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Now that I'm working for pay again, my tax situation has gotten a little more complicated. After Brian's income our marginal tax rate is XX%, but frustratingly, there's no option on the W-4 for "just withhold XX% of my income, please". (There's the "withhold this additional amount from each paycheck" option, but since my paychecks vary wildly from month to month and job to job, that's not terribly accurate.) Since each job calculates my taxes from 0 rather than from my husband's salary, they never withhold anywhere near enough; consequently we've had pretty good-sized tax bills the past couple of years.
This year, I actually worked out the percentage and did my own withholding; I started a separate savings account, calculated the XX% figure out of each paycheck, subtracted whatever was already withheld, and tossed it in there. I'm ridiculously pleased that I came out almost exactly right - I get to give myself a $100 refund. Not bad for a former liberal arts major! Of course, this upcoming year everything's getting rejiggered I'm going to have to re-calculate everything...and if we buy a house, that'll make everything even more complex. I saw an ad for a local service that trains volunteers in tax prep so you can help low-income and ESL folks do their taxes; I don't have anywhere near the time this year, but I might look into that for next year. It seems like it'd be a good body of knowledge to have.
Ironically enough, even though I'm all set to file through Turbotax, the IRS isn't ready for me yet - they aren't yet accepting my state returns. It's kind of weird to realize you're more on top of things than the IRS...but in fairness, my tax situation is somewhat less complicated, heh.
This year, I actually worked out the percentage and did my own withholding; I started a separate savings account, calculated the XX% figure out of each paycheck, subtracted whatever was already withheld, and tossed it in there. I'm ridiculously pleased that I came out almost exactly right - I get to give myself a $100 refund. Not bad for a former liberal arts major! Of course, this upcoming year everything's getting rejiggered I'm going to have to re-calculate everything...and if we buy a house, that'll make everything even more complex. I saw an ad for a local service that trains volunteers in tax prep so you can help low-income and ESL folks do their taxes; I don't have anywhere near the time this year, but I might look into that for next year. It seems like it'd be a good body of knowledge to have.
Ironically enough, even though I'm all set to file through Turbotax, the IRS isn't ready for me yet - they aren't yet accepting my state returns. It's kind of weird to realize you're more on top of things than the IRS...but in fairness, my tax situation is somewhat less complicated, heh.
