Penny Pinching Mom

Take a Holiday from Sales Tax

Did you know that several states are having a sales tax holiday this weekend (August 6th through 8th)? I’m happy to report that North Carolina is one of them. Unfortunately, you don’t get a break from taxes on all purchases. If you want to buy a car or a couple of steel buildings to put your stuff in, you’ll still have to pay sales tax at the normal rate. But if you’re shopping for clothing and school supplies, you may be in luck.

The exact items covered vary from state to state. Here’s a breakdown of the participating states and the categories included.

• Iowa and Oklahoma: Clothing only
• Virginia: Clothing and school supplies
• Georgia, Missouri, New Mexico, South Carolina and Tennessee: Clothing, school supplies and computers
• Alabama: Clothing, computers, school supplies and books
• North Carolina: Clothing, school supplies, computers and sports equipment

A few other states have sales tax holidays on different dates. Here’s the list.

• Connecticut: 3rd week of August (Clothing only)
• Washington, DC: August and November (exact dates unknown) (Clothing and school supplies)
• Massachusetts: 2nd weekend of August (School supplies, computers, sports equipment, health and beauty aids)
• Texas: 3rd weekend of August (Clothing, diapers, backpacks and school supplies)

School is already in session here in the mountains, so I won’t get to take advantage of the tax break on Pumpkin’s school supplies. But I do plan to finish shopping for her school clothes. To those of you who hit the stores this weekend, happy shopping!

Edit 8/14/10: I’m told that Florida is having a tax-free weekend August 13-15 that includes clothing and school supplies. I’m not sure whether or not it will be a yearly thing. Thanks Mitchsmom!

I See a New Computer in My Future

I finally broke down and got started on our taxes. I really didn’t want to do them myself this year since they’re so complex, but budget concerns left me no choice. The good news is that it looks like we’ll get a pretty good refund. Can you say “new computer”?

All I can say is “It’s about friggin time!” This machine is absolutely driving me nuts. Programs are constantly freezing up for unknown reasons, and while they eventually come back to life most of the time, it’s a serious drain on my time. I’ve estimated my time lost to computer issues at about an hour and a half a day in the absence of a way to measure it, but it’s quite possibly more than that.

If that was the only problem, I would consider a memory upgrade. But it’s not. It’s starting to do some pretty weird things. It decided that it doesn’t want to play nice with any of my three printers, and try as I might, I cannot change its mind. There are also a couple of programs that have ceased to work as they should. I’ve scanned for viruses and other malware and come up with nothing, so I guess it’s just working its way up to a major fatal crash due to old age. I just hope it holds out until I can get a new one.

I’m going to start comparing prices when I get the taxes done and finish the huge project I’m working on right now. Maybe by the time we get our refund, I’ll have found a killer deal on something. At this point I don’t really care if it’s a laptop or desktop, as long as it has the programs I need and the capability to multitask like I need it to. You can bet I’ll be posting the details when I find something!

Sales Tax Holiday

Well, I just did a search on it, and the North Carolina sales tax holiday is always on the first Friday, Saturday and Sunday in August. So this year it will be on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Here’s a rundown of what will be tax exempt:

• Clothing of any size and type, with a price of $100 or less per item. Rentals are excluded.
• Sport and recreational equipment with a price of $50 or less per item.
• Computers with a price of $3,500 or less per item. Monitors, keyboards, mice and speakers that are sold separately from a CPU are not included, nor are peripherals.
• Certain computer supplies. These include:
  • Storage media
  • Handheld schedulers and PDAs that are not part of a cell phone
  • Printers
  • Printer supplies (paper and ink)
• Most school supplies with a price of $100 or less per item. You can find a complete list here.
• School instructional items priced at $300 or less. These include:
  • Reference books
  • Reference maps and globes
  • Textbooks
  • Workbooks

Not in North Carolina? You can find a complete list of states that offer sales tax holidays, along with their corresponding dates, here.

Economic Stimulus Payments Coming Up

The Economic Stimulus Payments will start going out this coming month. I’ve been ready for mine for some time now, so I’m glad it’s coming up.

Those of us who had our federal refunds direct deposited will be the first to get ours, and they will be sent via direct deposit as well. The date they’re sent will depend on the last two digits of your SSN, but all direct deposits will be sent by May 16th.

If you get a check, it will be sent out depending on the last two digits of your SSN between May 16th and July 11th. Here is the official Stimulus Payment Schedule from the IRS. Not sure if you’ll get a payment, or how much it will be? Get a copy of your 2007 return and visit the IRS Economic Stimulus Payment Calculator to find out.

The Economic Stimulus Plan

I had heard about the Economic Stimulus Plan a few times, but I had pretty much ignored it. The last time Bush did something like this, we were left out in the cold because we got the Earned Income Credit that year, and we were able to take it this year as well. So I figured that it would be the same way again.

Well, I was on the phone with my Mom today, and she mentioned it and asked if I knew anything about whether senior citizens could get it. I didn’t, but I told her I would check online. After some searching, I found that we are eligible for a rebate check. Not as much of one as we would have gotten if we hadn’t gotten a full refund, but it’s still something.

We can really use that money, and it would be nice if we could get it right now. But they won’t start sending it until May. We’re being forced to move (whole other story), and it would be great if we could get it before then, but at least maybe that will help us pick up the pieces.

If you have questions about the Economic Stimulus Plan, you can find more information on this page on the IRS website.

Owing Taxes

Well, I got my taxes done yesterday. The good news is that we get a decent refund on our federal taxes, even though I was self-employed. The bad news is that, for the first time, we owe state taxes.

It’s not a big deal. As a matter of fact, it’s only in the single digits. But I worry about what it will be next year. I only wrote full-time for half of last year, so I should have more income for 2008. And hopefully Hubby will have a better year, so we should make substantially more. And that will probably leave us owing more.

Maybe I should talk to a tax advisor even though I’ve already got the taxes filed. I really don’t want any unpleasant surprises this time next year.

I Can Do My Taxes Now

I finally got the 1099 form I’ve been waiting on so that I can do my taxes today. There are some other clients that should really be sending me one, but I’m not worried about them. I kept good records of all of my income for 2007, and I can add them up. The one I’ve been waiting on sent me a zillion small payments, on the other hand, and I am too lazy to add all of that.

I hope that the online tax estimator that I put my total numbers in was right when it said we would be getting a respectable refund. I’m inclined to trust it, since it was on the website of H&R Block

I guess I’ll get started on them either tomorrow or over the weekend. If I hurry, we should get our refund before the month is over. That would be a huge help.