Getting Money From Taxes, Really?

Oh, I should talk about my taxes before it's too late.

Still scarred from waiting more than an hour at the downtown Minneapolis post office in order to get the correct postage for my federal and state returns, I think that from that point on I vowed to do my taxes early enough to avoid doing that ever again.  (I know I could have also avoided that situation if I file electronically, but ... man, I'm just old-school like that.)

For the past few years it seems as though Tax Day has not fallen on April 15.  Because of it falling on a weekend, it had been the following Monday, if I'm not mistaken.  On top of that (at least for this year), April 17 was a recognized holiday in the District of Columbia, and because of that, Tax Day 2017 was Tuesday, April 18.

I didn't wait.  Well, I kind of did.  I knew that my test scoring job would prevent me from even thinking straight after I left work that day, so I planned on getting my taxes in by that weekend.  I should have started earlier, but I don't think I even thought about it until about ten days before that weekend.

I felt kind of rusty picking up the 1040 and M1 (and by the way, I don't give a damn if everybody's going online to do their taxes, you need paper copies, and thank you to the Ramsey County Library near Rosedale for at least providing colored 1040's), and I think I made some mistakes at the outset.  But since I remembered that I have capital gains distributions to pay every year and I have to fill out that form connected to my Health Savings Account every year and I have to do that special worksheet every year to determine how much I really have to pay instead of looking up my income on the Tax Table, I got back into the groove really quickly.  From then on, once I had the numbers I needed and once I verified my math, it seemed to fall into place very easy.

But what I didn't believe, and what I still don't believe, was the result.  It was always a bummer for me because I would always pay taxes.  Experts say that's actually a good thing.  Paying up now essentially means I had the government's money in my account with which I could accrue interest or invest money or gamble on.  If I am owed, the government in essence had my money.  Well, that was the case (whether you spin it bad or good) this year.  Assuming I did this correctly (and again I checked my math) I am to receive $142.25 from the feds and a whopping $16 from the state.

I needed to make absolutely sure if I could explain this.  I always right down my wages and the taxes (federal and state) that are withheld in a table in my day planner.  I compared this year's with last year's.  I did not make as much money in 2016 as I did in 2015, yet the amount withheld in both years was roughly the same.  So, for Tax Year 2016 I made less money and was thus owed more money come tax time.

Now, maybe in the long wrong that isn't a good thing.  But I do know why people feel great about getting a refund check every year.  It's like it's free money, even though it was all yours to begin with.  I just wonder if this is going to last.  Donald Trump will not give blokes like me a tax cut.  I hope to Buddha he isn't the reason I got this windfall of money.  Barack Obama did.  Trump couldn't have; he's been in office less than 100 days.  I'd bet my money, however -- heck, I'd bet my refunds I should be getting this year -- that I'll be back to owing again next year.