after Greg's little sushi incident. Now all I need is a car accident or a baby and we're set.

Then I started to do the math. This year we spent about $1500 upgrading the apartment, more than that in tithing, and about $3000 in tuition. We're getting $845 back. Before I entered all these deductions we owed just over $100 in taxes. I spent over $5000 to make $845. Next year I'll keep the $5000 (ok, take the tithing out of that number because tithing is a blessing not a burden) and pay the $100 in taxes.

Tricky tax code, trying to get me to stimulate the economy by promising me a tiny weeny bit of it back.

On a side note, thank you to Rex for the $1000 deductible. Now I need to adopt a baby because I hear they're worth more...