Current Happenings 2002
Home Page > Current Happenings > March 2, 2002

Did My Taxes on Time This Year

Well, for the first time in two years, I did my taxes on time yesterday. See Taxes 1999 and Taxes 2000 for the story of what happens if you put off filing your taxes for too long.

This year, I did them early because today is the deadline to apply for the FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (see http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/), for graduate school during the next academic school year.  For part of that application, you need to know some numbers from your federal tax return, so I did them early.  I still need to do my California state taxes.

I was curious about how much tax I have been paying the federal government over the past few years, so I made the following chart.

Year	Real Income	Tax Paid	Percent	Taxable Income	Percent	Employer
2001	$24,308.01	$1081	4.45%	$13,866.56	7.80%	Biola
2000	$27,445.04	$2591	9.44%	$17,262.33	15.01%	IRSC, Biola
1999	$44,846.32	$6544	14.59%	$35,306.05	18.54%	ICC, IRSC, Biola
1998	$40,580.63	$4244	10.46%	$26,902.45	15.78%	ICC, Biola
1997	$37,249.92	$4811	12.92%	$28,649.92	16.79%	ICC
1996	$33,896.46	$4545	13.41%	$27,358.19	16.61%	ICC
1995	$32,279.00	$4210	13.04%	$25,879.00	16.27%	Kohlenberger, ICC
1994	$29,860.00	$3658	12.25%	$23,610.00	15.49%	Kohlenberger

I graduated from college in May 1993, so 1994 was the first year I worked full-time.  The "Real Income" listed above is the total amount of money I got paid (from Box 1 of my W-2 forms).  That's the "real" income because that's the money I actually earned that year.  The federal government then calculates a "taxable income", and that's what the tax is based upon.  But it's sort of a made-up number, adjusted by deductions.

I claimed a "capital loss" of $1800 in 1997, then $3000 every year after that, and I will claim $2999 in 2002. That directly reduces my taxable income.  This capital loss is due to $15,000 worth of stock market folly in late 1997 and early 1998.  There's also a standardized deduction that you can deduct.  I itemized my deductions in 1998 only.

In 2001, I paid $5200 in tuition to USC, so I received the maximum $1000 tax credit -- the "Lifetime Learning Credit".  That directly reduced my taxes in 2001 by $1000.  Without that, my tax rates would have been 8.56% and 15.00%.

It's also interesting to note that I made less money in 2001 than in 1994. However, I was much happier with work in 2001 than in 1994.  I got 6 weeks off for Christmas, and three months off during the summer.  In 1994, I think I only got a few weeks off all year.  I'll have to write an article about that sometime, and an article about my employment history.

After looking at my copies of what I sent in, I realized that I forgot to put my name and social security numbers on two of the forms! (See below) Oh well, I'll find out what happens, I guess. It's stapled to my 1040, so I think it will be okay.  I hope it doesn't delay my refund.

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Created and maintained by Matthew Weathers. Last updated Apr 20, 2006.