Ain't That A Bitch

Taxes, I mean.

So this year, given my significant changes in status, my tax situation is much different than last year.

First off, I have a spouse that works. Not just part time at menial labor, either, but a real career type job. One that has significant income. Significant enough that between the two of us, with my retirement pay thrown in, we are now in the exalted category of "Evil Hated Rich" (meaning we make more than 100K per year).

Unfortunately that throws us into the next higher tax bracket as well.

I use an online service to file taxes, and I prepared my returns this year as both married filing joint and married filing single...or at least I did (more on that in a bit). Married filing joint our refund (over-payment of taxes, remember, not free money that we did not earn) was a little over a grand. Since last year her return was a bit less than two grand she wasn't altogether thrilled at this.

So I redid the forms to married filing single, and when I checked the box to make this change the online service asked if I was sure about this since her information would be removed. Yes, I was, so on we went. My refund ended up being a bit over 4 grand. Oh fabulous day! I exclaimed as I e-filed my return.

Except that when I looked at the printed out forms...my status was married filing jointly. D'oh!

And so I got to pay an ADDITIONAL $42 to change the forms in this online service that I will henceforth never use again (Taxslayer, if you must know) and the end result is...I owe 311 duckets to the fed.gov for my impetuosity. I still get a tiny bit back off my state return, but that's it.

The biggest change is in the tax rates for filing status. Married filing single and single is the same, but last year I filed as head of household which is a lesser rate. I was fine at the lesser rate, but not so much at the single rate.

As a result I will be changing my exemptions from one to zero for the next tax year, I get to mail in my amended returns (with an accompanying check to the Feds), and we will still likely file married/single for both of us in the future since she will get a return large enough to make up the difference plus some.

Ted Cruz wants a flat tax. I'm a Cruz guy from here on out.