March 21, 2009

[Albatross]

$1328.74

That's what I owe the federal government. Can't know for sure what else I'd have spent that money on, but this seems as good a guess as any.

QotD: What will/did you spend your tax refund on? If you owe(d) money, what would you have spent it on?

[ujnhunter]

QotD: This is the first year I haven't owed money to the state, I'm guessing that buying a new car last year and paying taxes on it has something to do with it...? I'm going to have to use my tax money to pay off debt that was dumped on me by my soon to be ex as she is filling for bankruptcy and leaving the joint mess for me to clean up... :\

edit: Bitch! heh

[Billy's Little Trip]

I owe. I would have spent that money on a small island in the Bahamas and a big gold crown. I think the Gov is trying to keep me humble. FML.

[Steve Durand]

My company relocated me last year. A lot of the relocations benefits were withheld at a much higher rate than my normal tax rate. Also I paid much more in property taxes and mortgage interest than last year, so I expect to get a hefty refund. I intend to apply it towards a new piano.

[JonPorobil]

Oooh, a new piano.

My wife and I briefly considered buying a ~$1,000 digital piano, but decided to be responsible and use our refund to pay the vet bills and make a dent in our sizable collective debt. At least now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

In other news, I guess my new salary is just starting to sink in, because in spite of all the musical stuff I've bought this month, and in spite of eating out all the freaking time (it's been literally months since I've gone a whole day without purchasing some kind of preprepared food), and in spite of paying all of my normal bills this month, I've still got a hefty chunk of change left over and one more paycheck still on the way. Don't ask me how.

Yay for building up some savings!

[Caravan Ray]

Tax return...shit...got to do that.

I haven't done last years yet. I always get a big tax return because I own negatively geared rental properties. Last years tax return will pay for our trip to New York. If I can ever get off my arse and actually lodge it.

And it's only about 3 months now until this years will need to be done. I have to decide if I am going to be an Australian or a New Zealander for tax purposes. That will suck.

[fluffy]

I'm getting several thousand back from the Feds and several hundred back from the state. It will go to savings and, perhaps, paying down more of my mortgage to get ever closer to that taunting 20% threshold where I can refinance for a lower rate and no longer have to pay PMI.

[Caravan Ray]

I'm getting several thousand back from the Feds and several hundred back from the state. It will go to savings and, perhaps, paying down more of my mortgage to get ever closer to that taunting 20% threshold where I can refinance for a lower rate and no longer have to pay PMI.

do you have to lodge 2 separate tax returns!?!

[fluffy]

Depends on the locale. Some places it's just one (Federal), most places it's two (Federal and state), and in some places you have to do one for the city as well. And the locale-specific ones can be pretty byzantine (I worked in Virginia one summer and hoo boy was that an "interesting" tax return).

We love ourselves some good ol' bureaucracy here.

[Caravan Ray]

And why do they always add bloody "sales tax" on top of the marked price over there? That pisses me off. I always like to pay with correct change where I can so I don't end up with a pocket full of coins. In the USA - you get to the counter, then find out the thing you are buying doesn't actually cost what the price tag says - it costs a little bit more. JUST INCLUDE THE BLOODY TAX IN THE PRICE! Is it really that difficult?

[Paco Del Stinko]

Ah, sales tax. Different in each state to boot. Here in New Hampshire, there is no sales tax except on meals. This year I pay the state of New Hampshire under a hundred bucks, get six hundred something back from the feds. I work in Massachusetts and pay state tax income tax there as well. Am considering a move back to the commonwealth, but shhh...it's a secret!

[roymond]

THe posted price vs sales tax thing is a huge pain, I know. But I assume since sales tax changes every few feet, national ads that say "$1.99" wouldn't work. So the "price" is $1.99 and local tax gets stamped on top of that. It's a big place.

[jack]

i got a couple grand back from the feds. i bought stock in my etrade account. the state still owes me though. i have a feeling i'll be waiting on that one for awhile. but when i get it, i'll probably buy more stock.

[JonPorobil]

I'm getting several thousand back from the Feds and several hundred back from the state. It will go to savings and, perhaps, paying down more of my mortgage to get ever closer to that taunting 20% threshold where I can refinance for a lower rate and no longer have to pay PMI.

Good luck with that. It's nearly impossible to get a refi in California these days. If you get your loan-to-value ratio below 80%, you can apply to have the PMI removed, and if your credit is good, your chances are better there. If you drop below 70%, federal law requires they remove it automatically.

Who's your servicer?

[fluffy]

Wells Fargo.

Supposedly they'll automatically drop the PMI when I get below 80%, and anyway I'm on an ARM (only 9 months into the 5-year fixed period). My plan was always to refinance when I got to 20% paid, since a lot of financing opportunities suddenly open up at that point.

When I bought the place, it was between the two big 'hits' of the current economic crisis. I got a bit lucky in that it was still possible to get a mortgage with 10% down given excellent credit (which I have). If I'd waited a little longer, rates (and purchase prices) would have gone down somewhat more, but everything would have required 20% down and I wouldn't have been able to afford it. And, meanwhile, the tax writeoff of my mortgage interest makes my monthly payment not much more than I was paying in rent before, and my condo is quite a bit larger and in a nicer neighborhood than what I was renting previously.

Also, I just discovered that Firefox on Ubuntu defaults to UK English, and really wanted to correct that to "neighbourhood."

[fluffy]

Oh yeah, yesterday (over in Friday's thread) I said that today I'd be heading to Target to get some more CD storage space.

What the hell is the deal with media storage furniture? There used to be a veritable cornucopia of affordable, reasonably-attractive options which are fairly sturdy, but now choices seem to be extremely limited, and of those choices, everything's very single-minded, massively overpriced, and flimsy.

I know there's a big switch towards getting everything via the Internet (which I'm all in favor of) but the brick-and-mortar stores with large amounts of floor space devoted to selling physical CDs and DVDs and so on (Target and Best Buy in particular) seem to have completely given up the idea that people want to actually put the things they buy anywhere.

Oh well. I got a new cheap bookcase for my office/studio, and repurposed some other furniture I already had to offload some of my DVDs from my largest storage rack, and now I have a nice area dedicated to Song Fight! artists. I think I may have missed a few while collating the collection but I'm sure they'll turn up eventually, not that I ever actually touch my physical CDs very often. (I mostly keep them around for show, and in case of catastrophic hard drive failure.)

[Billy's Little Trip]

Fluf, my only answer to that is the ipod and the likes. I don't have a CD rack anymore. It's been retired to the garage. My 200 disc CD player that has served me well for years....in the garage. All of my music listening is from an ipod, a play list or Music Choice (cox cable). All of my CDs are boxed and on a shelf in the garage. I do burn CDs, but I don't treat them with much respect, because I know I can always burn another one. It's kind of sad, really.

[fluffy]

I see my media collection as an important part of my home décor.

Also I don't have any separate storage space, and certainly wouldn't keep anything in the garage that I don't want random homeless people to wander off with.

[Billy's Little Trip]

I used to have my CDs and albums as part of my music room decor. But changes through the years have made the beauty of that collection slowly fade away. I used to love it when I'd get a new album and read it front to back while listening to the music. Then pulling it out (the album, not my shlong...usually) when I wanted to show it to a friend (my shlong, not the album...usually) or just get in that mood, etc.

[Paco Del Stinko]

Gee. And during my drunken adventures the other night, I was spinning some lovingly cared for vinyl. What year is this again?

[HeuristicsInc]

fluffy: i think this (in cherry) is the one i bought a couple of years ago. it's very well-made, nice and solid, and it rotates! good store, too, their office is in buffalo!
-bill

[roymond]

Yeah, I used to feel that a wall of CDs meant I was cool. Now the little laptop and external drive with 800 CDs on it says that same thing. I'm quite happy with iTunes displaying the covers, with quick links to the currently playing song/album/artist on AllMusic, Wikipedia, Amazon, iTunes, etc. Also, I just noticed the "artists you care about playing in your area" feature on Pandora. That's brilliant!

I also love that my iPhone is an iTune remote control