Sister House

I like to look at other houses, especially those in my own neighborhood, to see if they have any good ideas I want to use. Today I saw a house for rent with no one living in it and with only one window blocked from view. And for the first time ever, this house had my exact same floor plan (only reversed).

I'm not sure I got any great ideas, but it was interesting to see how it had evolved over time in comparison to mine. As I collected my observations, I began to realize that it wasn't always clear, when things differed, which house had been updated or even whether they had started the same to begin with.

( That might not seem interesting to you, though. )

2010 Sales Tax

The IRS is letting us deduct sales tax again for 2010, which is great for those of us who live in states with no state income tax. However, starting 2010, we are no longer allowed to use the IRS estimate + the amount of sales tax we paid on large purchases like cars, which is sad for those of us in income-tax-free states who bought a car last year.

In past years, I have always gone with the IRS estimate because it's far, far more than what I actually pay. (I'm not a very good consumer. And what I do consume includes untaxed things like ballroom dance lessons and, apparently, petrol. My biggest sales taxes were due to home improvement purchases.)

I looked it up and I discovered that the amount of sales tax I paid on my car ($624.88) was more than the IRS's estimate for me ($593). So, since I'm still in the 15% marginal tax bracket, using that larger number saves me, well, $4.78. (Except we have to look up our taxes in tables, so the final result might not be any different.)

Then I remembered that I've been saving my receipts for one year. I've already tossed the receipts for January and February of 2010, but I decided to go ahead and pull the other ones and add them up. Probably not worth my time, but let's find out.

My total came out to $129.43, saving me an additional $19.41 in income tax. (Or something, depending on how the tax tables go.)

Not so thrilling after all. Oh, well. I love have the sort of lovely, relaxing lifestyle where this constitutes my excitement for the afternoon. And maybe this entry will help you to owe a more pleasant amount of taxes.