When Paula at Afford Anything wrote Tax Refund: Heck Yea! or No Way, Jose? I thought she was talking to me, as Jose is Spanish for Joe. I’m still not sure. Either way, my vote was for “No Way.” I am in the camp that says a tax refund means I’ve lent out money at zero interest for a time. I am at the other swing of the pendulum. I prefer to owe money with my return, my goal is to owe just enough to not pay a penalty. Even in this low interest rate environment, I’d rather have the money in my hands or brokerage account that with Uncle Sam.
At Personal Finance By The Book, Joe Plemon wrote How a CPA Saved Me $4310 in Taxes. To be fair, this was by amending the prior three years returns as well, but a savings of over $1000 a year is nothing to sneeze at. I am a big fan of TurboTax, and doing it myself. I also hear stories about the tax guys who don’t offer suggestions or strategize to find way to help you save. Joe plans to use a CPA every year but doesn’t mention the cost. Now that he knows what he did wrong these past few years, I’m eager to see how his CPA does for him in the years to come.
Why Baby Boomers Aren’t Prepared For Retirement is asked and answered at boomer and echo. A warning, when Boomer says RRSP, think IRA or 401(k). He’s Canadian, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Their tax code is striking similar to ours, so in the world of PF bloggers we are a tight group, they just measure their temperature in Celsius. By the way, Canadians undersave as badly as we USians.
Mr. Money Mustache addresses the age old question – What if Everyone Became Frugal? Why is this even a question? Because there’s quite a list of stuff that is not on the frugal buyer’s shopping list. If we all flip the switch and become frugal, Starbuck’s goes under for starters. Mr Money Mustache talks about why this won’t happen and in fact, over the long run we would be a better society if we slowly moved toward being more frugal.
Last, I’d like to share Smart Money’s 10 Things the IRS Won’t Tell You. I like this magazine and am a subscriber. I especially enjoy the 10 things series. What makes it particularly good reading this month is that they quote my favorite Tax Tweep, Kay Bell, author of Don’t Mess With Taxes. Two of the ten list quote Kay, which is pretty cool to us tax geeks. Congrats, Kay!
With today being a Sunday and a Washington Holiday tomorrow, tax day is officially Tuesday April 17th this year. File your taxes or file an extension. But file, either way.