Taxes

2011 Income Taxes Filed

I have just finished filing my 2011 income taxes.  I used H&R Block at Home Online (now offering a 15% discount).

Due to the fact that I changed jobs mid-year, my annual income was a little lower in 2011 than it was in 2010.  Couple that with the fact that we now have a mortgage (and mortgage interest) – and we received a little-bit-bigger-than-anticipated refund.

I am not a big fan of “loaning” the government my money (interest free, at that), but I knew that the job-change might result in the refund.  We’ll count it as a blessing – and use the money – but we have already adjusted our withholding for 2012.  Our refund will be less, but our monthly take-home will be more.

As for what we’ll do with the refund, we have three ideas.  We’ll us some of the money to reduce our mortgage principal, some of it to pad our savings, and some of it to take a long-weekend vacation.

Side note – I rarely write about politics (not because I don’t have opinions on the subject, but because that’s not really the purpose of this site) – but it would be cool if we could simplify the tax code / tax collection / tax payment system.  I’m not sure what the answer is, but it is difficult to believe that the current system is the best we can devise.

 

4 thoughts on “2011 Income Taxes Filed

  1. Just finished up my returns today. Feels good to have that behind me as well. Glad to hear your perspective on ‘loaning the government money’ – I think it is correct. Go for that almost-zero refund.

  2. It’s a great idea to invest some of the refund in reducing your outstadning mortgage capital amount, it will save you big time in the long term

  3. I think the thing everyone should be doing is getting out of debt. That is my number one priority right now. It’s hard to pay taxes to a government that is sinking us all with over-spending. I will take care of myself before taking care of Uncle Sam… and I won’t lose any sleep over doing so.

  4. Yea, getting taxes filed is a big relief. Now I look forward to ways I can save on my home improvement investments for 2012-if there are any incentives left to do so.

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