Tax Day

Tax day was today. It was bumped from Friday, the 15th to today (the 18th) because Washington D.C. celebrates Emancipation Day on what should be tax day so it was changed to Monday. Emancipation Day celebrates the day, April 16, 1862, when Washington, D.C. became the first U.S. Territory to abolish slavery.

I found out about this change from Friday to Monday last Thursday.  That was the day I decided to put off doing my taxes until Monday.  After all, I was pretty sure I owed money and saw no reason to give the government my money sooner than I would have to give it to them.

Well, it turns out I am getting a refund!!  Yeah!!!  Not a huge refund but I am just grateful that I don’t have to pay any additional taxes.  For years I always owed because I had two part-time jobs.  Each job took out enough taxes to cover the money I was being paid for that particular job.  But it wasn’t enough for the total amount I was being paid for both jobs.  So I always ended up owing more money at the end of the year.  I became used to this and just figured I was one of those people who had to pay each year.

Now that I have worked full-time for the last few years, I am starting to get a refund each year. I did last year also but I had forgotten about it which means I was pleasantly surprised today when I calculated my taxes and found out I had some money coming back. A nice little treat on tax day!

I do find it interesting that I still owe money to the State of Maine.  Granted it wasn’t a huge amount of money but it kind of irks me that I get a refund from the federal government but the state still demands more out of my income then what I am having deducted.

Part of my irkness might be that I don’t think I get that much bang for my buck. And part of that is because I am not particularly fond of the current state administration.  But I think that is a subject for another posting.

All in all, for a tax day, it wasn’t bad.  I’m getting money back and I filed my taxes on time.  I even mailed them at the post office and witnessed them being stamped with the correct date.  I feel like quite the responsible citizen!  And that is a very nice feeling!