Taxes Are Crazy!
I finished my taxes on Sunday and e-filed. It galls me to no end, having to pay the IRS to e-mail my taxes to them, but at least I KNOW they got the return on time.
Now, here’s what I cannot for the life of me figure out. I’m getting back more than $2500. Every year, this happens to me, and every year, I go to payroll and adjust my deductions on my W-whatever so that less money is taken out of my check.
I just can’t seem to find the “magic number” of deductions that will leave me breaking even on taxes, or having to pay less than $100, or getting back less than $100. I wonder why.
It’s not that I really mind the big refund … it’s the economic principle of the thing. Getting back $2500 means that I have needlessly held more than $200 out of my take-home pay every month. It means that I gave Uncle Sam an interest-free loan of an awful lot of money. If I could find the magic number, I might have all my debt paid off. I could invest $200 a month at a five- or ten-percent rate and actually MAKE money. What a concept!
Instead, I loan it out for free. Sigh. I’m off to adjust my W-whatever again. Maybe this year I’ll find the magic number.