Taxes

We filed our taxes this past weekend, and we're expecting a huge refund.  A five-digit refund.  Yeah, a certain someone needed to adjust his withholding last year.

I'll be shaving off about $2k (my usual refund amount) to bring my E-fund up to $10k, a number it hasn't seen in about 4 years.  He'll take a portion for his savings/loans, and the rest will go into our joint account for moving expenses, and a little vacation.

I'm glad I'll finally be hitting my E-fund goal so that I can concentrate on other areas now.  I'm still working on my goals for this year, but I'm thinking I'm at a pivotal point right now in my work-life, and I need to shit or get off the pot, as it were, with regard to further education.  Depending on the direction I go, I'll need anywhere from about $10k to $34k.  Oy.

Speaking of oy, I was a bit confused about reporting my ebay sales.  While I took in about $1k this year on ebay, I took a loss on nearly everything I sold, except for a few things I purchased cheaply off ebay and resold.  Remember with me for a moment all the clothes and jewelry I purchased over the past few years, and how that affected my bottom-line, and you'll see why $1k should not be considered income.  Even though it's clear to me that I didn't make a profit,  I'd be hard-pressed to produce receipts for everything on both ends.

I know I'm not the first one in the PF community to use ebay to recoup some losses.  Can anyone share their tax-reporting strategy?

I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller, I wish...I were a tax professional?

I decided to file my taxes tonight. So here I am. I've got all my shiz spread out, I'm using TurboTax, and I'm pumped for the refund I should be getting. Only I had to stop halfway through because I'm so. confused.

1. I received a 3% employer match this year in July of 2009 for the 2008 tax year. This is the first distribution I've been qualified to receive, I haven't received any kind of related tax form, and I've go no idea how to report it. Also - reinvested dividends? Where do I report those?

2. Once again - Roth IRA dividends - reinvested. I understand it's "non-taxable" and I didn't receive anything but a year-end statement of accounts, but TurboTax is telling me I still need to report it? But only if I've got the 1099-DIV? But Vanguard says I'm not getting one? Basically, it's a head-scratcher.

3. Remember that bonus I received this year? My employer gave me a 1099-MISC with item 7 ("Non employee income") filled. In prior years, it had always been in box 3 ("Other income"). And just to rub it in, they used my OLD address. Anyway, I'm clearly an employee, so shouldn't it be box 3, or an entirely different thing all together?

My finances are INCREDIBLY simple at this point in my life, so why the hell am I having such a hard time?

2009 taxes

I did my taxes last night, and I should be getting a little over 1k back on or around April 17th. I think I'll put all of it in savings and be done with it.

Taxes

I finally filed my taxes on Saturday.

Rather, I paid TurboTax the $30 to file for me. And you know what? It was worth it. The little refund-counter in the upperleft corner scrolling up through the numbers made it feel like I was winning the lottery.

I got a $402 federal refund and a $126 state refund. Add that to my projected $600 tax rebate, and I've got $1128 to put toward moving expenses. And since I could be moving earlier than expected, it could not have come at a better time.

Which reminds me...

Right now, about 20% of my take-home pay goes toward my rent. When I move, I'm probably looking at a huge rent increase (to about 30-37% of my take-home pay, and that's only if I don't change jobs). How am I supposed to be able to absorb that? I guess it's my fault for choosing to live in this city!