I don't have my W-2 yet, but I started a 1040 and calculated my (federal) tax refund today based on my last paycheck in December.
I think I'm going to get $500 back.
I am blown away. I had forgotten, with all those years of school, that one could actually pay taxes and then get them back. For the last four years, money has been something that one borrows and is given, and then has to try to live on. Taxes are a joke when one is making $5000 in a year and paying $40,000 in tuition. Would anyone like to tax my -$35,000? Anyone? Anyone? You could give me a few thousand dollars, maybe?
Even before law school, I was working overseas (making virtually nothing) and took the Foreign-Earned Income Exclusion for at least two years. Obviously I have paid the taxes required of me, but I haven't been required to pay all that much in the way of real US tax money since 2002.
But in 2008, I had a real job and I paid real taxes. I feel so proud of my little (prospective) $500 refund. "That's my money!" I want to exclaim, like a proud parent. "I earned it, and I'm getting it back!"
I am awash with ideas of what to do with it. "It's burning a hole in your pocket, huh?" someone asked me today and I said, "No! I want to invest it! Maybe I can open an IRA! I am going to have savings!"
I am exuberantly and excessively excited.
(Now that I said that, just watch: I'll have to pay money to the state. Oh, and I owe my parents money. Durrrrr. Forget it. I have no savings. Nor any excitement.)
I think I'm going to get $500 back.
I am blown away. I had forgotten, with all those years of school, that one could actually pay taxes and then get them back. For the last four years, money has been something that one borrows and is given, and then has to try to live on. Taxes are a joke when one is making $5000 in a year and paying $40,000 in tuition. Would anyone like to tax my -$35,000? Anyone? Anyone? You could give me a few thousand dollars, maybe?
Even before law school, I was working overseas (making virtually nothing) and took the Foreign-Earned Income Exclusion for at least two years. Obviously I have paid the taxes required of me, but I haven't been required to pay all that much in the way of real US tax money since 2002.
But in 2008, I had a real job and I paid real taxes. I feel so proud of my little (prospective) $500 refund. "That's my money!" I want to exclaim, like a proud parent. "I earned it, and I'm getting it back!"
I am awash with ideas of what to do with it. "It's burning a hole in your pocket, huh?" someone asked me today and I said, "No! I want to invest it! Maybe I can open an IRA! I am going to have savings!"
I am exuberantly and excessively excited.
(Now that I said that, just watch: I'll have to pay money to the state. Oh, and I owe my parents money. Durrrrr. Forget it. I have no savings. Nor any excitement.)
1 comment:
Hi, found your blog tonight and can't wait to read about your work! I have similar interests and will be back. And by the way, I am expecting a big refund too, but I'm just going to pay bills with it. Insert sad face emoticon.
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