response 26 of 144:

Apr 11 14:13 UTC 2002

I haven't bothered to read the rest of this item because I'm generally lazy.

HOWEVER, two years ago we ended up owing over $4000 to the Feds, and Adrienne
and I couldn't come up with the money.

The IRS will allow you to go on a payment plan as long as your payments:

#1 - pay off the debt in 3 years or less
#2 - you are not already on a payment plan

There may be some other requirements as well, but it was pretty simple. 
There's a form you fill out but I'm not sure what form it is.

Ask a tax advisor.

response 28 of 144:

Apr 11 17:11 UTC 2002

Jep, I am pretty sure that until the divorce is finalized, you guys 
will be filing as married. Now, that could be bad for you if you have 
to file on your own but still married. It depends on Andrea's income. 
What you can do to give yourself an idea is go get some tax forms and 
fill them out as if you werent filing jointly and see if you owe or 
not. Next year's taxes are likely to be similar. 

response 30 of 144:

Apr 11 20:21 UTC 2002

I expect that your tax payments are based on your marital status on Dec 31.
John might save some tax money by delaying the divorce until January if Andrea
is not working much, but then they would have to come to some agreement on
who got any refunds.

response 32 of 144:

Apr 12 06:01 UTC 2002

There used to be a tax dodge that I seem to recall involved flying to
a carribean island late december, getting divorced there prior to the
31st, and then getting remarried before leaving the first week(s) in
january.  I don't recall the details of why that was a good thing from
the tax standpoint...

Just spent a 4 hour marathon session doing the taxes and we're gonna
file an extension anyway (as usual).  Noticed that this year the
exemption for mary wilson has mysteriously disappeared (apparently the
more you make the less you can deduct of it until it quickly becomes 0).
The 'marriage penalty' doesn't appear to be as bad - this years version
of the tax program we use actually has an entire section devoted to 
a side by side comparison of married filing singly -vs- jointly. No
longer will she be refered to as 'our little tax deduction' Other
things that were formerly 'pretax' are now showing up, sigh.

The IRS recently released data for tax year 1999 - how interesting 
that they are so far behind...Crunching the numbers one finds such
interesting datum as '2% of the population pays 90% of the taxes' -
which I guess is as it was supposed to be when the current IRS thingy
was enacted in 1913 - although under the original plan, only the top
2% 'earner' paid any taxes at all, the rest of the 98% of the 
population paid no income tax at all.

More and more I am in favor of a flat tax across the board with
no deductions - everybody pays their fair share.  More and more
I am become convinced that the current tax situation is fundamentally
flawed as it doesn't treat each citizen equally.

response 34 of 144:

Apr 12 12:10 UTC 2002

jep, your W-2 withholding amount can be changed to anything you want.  I
had them withhold extra money last year while I was married so that I would
not be underwithheld when I was taxed as a single person.  If you do it
now, the extra amount each month won't be much.  Waiting until June, or
August, or whatever just makes the $s you have to make up that much more
per month.

response 36 of 144:

Apr 12 19:43 UTC 2002

Is it the habit of so many people to spend *every last dime* they get in
paychecks the instant they get it?

response 38 of 144:

Apr 13 00:28 UTC 2002

Yes I would.  I like fairness.  I like equality.  The current tax
structure is neither equal nor fair.

response 40 of 144:

Apr 13 02:24 UTC 2002

Re #32:  It was a good idea because it let two spouses earning
roughly the same money file as "single" and claim bigger combined
standard deductions while simultaneously cutting their top tax
bracket because each earned roughly half the income of the couple.

Re #37:  I must be a real outlier.  If I don't have enough liquid
assets to coast for 6 months I get really nervous.

response 42 of 144:

Apr 13 15:41 UTC 2002

re #34: I have two exemptions claimed on my W4, but am eligible for 
four (me, John, head of household and the child tax credit), according 
to the W4 form on-line at www.irs.gov.  I should get a refund next 
year, and am satisfied with that.  It's my vacation savings plan.  (-:

re #36: Like Bruce, I am living differently than I am used to, and 
differently than I want to.  In the last 4 months I've gone from not 
worrying about money at all because my wife did it, to doing it all 
myself.

I started the year with no savings at all.  I've saved some money, but 
then had it quickly absorbed by (in some cases) unavoidable costs; a 
lawyer, some car repairs, and the surprising amount by which my Visa 
balance has increased.  I have the money to cover all of these.  I 
count that as a triumph, if a limited one.

I will continue to save money, and I will increase the amount I save.  
It has embarrassed me that I've been making double what I did 4 years 
ago, but not had any savings.  It wasn't solely my choice.  Now it is 
all up to me

response 44 of 144:

Apr 13 15:56 UTC 2002

Does anyone understand, and know how to use, something called a medical 
IRA?  It's something about having money withdrawn from your paycheck or 
set aside for use for medical expenses, pre-tax so it's not taxed.  
There my knowledge of it ends.

How do you use the money?  Do you just tell your doctor's office about 
it and they handle it, or do you have to send in forms, or what?  It 
sounds like it might be worthwhile to me to use, since if I continue 
with therapy once per week after MCARE stops paying most of it, I'll be 
spending $250-300 per month.  It may be too late to do that this year, 
due to rules on making changes in benefits at work, but there's always 
next year.

response 46 of 144:

Apr 13 23:19 UTC 2002

My employer has something like that, called a Flexible Spending account. 
What happens is that you specify a certain amount to be
deducted from your paycheck pre-tax, which goes into a pool
somewhere that can be used to pay for various medical, dental, 
etc. expenses.  If you don't have those expenses, you eventually
lose the money.  You can only change the amount you put in 
at certain times, which IIRC weren't very often. 
  Seems like it's a good deal if you have very fixed, very 
regular expenses that you know will continue for a long time.  
Otherwise, it's a ripoff.  

response 48 of 144:

Apr 14 02:09 UTC 2002

re #45, 46: I know we have the program; I just have never understood 
how you use it.  I should ask my HR department, definitely; it could 
save me a couple of hundred bucks per year in taxes.