I just finished filing my taxes.  I must say, even with the addition of a little ‘business income’, the whole process was pretty mundane.

I had under-withheld by about $400, which isn’t bad, considering that I didn’t really ‘know’ what my annual income was going to be.  I didn’t have to pay any penalties.  The tax forms were submitted electronically to both the IRS and the Georgia Department of Revenue.

The IRS allows payments via a direct draft from a checking or savings account - but the State of Georgia requires a check.  So, even though I ‘e-filed’ both returns, I still had to mail a check to the Georgia Department of Revenue.

A few weeks ago, in an effort to reduce taxes and increase retirement savings, I opened a SEP-IRA.  And, today, I authorized a withdrawal from ‘business checking’ to my Vanguard SEP-IRA account.

Interesting fact about the Vanguard SEP-IRA -

While Vanguard has ‘minimum-contribution’ limits for most of their funds, these limits are ‘waived’ for those who open SEP-IRAs.  Why?  Well, not all businesses will make enough money to meet the ‘minimum-contribution’ limits.  Also, while they typically charge a $20 a year ‘maintenance fee’ - this fee will be ‘waived’ if you select ‘e-delivery’ of all financial information.

I’m going to put my contributions in The Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFINX)