I ended up filing our taxes this year really late.  Late being April 14th.  Normally I have them out within the first or second week of February, but when I did a preliminary run, it became clear that we would owe this year.  Knowing that, I put it off and put it off, until there was no more putting it off.

I use Turbotax for both federal and state and it has always done me right.  Every year we both have gotten money back, though a year here or a year there, I’d have to pay state taxes. Small amounts, maybe thirty or eighty bucks.  But federal was always a good chunk of change.  Not this year, I say.

This year, being the first year we are filing under “married”, we both had to pay.  I originally calculated our return under “Married filing jointly” but that ended up being way more than “Married filing separately”.  My accountant (who does my business returns, not my personal) told me that it’s odd that happened because normally it would be better to file jointly.  But since I have more deductions, somehow, it worked out better for us to file separately.

Honestly, I don’t care which way we file, as long as I don’t have to pay money.  I thought the “Marriage Penalty” was gone or didn’t effect people in our tax bracket.  Clearly, I was wrong.  And even more clear is the fact that our “house fund” dwindled considerably due to the money we owed.  And it’s going to go down even more for the new vehicle we’ll be purchasing in the next month.

We’ll make more money of course, and we’ll replenish our “house fund” accordingly, but it just chaps me to have to use that money for something other than a house.