Taxes Filed!

I filed my taxes today. This is great for a couple reasons. Historically I have been rather lax in filing my taxes, usually needing an extension and often filing up to a year late. This is a direct result of my general tendency toward procrastination, and my specific tendency to ignore/put off all my financial responsibilities as long as possible. But no more! That was the old me. Now I am the Impecunious Investor, and part of my financial plan is filing timely and accurate tax returns. So now I am up to date, having filed both 2006 and 2007 federal and state tax forms.

The bad side of this is that I owe $550 in federal taxes for 2006 (more with interest, I'm sure) and $32 for 2007. I think this is because I received an enormous relative pay raise in late 2006 and didn't adjust my withholding (instead spending my extra money on things like bank fees).

This is partially offset by about $140 in state tax refund (thankfully). This is rather annoying and unfortunate, and puts a kink in my financial plans for the year. However I am looking at the whole thing as a positive because I am caught up, I understand the whole tax process much better than I used to (having spent a good deal of time reading up on the various intricacies), and it's just another step along the road to financial independence. Hopefully I can set up some kind of payment plan for these owed taxes.

Now I know to adjust my withholding after any major changes in my income, for instance. Although my withholding was pretty accurate for 2007, which is good.

Where do people learn about this stuff aside from self-education or friends/family telling them? Seems like a major failing of our educational system to me.