Stupid Tax Tricks

[dougo]

I'm working through my income tax forms, and I just realized something amusing/frightening: for the lowest income bracket, the federal capital gains tax rate (5%) is smaller than the Massachusetts capital gains tax rate (5.3%)! In the past, my state income tax has always been less than half of my federal income tax, but because such a large portion of my 2003 income was capital gains (and my earned income was very small, consisting only of 6 months of grad student stipend), my effective income tax rate (i.e. fraction of adjusted gross income) is 4.6% state and 6.0% federal. That's just wacky!

Hm, I guess this means less of my money went to national defense (e.g. invading Iraq) and more of it went to local schools (and the Big Dig?). That's fine by me.

[I bet an enterprising reader can reverse-engineer my adjusted gross income from the above data. I'd offer a prize to anyone who can figure it out (within, say, 5%), but I have to pay my tax bill in the near future so all you'll get is the pride of seeing your username in my journal...]

Comments

Re:

[catamorphism.livejournal.com]

Heh, I'm not sure which is less productive, the war in Iraq or the Big Dig. At least the Big Dig doesn't kill people. On purpose.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I'm actually pretty happy with the Big Dig so far, despite its extravagant over-budgetness (and the rumored corruption). I just hope it's finished within my lifetime.