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

Back in January, I reported what Arizona had done with our 2008 income tax refund (not the 2009 refund, mind you). I called again in February and was told it was going to take some time for the money to route through the system so I needed to be aware of that and give them some time. Okay.  In the meantime, I conveniently lost all the phone numbers I'd written down, all the names of the people with whom I'd… Read the rest

Back in the olden days, when all you had was a form, pencil, eraser and your calculator, it was way too much hassle to “work the numbers”. You figured it out, put the numbers where they belonged, calculated the numbers to make sure you got your addition and subtraction correct and you went with it. I doubt anyone tried adding more or less to anything, to see if they could get more money by doing so. Unless they were really,… Read the rest