help me with my taxes? something is seriously wrong

Quote from Landers : I'll bite, because I haven't heard this argument before. How is it unconstitutional?

In my tin foil mind it is completely voluntary, but the SCOTUS has ruled otherwise. According to them, only the filing of your taxes is voluntary; paying them is not. So you don't have to file your taxes if you don't want to, but if the IRS comes after you and says you have to pay then you are required to. Normally when people threaten you with detention and use firearms, we call it kidnapping, extortion, and stealing. When the government does it . . . well . . . .

Quote from unknown00 : the only difference between 2011 and 2012 is for 2012 my salary is up like 25k. even with that, i am still within the 25% bracket as 2011. everything else is pretty much the same, deductions the same, etc. i asked several accounting friends of mine and they have no idea how did i get 2k back last year (4% of my income) to 300 this year (0.4%)?!?! how could it possibly drop so much?!?!

You realize that tax rates are graduated brackets, right?

I'm too lazy to look up the exact numbers, but here's an example to illustrate.
first 20k gets taxed at 15%
next 20k gets taxed at 20%

So all or some of the extra 25k you made gets taxed at a higher rate.

Honestly, you should redo your taxes using paper forms if you don't understand what is going on.. Too many people just blindly plug in the numbers to software and have no clue on how taxes really work.

Quote from chewspam : In my tin foil mind it is completely voluntary, but the SCOTUS has ruled otherwise. According to them, only the filing of your taxes is voluntary; paying them is not. So you don't have to file your taxes if you don't want to, but if the IRS comes after you and says you have to pay then you are required to. Normally when people threaten you with detention and use firearms, we call it kidnapping, extortion, and stealing. When the government does it . . . well . . . .

Well, don't you agree, to a certain extent, that tax needs to be paid so that gov't has money to run?

Quote from Landers : Well, don't you agree, to a certain extent, that tax needs to be paid so that gov't has money to run?

This country bought Louisiana and Alaska before income taxes, along with operating just fine.

Quote from TigerStar : This country bought Louisiana and Alaska before income taxes, along with operating just fine.

That's true. We also spent less money back then and we were less involved in bullshit we didn't need to be involved in.

some info on the income tax

http://history1900s.about.com/od/...ometax.htm

Quote from Landers : That's true. We also spent less money back then and we were less involved in bullshit we didn't need to be involved in.

Absolutely.

Quote from Landers : That's true. We also spent less money back then and we were less involved in bullshit we didn't need to be involved in.

The income tax, which the government seems to see as an unlimited source of revenue, is a big part of the reason why we have such a runaway government today. When the income tax started, assuming it was necessary, a balanced budget amendment should have been a part of it.

Quote from Landers : Well, don't you agree, to a certain extent, that tax needs to be paid so that gov't has money to run?

Give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Yes. I do agree, but we need a consumption tax like the fairtax.

Quote from Landers : That's true. We also spent less money back then and we were less involved in bullshit we didn't need to be involved in.

Quote from Iaaaiws : The income tax, which the government seems to see as an unlimited source of revenue, is a big part of the reason why we have such a runaway government today. When the income tax started, assuming it was necessary, a balanced budget amendment should have been a part of it.

ALL - thanks for your help but i found out what i needed to know. talked to a professional who walked me through the 1040 form like 1 by 1 explaining everything to me and all the numbers make sense. just kinda shit outta luck this year...

Quote from chewspam : Give to Caesar what is Caesar's. Yes. I do agree, but we need a consumption tax like the fairtax.

Abolish income tax. Use national sales tax. Voila. You're charged tax on what you use.

Quote from Landers : Abolish income tax. Use national sales tax. Voila. You're charged tax on what you use.

Surprises me that the Libs don't like this. Punishes those evil rich who buy those expensive yachts, furs, cars, and vacations. Damn them.

Quote from Landers : Abolish income tax. Use national sales tax. Voila. You're charged tax on what you use.

That always sounds good on the surface. But what would likely happen is that once the national sales tax became accepted and fully implemented they would slowly sneak the income tax back in again. It would start off small: "Oh we just need to have a 1% income tax to ease the pain of the poor and middle class". Then once it starts it would never stop increasing. At that point we would then have both the income tax and the national sales tax for the government to abuse.

And of course once the recipient class has the majority there is not much chance of voting to keep these taxes in check. They will just keep voting to give themselves a free ride as they do now.

Quote from Iaaaiws : That always sounds good on the surface. But what would likely happen is that once the national sales tax became accepted and fully implemented they would slowly sneak the income tax back in again. It would start off small: "Oh we just need to have a 1% income tax to ease the pain of the poor and middle class". Then once it starts it would never stop increasing. At that point we would then have both the income tax and the national sales tax for the government to abuse. And of course once the recipient class has the majority there is not much chance of voting to keep these taxes in check. They will just keep voting to give themselves a free ride as they do now.

that's a possibility, but politicians are all about power. When we are in control of how much we pay in taxes, they lose a lot of their power and KNOW they won't get re-elected. this is just theory of course.

Basically when you earn a paycheck the withholding (if you just fill out the W4 per instructions) is based on you earning THAT SPECIFIC pay for the entire year. So, if you work 2/3 of the year, the gov't "assumes" you will earn X for each of those paychecks - and your taxes are based on 26*X (biweekly payments, or therebouts), but you only wind up earning 2/3*26*X (2/3 of the full year salary) so when you file taxes, there will be a large discrepancy between taxes paid and taxes owed - all things considered, you will get a refund.

This is what gets people that may have bonuses or unusually high paychecks every now and then - they will pay a disproportionate amount of taxes on a few paychecks relative to their entire years' salary.

Of course you could always perform the calculations and re-file your W4 so your withholding throughout the year winds up more in line with what your taxes will be.