Got really lucky with taxes this year

[disneysteve]

Whew! I was really dreading doing our taxes this year. Even though I had increased my withholding last year due to a big tax bill (about $2,500 I wasn't expecting), I expected this year to be even worse because a couple of our taxable investments had exceptionally good years and paid out a large amount of capital gains. For the last couple of months, I've been hoarding cash so that we'd be prepared to write a check for a few thousand dollars when the time came.

I met with the accountant on Thursday. One thing which I had learned in December is that a religious convention we attended might actually be tax-deductible. I got a policy statement from the sponsoring organization and it seemed that at least my expenses and possibly DW's as well would be deductible. Our accountant agreed that both of our expenses met the guidelines. We were able to deduct almost the entire cost of that trip - about $3,300 - which very nicely offset the capital gains hit.

The other thing is that he realized that there was a medical deduction we were eligible for that we hadn't previously taken. In fact, after tax season, he is going to look back at last year's taxes and see if it is worth filing an amended return as we might be able to get some money back.

I don't have the final numbers yet but it looks like we'll probably owe less than $1,000, much better than expected.

[creditcardfree]

That is good news Steve! Now you can invest that money you have been hoarding...or will you save it to cover taxes for next year?

[disneysteve]

That is good news Steve! Now you can invest that money you have been hoarding...or will you save it to cover taxes for next year?

It will get invested. I haven't started our Roth contributions yet this year. Some will also go to my SEP.

[Retired To Win]

Good for you, Steve.

We too jacked up our withholding this year to try to account for profit we made on a real estate sale. But we won't know what the tax bottom line will be until we get it done. And there's less than 30 days left to do it now!

[Randomsaver]

We were able to deduct almost the entire cost of that trip - about $3,300 - which very nicely offset the capital gains hit.

I had similar thing only I was idiot to not save my receipts.

[disneysteve]

I had similar thing only I was idiot to not save my receipts.

Not much really needs to be saved these days. Between credit card statements, bank statements, online hotel receipts, etc., I could (if needed) reconstruct everything without the original receipts.

[KTP]

I had the nasty surprise of owing extra Medicare tax on wage income. Ok it was less than $100

[disneysteve]

Taxes are done. Checks are written.

The final result was we owed $496 for Federal and $63 for the state so $559 total. Not bad at all. No refund and a minimal bill. I'm good with that.

[UnknownXV]

I don't want to get too political here but that is very puzzling to me. Why is a religious event tax-deductible?

[bjl584]

I'm actually getting a refund this year. $486.