Taxes: query to my fellow New Yorkers

[redbird]

I've calculated our taxes. Next step is for cattitude to look them over (years he does them, I proofread), and then transfer the numbers to the actual printed forms.

The odd thing is, both the feds and the state seem to owe us money. This surprised me last year, and surprises me again--every other year that I've lived in NY, whether or not I got a refund from the federal government, I owed the state money. I have two hypotheses: one is that the state improved its withholding tables in the last couple of years. The other is that the bug in the state withholding rules is counterbalanced by a bug that doesn't account well for people who are unemployed part of the year, especially if they aren't getting unemployment insurance.

Comments from other New York residents are solicited.

Comments

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

I was employed all year with a slight raise. I have the same withholding as last year, and only standard deductions. I expected to owe; however, I am also getting a refund from both.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Not only does NY owe me, but they owe me big.

The STUPID part is that even with eFile, I need to sign forms and send in paperwork. Bah.

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

What forms do you have to sign and send in? I wonder whether I read it wrong. I'm completely freelance (Schedule C), and my impression is that all I had to do is e-file.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

It may well be that as a freelancer you don't need to fill out the IT-201-E, or it may be because last year I still had a joint return with my ex so I don't have a pin.

And I didn't know you were on LJ!

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

I hope this doesn't sound horribly rude. Do I know you in real life?

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Unless I'm vastly mistaken, we met at eleanor's when trinker was in town. I wouldn't say we know each other just from that.

If I AM mistaken, my apologies.

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

You are not mistaken. Thank you for enlightening me!

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

De rien.

[elissaann.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised that I owe the Feds, but it makes no sense that I'm getting a state refund. I wonder whether there's a bug in Turbotax. Perhaps I was supposed to remove one of my deductions that the program didn't deduct for me. Or perhaps the State is far more appalled at how little I appeared to make (given that my entire life is tax deductible, so my expenses come right off the top, when I use Schedule C) than the Feds.

[redbird]

In my case, it's not Turbotax: I did everything with paper, pen, and pocket calculator (for the odd multiplications on Schedule C).