There was plenty of discussion on simplifying the US budget to household-sized numbers, and I have nothing to add, because I have zero interest in being an economist. 🙂 Here’s one more attempt at sharing some digestible information. An interesting site called Department of Numbers has collated numbers from government sources like the Treasury and put them together nicely into a series of charts. Here are two I wanted to point out and also save as a historical snapshot of “what things in 2011 looked like”.

US Government Debt as Percentage of GDP

US Government Income and Expenses as Percentage of GDP

From the top chart, you can see that we are close to a 100% debt-to-GDP ratio. The last time it was this high was World War II. Even in recent “good times” – or at least better times than now – the percentage hasn’t really gone down much. That’s what I mean by “kicking the can down the road”. In the bottom chart, you can see the large gap between government revenue generated (taxes) and expenditures.

I’ll go back to saving 50%+ of my income now, hopefully investing it wisely, and not reading scary bedtime stories like Boomerang!

Someone sent this to me via e-mail, and I don’t know the original source. From the $38.5 trillion number, that seems to refer to the budget cut deal that averted a US government shutdown in April 2011. In any case, it does make the numbers much more easy to grasp.

Some stats about the US government:

• U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
• Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
• National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
• Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Now, remove 8 zeroes and pretend it’s a household budget:

• Annual family income: $21,700
• Money the family spent: $38,200
• New debt on the credit card: $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
• Total budget cuts: $385

I know that this is macroeconomics vs. microeconomics. But the orders of magnitude are correct, and it can’t look good to anybody. I’ve never really liked the macroeconomics theory that it’s okay for governments to carry huge amounts of debt as long as it’s “only” a certain percentage of GDP. The idea is that you’ll grow your way out of it. Europe has shown us that entire developed countries can default.

Now, I’m more of a microeconomics guy. I try to figure out the rules of the game and play it the best that I can. I avoid getting emotionally involved in things that I view are out of my control. But to me, it just seems like all the politicians ever do is kick the can down the road. You can’t do that forever.

Tax Day has come and gone (unless you filed an extension). Recently, there was a competition to see who could best “create data visualizations that would make it easier for U.S. citizens to understand how the government spends our tax money”. I’m guessing that most people really don’t know, including myself. The winner was WhereDidMyTaxDollarsGo.com, where you simply type in your income and filing status and off it goes.

I certainly found it very visually appealing. It appears to assume you take the standard deduction. I figured that national defense, Social Security, Medicare, and debt interest payments were going to be a big chunk, but wasn’t really aware of how big the “Income Security” category was. Overall, it reminded me of a less-intimidating version of the US Budget poster.

A rep from TurboTax contacted me to help give away three copies of their TurboTax Online software as a last-minute promotion reminding folks that the filing deadline this year is extended to Monday, April 18th due to the usual April 15th being a holiday in the District of Columbia (Emancipation Day). Apparently, 27% of taxpayers wait until the last two weeks to file their returns. I seem to wait longer and longer, especially with all these 1099s to wait for.

The giveaway is for a code redeemable at TurboTax.com and good for one free federal + state preparation and e-file with TurboTax Premier Online 2010 ($87 retail value). This is the level above Deluxe, which has added guidance for investments and those with rental income (Schedule E).

If you’d like to be entered for the giveaway, just leave a comment with a valid e-mail below by 1pm Eastern on Friday, April 15th. You don’t need to include your full name, but one entry per reader please. I’ll randomly pick 3 winners and contact you via e-mail later that same day so you can finish the darn things over the weekend.

The deadline for filing your federal taxes this year is Monday, April 18th, 2011. If you file for an extension, you will automatically be extended to Monday, October 17, 2011. Here’s how you can e-File a federal extension online in minutes for free.

Option #1: TaxACT

This is how I did my extension last year. Just sign up with TaxACT and e-file your extension for free through them. It’s quick. It’s easy. You don’t even need to actually use them to file your taxes later, although TaxACT is also free for federal taxes with e-File included regardless of income, and is only $14.95 for state returns with free e-File.

(That’s cheaper than TurboTax or TaxCut, although if you’re already familiar with those programs it may be worth the extra bucks to stick with them, since you can save time by importing your previous year’s data.)

Directions
To register with TaxACT, you just need an e-mail and to set your passwords. To go directly to the extension form, click on the “Filing” tab on the top, and then the “File Extension” link right below it (see below). You will then be walked through the Form 4868 in a question-and-answer format. You will then be able to have the form filed electronically instantly (or you can print and snail mail).

If you wish to make a tax payment, you will be able to choose to pay with direct withdrawal from a bank account (account and routing numbers required) or pay with a credit card (IRS fees apply). Afterward, they will send a confirmation of your accepted extension e-file by e-mail or text message. I got mine within a few hours.

Option #2: Free File Fillable Forms

This one’s a little harder to find, but here are some step-by-step instructions. Go to the Free File Fillable Forms site (go alliteration!) and click on “Start Free File Fillable Forms”. Click “Sign-in” on the top left, and create a new account with your e-mail and password information. After you’re signed in, click on “Continue” and pick your form. Go with the full form 1040. On the top right, you should see an icon with the label “File an Extension”.

This will bring up Form 4868. Click around the form to fill the boxes out. You’ll need to estimate your total tax liability, but since this is just an online version of the form so there is no guidance included. As above, you can request your estimated tax payment to be withdrawn electronically by supplying your bank’s routing and account numbers. For identification purposes, you’ll need your adjusted gross income (AGI) from your 2009 tax return.

Please note that filing an extension only extends the time to file your return and does not extend the time to pay any tax due. To avoid late payment penalties and interest you must estimate what tax will be due and pay that when you file the extension. I would overestimate my tax liability a bit to avoid penalties, and get a slight refund when I eventually file my full return.

Got state income taxes as well? Here is a helpful page on state-specific tax extensions.

Here’s another infographic from the New York Times illustrating the proposed budget for 2012. Rectangles are sized according to the proposed spending. Color shows severity of cut or increase from 2010 (green increase, red decrease).

If you like such visualizations, check out Death and Taxes 2011.

With doing our taxes properly on our minds, what are the chances we’ll get caught if we don’t? Well, there are several ways that the IRS can detect if your return is suspicious, especially if your inputs don’t match up with their W-2 and 1099 records.

Here are the number of IRS audits and the respective probabilities for individuals and businesses during 2010. Large corporations and wealthy individuals have the highest chance of getting audited, which makes sense since they offer the largest potential payoff. If you are an individual making under $200k a year, then your overall chances are 1 in 100. However, I’m sure if your tax return is clean and you didn’t claim to donate $10,000 in used clothing, your actual odds are even better.

Source: IRS, Businessweek

Anyone out there get audited last year?

Our tax rates for the next two years have been decided, a two whole weeks before January 1st! Just in time for their winter break, what a coincidence. 😉 The “Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010” was signed into law last Friday. There’s a lot of stuff in it, as with any tax-related it seems, but here are the two big highlights for individuals:

Payroll Tax Cut

The employee portion of the Social Security tax is reduced to 4.2% in 2011, down from 6.2%. This lasts only for one year. The employer portion remains unchanged at 6.2%. The limits on wages subject to Social Security tax remains at at $106,800 for 2011. Medicare taxes remain unchanged at 1.45% each for employers and employees.

For example, someone earning $50,000 will pay 2% less towards Social Security, for a tax savings of $1,000 spread out over a year of paychecks. The maximum savings per person is then $2,136. Your future Social Security benefit is not directly affected by this change.

However, what has been expired is the “Making Work Pay Tax Credit” of 2009 and 2010, which was a refundable tax credit 6.2 percent of earned income, up to $400 (single) or $800 (married filing jointly). This meant that if you were single with earned income of at least $6,452 in 2010, you got a $400 tax credit. Married couples filing joint returns earning over $12,903 got $800. Note that this tax credit was phased out for taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income in excess of $75,000 (single) or $150,000 (married couples filing jointly).

Net Benefit
Here’s a chart from the Tax Policy Center showing the net difference in tax savings from two as a function of earnings.

As you can see, our example of a single person earning $50,000 would be paying approximately $600 less in taxes in 2011. (Gain of $1,000 payroll tax cut, loss of $400 MWP tax credit.)

Current Individual Income Tax Rates Extended

The current income tax rates, sometimes referred to as the “Bush Tax Cuts”, are extended for everyone for two years. Although the exact income ranges are not set, here are projections from the tax software provider CCH Group. They are slightly higher than the 2010 Federal tax brackets, due to inflation.

For the curious, it is estimated that an individual earning $50,000 in 2011 will paying $890 less in federal income taxes as compared to what would happen if no action was taken (even though that was highly unlikely).

Also…

• The top rate of 15% for qualified capital gains and dividends is extended for another two years, along with the 0% rate for taxpayers in the 10 and 15 percent income tax brackets.
• Another last-minute patch was made for those subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax because the brackets were not mandated to be adjusted with inflation. The 2010 exemption amount will be $47,450 (single) and $72,450 (married filing jointly).
• Extended unemployment benefits are to be continued at their current level for 13 months.

Since we know that the income and capital gains tax rates will stay the same for the next two years, the standard end-of-year tax actions should apply. The general idea being to take any deductions you can right now, and defer as much income as possible until next year.