a little tax check-up

I'm not an accountant, but I'm a total math nerd and secretly love doing our taxes each year. I'm so much of a nerd that even though I do our taxes using H&R Block Tax Cut, I still do a pencil/paper version on the side to make sure my calculations would have been accurate if I'd done them myself.

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Since we aren't students anymore and have a real job and it seemed we were paying Uncle Sam a load of taxes, I thought I'd check into it and see if Matt's claiming enough withholding on his paychecks.

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I found this great withholding calculator on the IRS website. It takes into consideration your projected income for the year, you current year-to-date tax withholdings, and asks a few other simple tax questions. Then it magically estimates what your 2007 tax return would be and gives you a suggested number of allowances you should be withholding on your paychecks. It took me less than ten minutes to do.

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I laughed right outloud and nearly fell off my chair when I read my results.

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Matt should resubmit his W-4 form and change his claim from 5 alllowances to 39 allowances.

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You're welcome, Uncle Sam, for the heftly, interest-free loan we have given you these last three months. It will end now. And I'll be filing for that tax return on February 1st.

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Maybe I should start using an accountant. Here's the link again, in case you are as clueless as us and want to give your own taxes a little check-up:

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withholding calculator

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