I did my taxes last night, and it's a good thing I was using name brand software,

[hedgehog]

because otherwise I wouldn't believe the size of my refund. Three kids in college gave us a hell of a tax credit for tuition!


THANK YOU PRESIDENT OBAMA!

[Oceansaway]

1. K&R...n/t

[mopinko]

2. that's good news.

i have 3 now, the 4th in september. the 5th is on her own, but in college, also. oy.
this is a smart tax credit. although better funding for community colleges and state universities would probably be more fair.

[hedgehog]

3. Sounds like we're in pretty much the same boat! I love New York State,

I was able to send all six to excellent public universities without going bankrupt!

BTW - so far the score is two engineers and a community organizer. One engineer is designing state of the art equipment built in New York State mostly for export and the other engineer works for a county sewer district keeping people safe and Lake Erie clean. The community organizer is working to build co-op housing.

I'd say public investment in my kids' education is paying back in spades!

[mopinko]

6. illinois has a great community college system.

and a whole lot of competition in universities. the rule is my family is that you have to go to a cheap school for 2 years, then you can go somewhere good. the youngest has some bigger aspirations, but knows that SHE has to scrape up the money to make the big school a cheap school. her high school is very good about helping their kids get into college and find money for it.
she wants to go into biotech research, and her big brother wants to be a mathematician. middle kid is working on being a sign language interpreter. the last of the 4 is still trying to figure out which end is up, but currently wants to be a buddhist monk. yeah, i think the world will be a little, tiny bit better for the investment in these guys.

sounds like you have done a good job there. congrats on having great kids. it is hard to do.

[slackmaster]

4. I'm sure you'll just squirrel it away in your vast horde of cash

[StopTheNeoCons]

5. My family's $54,000 gross income netted $488 income tax, that's less than 1%

I almost feel bad about how little it is. The biggest help was a maximum contribution to 2 IRAs.

[kestrel91316]

7. You probably have kids and own your own home. I don't. On that level of

income, if I were so fortunate as to make it as a self-employed person, would cost me probably $20k in taxes.

We single folks get reamed.

[Skittles]

22. tell me about it

and people with kids brag about how much they get back :mad:

[golfguru]

12. On a $100k AGI, our tax was $6900

thanks largely to the tuition credits. Thank you president Obama!

[former9thward]

8. Tax credit for tuition is nothing new.

Has been in the tax code for years.

[FrenchieCat]

14. Previously tax credits for higher ed were rather limited, and had been in place about 7 years or

so.

In fact, the Hope Credit (which was only good for the first 2 years of higher education for a non refundable credit of $1,500) and its alternate the Lifetime Learning Credit (good for a non refundable credit of $2,000 per return max ...so if you had more than 1 kid in college, it didn't help much) that Bush enacted did not provide near the amount of the tax credit enacted via the Obama Administration, as well as how many years one can get it. Plus those old tuition credits only reduced one's tax.....but didn't convert to a refundable credit....while Obama's Education credits literally translate into actual greenbacks coming to you, even if you didn't pay any taxes in, to the tune of 40%.

.....it's like comparing a tiny green elf to the Jolly Green Giant, and saying.....they are similar cause they are green. :eyes:

[hedgehog]

18. My oldest started college about 12 years back, and I've had one or more

in college ever since. I've seen some minor credits and deductions, but nothing like this before.

[Autumn]

9. When my daughters were in college, I got a tax credit

I think that has been there a while.:shrug:

[golfguru]

10. I was using a cheap $12.95 software and had the same tuition related savings

I have used TAXACT for several years and it is as good as Turbo Tax & Taxcut.
I have used all three, and get better service from Taxact, printing is better,
always matches exactly with the other two when I buy 2 tax programs in the same
year as a double check.

[hedgehog]

16. I only mentioned the software because if I'd come up with those

numbers working by hand, I would have thought I'd made an error somewhere. I didn't want to endorse any particular package.

FWIW - I did our taxes by hand for years. What pushed me to buying software was the mess that Bill Clinton left - "you can take this credit OR that deduction but ONLY if line 32 was less than 12.3% of line 34 and if Line 4 on Worksheetpage 2347 was greater than Line 23 on last year's Worksheet 4334........."

[golfguru]

19. I know what you mean

I used to write my own software program using dBase to prepare my returns.
That made it easy to to add items later as corrected tax documents arrived.

However as you said the tax laws are ridiculously complicated now.
The tax preparation companies must have lobbied for that haha.
So we are forced to buy a program or go to a tax preparer.

[GeorgeGist]

11. And for those who have no income ...

YOU CAN THANK PRESIDENT OBAMA!

[DavidDvorkin]

13. The recession is Obama's fault? Really?

[FrenchieCat]

15. Why? How did he stop you from getting a job?

Or do you just blame everything on him...for that one stop blame shopping?

[prolesunited]

17. Wow

with that kind of logic and rage, I doubt the president is the issue.

[vaberella]

20. That would be false. Mainly because unemployment was saved due to his work. n/t

[Name removed]

30. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LiberalFighter]

21. Can I borrow your kids?

[Corey_Baker08]

I Did Mine With Turbo Tax & Got Them In 8 Days-Very Satisfied

8 days if u get them direct deposited onto the turbo tax prepaid debit card or ur personal bank account

[Corey_Baker08]

23. I Did Mine With Turbo Tax & Got Them In 8 Days-Very Satisfied

8 days if u get them direct deposited onto the turbo tax prepaid debit card or ur personal bank account

[Exilednight]

24. What I can't figure out is that I haven't had a pay raise in almost three years and

very little has changed in my personal life, yet I am paying more this year than I did last year or the year before that.

[hedgehog]

26. Did you pay less in mortgage interest this year than last year?

[Obamanaut]

25. With virtually no change in income (we're both retired), I owe an

additional $200+ compared with last year. Last year a small refund, this year I write a check. To whom should I give thanks?

Federal Income Tax burden slightly over 13% of AGI.

[quiller4]

28. We also are both retired and with a slight increase in income

our tax burden dropped. Last year and this we have a refund just under $100. Our tax burden is less than 7% of AGI and that bothers me a bit. I really think we should be between 10 and 15%.

[Vattel]

27. no refund!!! first time for me--usual refund has been 1-2K

I am in a world of debt (and I wish it was Obama's fault, but it's not).

[Honeycombe8]

29. Finally....someone with some good news! Congrats! nt