So I did my taxes yesterday... I know I know, you're wondering where the real Graeme is and what I've done with him, since I never do anything ahead of the last possible minute, and it's still 2 months before taxes are due so what the hell is going on... but I did them. Get over it.
If it's any consolation, I haven't actually filed them just yet... I don't like the results so I want to go back over them in a couple days, but not until I've donated money to charity, and saved some drowning puppies, and pulled 40 nuns from a burning schoolbus. I figure a lightning-fast karma arms race might serve to re-align the tax stars and get those amounts I owe down to a more reasonable level.
So yeah... I paid $10k in tuition out of pocket for Presidio last year (ok, I actually took out an unsubsidized Stafford loan, but that's still effectively out of my pockets), but none of it is deductible. I can't take the Lifetime Learning credit of $2k/year, either. Instead, I owe a net of $1k to the US and Cali, mostly because of ESPP sales. Though I made those sales at a profit, so really I still came out on top. But you forget you have to pay taxes on that stuff a year later, and lord knows I never set aside the amount in anticipation of having to do so... so it's a surprise, even though it shouldn't be. Blah.
But I think the reality of it all is that I do well for myself, and I can afford to pay my taxes AND pay for tuition. And I'm still able to sock some away for my future family, and to help take care of my parents and sister and cousins et al, if needed... so... thank you engineering undergrad and University of Illinois for getting me where I am today. Oh, and the public school system. =P
So in the end, I'm not going to complain. The US needs the money more than I do... sorta... minus the war in Iraq.
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So... historically I've harassed my friends over e-mail with various political/hilarious missives. That "push" format unfortunately can't be easily dodged short of setting up inbox filters. So I figure the "pull" format of a blog would perform the same service, and possibly even save a few of my friendships along the way. =P
About Me
Sites I Read Daily
- Salon.com - fantastic online news magazine; only about a billion times higher quality than, say, Time or Newsweek
- War Room - politics blog, of which I've read every entry since 2005
- How the World Works - awesome macroeconomics and global culture blog
- Pink Tentacle - very quirky and engaging blog of all things Japan-y
- CuteOverload.com - basically just a steady stream of cute animals, but it always puts me in a good mood
- World of Warcraft - homepage for my very own addiction
1 comment:
As I'm sure you can imagine, I disagree with the sentiment at the end of your post, but that's why I'm an elephant and you're an ass.
I have serious beef w/ the fact that if you make over $70K a year, you cannot take a deduction on ANY of the student loan interest you paid that year. Think on this for a minute. I personally pay upwards of $10,000 in student loan interest every year.
I took out mammoth student loans so as to get an advanced degree. My reason for pursuing an advanced degree, in part, is that in the long run, I felt it would put me in a better position financially than a job where I had only an undergraduate degree. The entire point of government (and private) education loans is to encourage people to get the requisite educational background so they can pursue jobs and careers that they otherwise would not be able to afford, so they can do better for themselves, thereby bettering their community, and eventually the money they earn will go back into the economy or to other good use (charitable ventures, for example).
I read a statistic that the average starting salary of a college graduate in the US is $55K. The average for someone with an advanced degree is something like $72K. This means that with this income cap on the student loan interest deduction, within 2 or 3 years of working at a job, just about everyone who has taken out a student loan will be priced out of the deduction because they make "too much money." It's preposterous to have an INCOME CAP on that. Cap the amount of the deduction (and they have, at $250) - fine. But why make it totally unavailable for someone who makes over $70K or $75K or whatever it was?
Consider that if you have a mortgage on your house, you can deduct the interest you pay until the cows come home. There's no income cap on that. The purpose of the deduction is ostensibly to encourage home ownership.
But yet the purpose of offering government-funded student loans is to encourage people to get educated - at ungodly tuitions and costs. So why is there an INCOME CAP on the deduction when a major reason to go into debt to get an education is so that you can MAKE MORE MONEY?
What about the fact that I can't afford to buy a house because I'm busy paying my student loan lenders back?
Grrr. I'll be writing a (more succinct) letter to my Congressperson.
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