I did my own taxes for the first time this year. Using tax software, I plugged in what my refund would be if I had no stock sales in 2006. BTW, my tax bracket is 15% and I'm in New York. Without Capital Gains: Federal Refund : $400 and State Refund : $1460 Capital Gains of only $4416. Federal : $260 (I owe) and State Refund : $1037 According to an online Capital Gains calculator I used, my Federal tax should be $662 (which explains why my refund went from $400 to minus $260). What I can't understand is why my State refund dropped so drastically.

My husband and I both work a full-time job and we both have a part-time home business. We have enough federal taxes withheld to cover our business taxes plus sometimes a refund. But we always come up short on the New York State taxes and owe something. What do we need to put on our New York State IT-2104 tax forms at our respective jobs to make sure they take out more, not less, money from the paychecks? Neither of us is on a salary, so it is hard to determine during or at the beginning of the year which one will make the higher salary. We do not make over the amount required to request additional withholding with the chart on the bottom of the IT-2104 2007 worksheet, so that does not apply to us. But I'm sick of borrowing Peter to pay Paul every year when taxes come around. I'd rather have too much withheld. Thanks The part-time work is as a sole proprietorship (two of them, one we each have), so we don't have any allowances or fill out an IT-2104 for that. We don't need to pay quarterly because it's not that much, but should we reduce our allowances to zero on the two full-time jobs? Thanks!

I'm trying to get a cell phone plan and I was told I needed a state id to open up a new account. I wanted to get the phone and plan within the next few days, but the state id takes a couple weeks to come. I know the DMV issues temporary id cards until your new one arrives. What information is on it? And will cell phone carriers accept it? (New York Id)