Monday, February 06, 2006
Being Not-Disabled Doesn't Pay, But I Get to Keep the Money
Last week I blogged about TurboTax giving me $99 in my state refund when I filed the long form and said that neither Dina nor I were disabled. After chatting with the TT rep yesterday evening (the phone rang as the final two-minute warning sounded ... how'd the Superbowl wrap up?) and his not being able to figure out the deal, he sent me a free copy of the home game, er, TT tax software.
I hadn't filled in the paper version Dina brought home, and since the home version showed the same "big money" refund. I started grabbing numbers from the federal return and plugging them into hard copy form. Turns out the extra money has nothing to do with disability, but rather it's after that question that the state return (long form) grabs the Schedule A data from the federal return. Even though I used the standard deduction on the fed form I had filled in the charitible giving section of Schedule A. That amount was greater than Oregon's standard deduction, reducing my state liability and increasing the refund.
(Thanks go out to my sister Julia for explaining that I was reading the tax code correctly. I told her earlier that I grabbed the standard deduction on the federal return, but I hadn't given her the Schedule A information or else she would've come up with the larger refund figure the first time around.)
Simply tithing put us well over our state's standard deduction. If Caesar wants to reduce the amount I render unto him because of what I've rendered unto God, well that's fine by me. If you're taking the standard federal deduction but your state lets you snag Schedule A data, make sure you fill it in.
I hadn't filled in the paper version Dina brought home, and since the home version showed the same "big money" refund. I started grabbing numbers from the federal return and plugging them into hard copy form. Turns out the extra money has nothing to do with disability, but rather it's after that question that the state return (long form) grabs the Schedule A data from the federal return. Even though I used the standard deduction on the fed form I had filled in the charitible giving section of Schedule A. That amount was greater than Oregon's standard deduction, reducing my state liability and increasing the refund.
(Thanks go out to my sister Julia for explaining that I was reading the tax code correctly. I told her earlier that I grabbed the standard deduction on the federal return, but I hadn't given her the Schedule A information or else she would've come up with the larger refund figure the first time around.)
Simply tithing put us well over our state's standard deduction. If Caesar wants to reduce the amount I render unto him because of what I've rendered unto God, well that's fine by me. If you're taking the standard federal deduction but your state lets you snag Schedule A data, make sure you fill it in.
Mikesell
1 Snarky Remarks:
Anonymous, at 7:31 PM
Strange country you live in. Maybe that's one reason why so many churches in Aus struggle financially....