If we all got these "wonderful" tax cuts - How come...

[Madrone]

... my tax return THIS year (more money, $2/hour raise in January 03) is LESS than my tax return LAST year? By about $100.

I always claim "0" on my w-4's so I get more money back and don't have to worry about owing.

I thought I'd have 1-200 dollars MORE this year, and was looking forward to it as I can really USE it.

Color me disappointed.

[NoMoreRedInk]

1. Do you mean your Refund is less this year?

My guess is they withheld less because of the tax law changes, so your refund is smaller.

Your money is better off in a savings account anyways. I always feel cheated when I get a refund because I've missed out on interest I could have earned in my 1% savings account.

So, it's not all bad.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

2. Ha Ha, fuck you

G. W.
you stupid working pos.

[lovedems]

3. Well, consider yourself lucky!

With 4 kids we always get a pretty nice refund check in the mail, this year we owe! I wonder how many rich people are saving money by me, a middle class American owing?

[ramapo]

4. Wait until you figure in your local taxes

Watch your state, local, & property taxes. I can go back to the Reagan tax cuts and see how my overall tax burden stayed the same or even increased despite the rhetoric.

Bottom line is the bills have to be paid somehow. My property taxes have gone up by at least a factor of four over 20 years. So much for a tax cut.

[Madrone]

8. Luckily, I'm in WA so I don't have state income taxes.

But yeah, I hear ya! Groceries are higher, everything's higher!

I also live a block away from work, and am a homebody on top of that, so I only fill up my van about once a month. So I'm not hurting too badly by gas prices.

Except that I have to use fuel oil to heat, and that's a bitch! I have $50 left to pay on my $800 fuel oil bill - and I'll be needing more VERY soon. I have a feeling the oil will run out this weekend... oy vey!

[SoCalDem]

5. Because the "tax rebates" in August were "payday loans"

and as the employers reduced EVERYONE's withholding, "some" people had too little withheld.

and whatever $$ people did get "back" in August and whatever little they are getting back each week, is nowhere near enough to cover $3.00 a gallon gas and rising local/state taxes..

It's a SHELL GAME..

[lovedems]

6. Yep, that is where we are screwed.

We got our 1,600 for our 4 kids and in the meantime my husband lost his job so we have to settle that plus his unemployment taxes.

He has really done a number on us. Any other year we would have at least been a position to pay taxes in April if he owed them. This year, a year my husband is unemployed, we can't afford the extra bill but are stuck with it. His tax cuts and economic policies are hurting us bad. When we got the 1,600 when we didn't really need it, now we have to pay it back when we can't afford to.

[kurtyboy]

11. This is bad news for the Economy

The cuts are about to lose the tiny little boost they gave the US in the final quarter of 2003. Now the rebate chickens come home to roost--and none of us have the $ to spend for the next three months. FEB-MAR-APR have always been my toughest months, and without a decent refund, consumption will drop even further (But I'm fine--I got no kids. I empathize with those of you who do...)

Bush* is about to see a steep slide in consumer confidence--his advisors screwed him, and the rest of us, yet again. I am sad that we have to get our landslide in November because of all of the suffering in the months prior.

Side note---Did you catch Bill Moyers tonight? A Civil Rights attorney named Constance {Connie} Rice (no relation) was explaining her version of "Robin Hood Law." She sues the rich to help the poor--to the tune of about $6 billion so far. During her interview, she mentioned that rural whites make up the fastest growing segment of poverty in the US. That CANNOT BE GOOD for *!

[SoCalDem]

12. Rural whites have ALWAYS been poor.. Remember Appalachia??

It's still there and even though they now have electricity & phones & satellite tv, they are still as poor as ever..

They are "undereducated" and are susceptible to the cultural racism and classism that is pervasive..

If you are barely existing, your aspirations are pretty low, and of course they are told exactly WHOM to blame..

Bitterness, hopelessness, and poverty make a pretty vile concoction..

[kurtyboy]

14. Yep, I know. But LBJ and the Great Society

started to take some of the sting out of that. Constance Rice noted the Black and Latino communities are suffering as well (just not growing at the rate of the rural whites)--but ya' know what? It's the Po' White Vote that helped * win the South, and if they are hurting more now than four years ago, * better be scared....

Or not.

I just think we now have some leverage we didn't have during the Clinton Prosperity.

[Q3JR4]

7. I hear ya,

this year and last year I made the same amount of money, and I got less back this year.

You think the middle class voters who voted Republican in the last election have connected the dots on this little piece of work?

[Kazak]

9. Yeah, same here...

Our property taxes went up too. Fuckers!

[arewethereyet]

10. you may have crossed a tax bracket

compare the tax owed this year vs last year as a percentage of taxable income.

claim however many exemptions you have and save the money yourself.

[raysr]

13. Frontline

Happen to catch Frontline on PBS last nite? Wacovia leasing sewers in Germany for tax shelters! And the repugs want you to believe that "entitlements" are draining the economy! My ass!

[SoCalDem]

15. ...and they get away with it because they are the ones writing the tax law

and..

complicated tax loopholes are hard for everyday people to wrap their brains around, but EVERYONE has seen someone offer foodstamps at the grocery store..and give the checker wic vouchers for free food..

People are petty at their core.. No one wants to see someone else get
"something for nothing"...unless it's THEM ..

I can remember years ago, there was a blurb in the paper about how there was "unclaimed cheese" at our food bank, and I had a hard time convincing my boys that we just could not go down and get "free cheese".. They kept saying "Mom, it's FREE..let's go get OUR free cheese"..

The slimies in power know how to play on the greed of the everyday person, becaus ethey are too busy to read chapter and verse on loopholes.. and it has never been put to them in an allegorical way that they can understand..