On Saturday our income tax refund landed in our checking account. It was significantly higher than I'd anticipated which freaked me out a little bit when I saw it. I opened H & R Block At Home 2009 and calculated the difference. It was exactly $664 which I recognized as the amount we'd paid for our quarterly estimated taxes. When I was talking with our accountant, I asked her if I was supposed to apply the estimated payment I made… Read the rest

As I'm sure we all know, there's a lot in the health care bill that was passed which we didn't know about. After all, we had to pass the bill to find out what was actually in it. That's so interesting. You would think any new bill would be read thoroughly and examined with a fine tooth comb. At any rate, this recently came to my attention: “Section 9006 of the health care bill — just a few lines buried… Read the rest

For as long as I can remember, the state of Arizona has taken a percentage of our Federal withholding. But that is about to change. Beginning on July 1st, 2010, For example, let's say your gross pay is $1000 and your Federal withholding is 7% of your gross, or  $70.00.  Your Arizona state withholding was then a percentage of that.  The highest amount of withholding is 42.5% so your state withholding would be $29.82. Your employer may have already approached… Read the rest

I know of a person who has his state withholding from his payroll check set high purposely to remove $1300 more than is necessary, since he regularly owes about that amount to the Federal government. I don't feel comfortable challenging his method, nor do I feel he would take kindly to my making some suggestions. So I blog about it, not understanding why in the world someone would do such a thing. His income and his wife's is steady.  His… Read the rest