So we finally finished doing our taxes for the year of 2007. Since it was the first year for us to do taxes together it was a little more annoying than usual. Things used to be as easy as taking the standard deduction and reporting my W-2s and investment income. This year I had to read a lot more about filing as a married couple and the various marriage penalties. There were a few things we could have done to reduce our taxes. For example, I told the hubby to increase his 401k contributions last year, and he did do it, but his company seems to not have updated his contributions percentage. Since we didn’t get married until end of August last year I never looked at his paychecks for most of the year. It seems that for engaged couples really should start at the beginning of the year they intend to marry because the tax status is based on their marital statuses at the end of the year. By the time I got the hubby’s W-2 for last year it was too late to contribute more to his 401k for 2007. Another thing is that our W-4 status was wrong for most of last year because we didn’t change it. I don’t think that affected our taxes so much, though.

The end result is that we owe money this year simply because we got married. Both of us were bumped into the next tax bracket due to the marriage penalty. If we were both single we would both get tax refunds this year. However, we did donate a good amount of money so the tax bite isn’t so bad, and we don’t have a problem paying it off. This year, we are putting the following plans in action to reduce our taxes:

viagra for sale philippines- The hubby contacted his HR and now his 401k contributions are at the same level as mine. Last year I saved a lot more than him in my 401k and it is only fair that he gets to save as much in his own retirement account. This move reduces our combined adjusted gross income, and it means we will pay less taxes as a couple.

viagra for sale philippines- We are upping our donations each month to our church and charities because we have been blessed financially and we want to give a bit more out. I rather see the money go to causes I care about than the IRS or the Franchise Tax Board. Some people said to me that it is a dumb plan because I don’t really save money by giving money out, but donating isn’t about saving money.

viagra for sale philippines – Treasury bonds do not incur California state tax and the Vanguard California Tax exempt money market fund is exempt from both Federal and State taxes. I am already putting money into these funds, and I plan to add some more. This is in our joint account and we can use the money for a house in the next couple years.

viagra for sale philippines – Our plan is to have a kid two years after we get married, and though a kid would reduce taxes he or she would increase our expenses quite a bit, too. We can’t really control the exact time of conceiving, but hopefully it will happen in a year or two.  I am reading up on this quite a bit.  I think it is best for us to have a kid sooner rather than later because each year the cost of having children goes up.  Also, I think the hubby’s mom is so lucky to have two adult children out of the house at the age of 46!  I want to be a young empty nester in twenty years.

The funny thing is, we still qualify for the tax rebate this year, but it is just enough to cover the taxes we owe so we will come out even.  Since we owe taxes I am trying to write the checks as late as possible and send out the returns in April.   Hopefully this year we will not owe anything!

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