| Calculate your Act 1 choice
Relax. There's an easy way to tell whether the change will save you money this year. The answer lies in a simple equation, with variations for renters and homeowners.If you rent, multiply your annual earned income by your school district's proposed earned income tax percentage increase. (For the equation, a 0.6 increase translates into a multiplier of 0.006.) The resulting figure represents the extra money you'll be paying in taxes this year if the referendum passes.If you own your home, divide your district's 2007 estimated property tax exemption by the proposed earned income tax percentage increase. If your yearly earned income is greater than the resulting figure, the change will cost you more. If it's smaller, the change will cost you less.But don't stop reading yet: The law has some wrinkles that complicate matters.
Filing of 2006 income tax returns ends today
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) reminded taxpayers yesterday that they have only until today to file their 2006 income tax returns (ITRs). The deadline will not be extended, BIR Commissioner Jose Mario Buñag said. He said the filing of ITRs was supposed to end yesterday, April 15, but because it was a Sunday, it was moved to today, Monday, April 16. The BIR has set up emergency tax filing booths throughout the country to minimize overcrowding in BIR field offices. The booths are located in municipal and city halls and in big shopping malls and banks authorized to accept tax payments. The BIR has been tasked to raise at least P730 billion this year, a target that many insiders have described as "unrealistic." They said the goal was based on the budgetary requirements of the government and not on actual economic growth.
If you think you have scoop on taxes, check these myths
"I didn't pay any taxes this year." This irritating myth, often uttered in early April, stems from a confusion between one's tax burden throughout the year and any additional taxes one must pay by April 15 if not enough was paid earlier in the year. "I didn't pay" usually means "I didn't have to pay any more to Uncle Sam on Tax Day." "No, I really didn't have a tax burden this year." That's certainly possible. Many lower-income and lower-middle class folk don't pay federal income taxes — especially if they have children. Federal income taxes are paid almost exclusively by those in the upper half of earned income. But that's at the federal level. What about state and local income taxes? In Indiana and Kentucky, many hard-working people in the lower income brackets have to cough up money to support state government — including many below the poverty line.
Democrats: Middle-class tax relief a priority
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- As millions of Americans rush to file their annual income tax returns before the April 17 deadline, Democrats promised to push to keep middle-class families from paying a tax originally intended for the very wealthy. The alternative minimum tax, initially intended to ensure that the rich could not take so many deductions and credits that they paid no federal income taxes, will hit some 23 million taxpayers next spring when they file their 2007 income tax returns unless Congress takes action. "This tax now affects schoolteachers, firefighters, police officers. It was never intended to be that way," said Rep. Rahm Emanuel, an Illinois Democrat who sits on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. "Middle-class families making between $75,000 and $100,000 are now more likely this year to pay the tax than those making more than a million dollars," Emanuel said in the weekly Democratic radio address Saturday.
It’s tax time
If you haven't filed your income taxes, you still have time. It may be April 15, but today isn't tax day. This year, last-minute filers get two extra days to finish their forms. Filing day is Tuesday, April 17. On average, the IRS estimates about 10 percent of Americans wait until the last day to file or mail their taxes or ask for an extension. Through the end of March, the IRS reports receiving more than 80.8 million tax returns — about 66 percent of the more than 122 million returns expected. The IRS has issued more than 68.3 million refunds, and the average refund has been $2,394. For South Carolina state filers, as of April 9, the Department of Revenue had received more than 1.5 million returns — about 68 percent of some 2.2 million expected total returns.
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