I just got my taxes back from the accountant at the beginning of the week. I found a fun surprise. My income went up, my taxes went down. My income was up about $10,000 in 2008 compared to 2007. The biggest factor is that I worked more in 2008. Generally, one would think that an increase in gross income would lead to an increase in taxes. Not this year.
By knowing how tax codes work and taking advantage of deduction and credit opportunities, I will be getting a nice refund. I discussed this a few weeks ago when my forms all came in. Now I know the final result.
I will be getting a roughly $2400 refund on my Federal taxes. $2000 of this is a result of the lifetime learning credit. Anyone taking college classes should take advantage of this. If you are a student in the first two years of college you should probably take the “Hope Credit” instead.
I will be getting about $140 back from the state due to different deductions.
In all my taxes a quite a bit lower than last year. It only takes a $90,000 masters degree to save $2,000 on my taxes!
