Tax Day

I filed my taxes a few days ago, but today seems like an appropriate time to talk about them.

Because I had imputed income this year, I new that I would be owing taxes and estimated the amount to be $150 a month or $1,800 a year combined for Fed and State.

Unfortunately my estimates were a bit off. Due to dividends and capital gains I ended up owing $2,245 - almost $450 more then I thought. Ouch.

I also calculated that my average tax rate based on total taxes owed/AGI was 16.6% for Fed and 5.9% for State, or 22.5% combined. Because I didn't buy a house or a car the tax stimulous had almost no effect on me. Come to think of it, I don't believe I even know anyone that the stimulous helped...

Additionally, because I owed the Fed more than $1,000 I might owe a small penalty. I never new that rule existed, but I probably should have did more tax research knowing that I had imputed income. Sigh. Why is the tax code so complicated?

I hope everyone is planning on getting your taxes in - otherwise you could face big fines for filing late.