What is your income level?
 

Seeing that tax season is in its peak, I thought I'd start a thread on the relative income levels of miatatubro. Also; Feel free to add whether you got a tax return, or a bill :vash:, and for how much.


I got $769 back...... And the 99's going to the body shop to say goodbye to the rocker rust. :D

combined?

I got $1200 back from the feds, and I owed $36 to the state. I then spent way more than the $1200 on my Miata, and it's no faster than it was last fall. Weird.

If I get a lot of money (which I probably won't)...

Vbands/EWG setup imminent.

I meant per-member of the site. So if your Domestic Partner has a turbo miata too, and is a member, you can cast one vote, representing your combined income as miataturbo.net members.

If you have a wife (ewww) and she has a turbo miata, but is not a member of the site at the time of voting, then your income must be posted separate.

Got $2,500 back. Love student credits. Spent it all on the car.

I sent over $4k to the feds. That's above the nearly $700 I sent in in estimated tax, and plus the money I usually get back. My company was bought out, and I did well on the stock purchase plan.

So, I get a once in a lifetime windfall, and the gov't screws me out of a quarter of it.

I got 1200 back - it went straight into my somewhat depleted emergency fund after having an unemployed drought.

Sent them $6976.

First year to not get money back, and have to pay money in.

I owed 1800 for fed and I got back 900 for state. I try to adjust the w2 so I dont get or owe.

My wife and I got right around $1000 back, only because of the baby we had this year.

And I don't make nearly as much money as I should...

Sent a $11,700 check to the feds, $3,300 to the state of CA. (And yes, I was a good boy and paid my estimated taxes last year. This was on top of $37k of EST payments.)

Hope all you fuсkers enjoy your free healthcare. :rolleyes:

I feel like a bum voting for 25-50k , kinda a big window.

Since we are comparing size, can I just attach a pic of my junk? Will I win then?

Yes

Part time as hell. But I want to make 5 figures someday.

I'll trade you my income/tax bill for your income/tax bill...

Ah, nothing like a little class warfare. :D

I'm trying to figure out who the three people in the >$150 range are. I've got a pretty good guess on two of them.

One of those two being yourself?

/Assumed you were in that bracket

Poor bastard here. $828 fed refund, and something like $80 state refund.

Nope. Gross was just shy of $200k, but after expenses and 1/2 Schd. SE writedown (remember, I'm self-employed) I missed the top bracket by quite a bit.

I had assumed "gross income" in my voting. These type of threads give me a headache as to trying to figure out wtf what everyone means based on a vague OP.

I am hoping I break 50k gross income this year. Finally got my clearance so I started full time a few weeks back. In all honesty I am betting I am close to 45k gross this year.

Poll should have been net income after wife and kids take their cut!

55k / year of college tuition takes a bite our of the old paycheck.

I would think "gross" or "AGI" would be a fair assumption and that, unless the original poster actually specified, that taxable income (edit: what the marginal "tax brackets" are computed from) would be less likely.

Then again, I would have incorrectly assumed the OP was looking for household income versus individual member income. To me, I would find the latter to be less relevant or useful.

If I am a stay-at-home dad (to our two dogs) and my wife makes $200k gross, is it really helpful if I post that I make $0?

PS - Joe, if you are still trying to guess, I did not vote.

I voted using my gross income because it made me feel better. After uncle sam had his way with my butthole and my wallet Id be down one more bracket.

Whoops.

Whoever set up this poll/thread is a fucktard. :D

Gross isn't a valid measure for people who are self-employed and have a lot of business-related expenses. Roughly 1/4 of my "gross" income was client reimbursement for hotels, airfare, equipment, and other costs directly related to the projects which I did for them.

If I were a corporate employee, then I would not have directly incurred these costs, and thus, I would not have been reimbursed for them. So when I compute my "Net" income, I'm not doing any funny business, I'm just reporting the bottom-line figure from Schedule SE, which is analogous to what a salaried employee would see on their W2. In other words, this is a fair apples-to-apples comparison.


Take a very simple example, and assume that I am a one-man car dealership. Every car that I sell costs me $24,000 to purchase from the manufacturer, and I sell it to the customer for $25,000. And assume that over the course of a year, I sell exactly 100 cars.

So, my gross receipts for the year was 2.5 million dollars, however 2.4 million of that went straight to the manufacturer who I bought the cars from, and only $100,000 of it went into my pocket. Would you expect me to report my "income" for the year as $2.5 million?

Same thing here, just on a smaller scale.

You read it here first guys, Joe is an auto dealer. RAPE HIM@$!

:vash: Thanks for making this even harder Joe.

These "Vote on your income!tax!etc!" threads are always annoying to interpret - perhaps AGI is a better metric?

These last few comments make me glad that I have a specific salary. It's easy to answer these questions. I suppose that is grossly outweighed by the fact that I am a slave to the man and have to sit in a cubicle with no windows all day.

Actually, the whole 1% thing (based on ordinary income) is kind of silly. The truly rich don't have ordinary income, because they don't have to work. They have estates, investments and trusts, on which they get to pay a reduced rate when those items generate income.

Most ordinary income 1%ers were not 1%ers for most of their lives and may not be in the future. They may have worked very hard for decades to build a business (that usually employs others). They may have had a particularly good year. Yet, the media makes these folks out to be the Devil incarnate.

Rant off.

So, where are we posting the junk pictures?

One of these days, I'd love to be able to engage in that discussion in politics. It would be either very, very fruitful - or certain people would do everything they could to derail it to party lines.

Pretty crowded at the top.

That's some serious ambition right there!!

Joe - Would your AGI accomodate what you are referencing in making it a more "oranges to tangerines" comparison?

I would think whatever your 1040 AGI was would be a reasonable number as it is in the ballpark of what most people consider their annual income or "what they make" (it includes investment income, SS, pension, etc) but is before lots of widely varying elements like mortgage deduction, charitable gifts, etc.

It would also accomodate whether you file single, married filing jointly, married filing single, etc.


Let's just scrap this whole thread, ban the OP and start over using 2011 1040 AGI (or estimate for those of us that have not filed 2011 returns yet). :brain: :party:

<--Has not filed yet. Finished taxes last week. Owe fed $380 and due refund from state of $390 so $10 to the good FTW.

8 out of 52 is a significant wedge of the pie.

an important thing to ask at this point is: why don't you drive a classier car, 1%ers?

Huh?

What I have described above simply makes my income equivalent to that of a person who is a salaried employee and receives a W-2. I don't see why this is confusing on controversial.

Those of you who are salaried employees and travel on company business- do you consider the cost of the airplane tickets and hotel rooms which you use to be income? Of course not. Your company pays for it and the cost is transparent to you. That's all I am doing here. By nulling out such expenses to generate AGI, I'm coming up with a number that is functionally equivalent to box 1 (Wages, tips & other compensation) of your W-2 form. This is how Schedule C (profit & loss from business) works. You start at the top with total gross receipts (lines 1a-1c) then you subtract out the cost of goods sold, travel expenses, and so forth, and you wind up with Net Profit, which you then enter into the exact same section of Form 1040 that you'd put your W2 earnings if you were a company man.

Honestly, folks. I'm not trying to pull any shenanigans here- this is how Sole Proprietorship accounting works, and it's not complicated. You take the total amount of money that you collected, subtract the amount of money you spent making the business operate, and what's left is your personal income. The fact that the "amount of money you spent making the business operate" happens to pass through your own personal credit card as opposed to a corporation's accounting department is immaterial.

150k in Upstate NY is significantly more disposable income than the same in SoCal or VA. I'd have to make at least double what I do now to live in the more expensive areas of the country.

I bought my house in 1986 for less than $75,000. Today, it's worth in the 140-150 thousand dollar range. That same house in Boston, LA or near DC would cost me 2-3 times that, easy.

I do. This is a fourth and fifth car for me.

Oh, wait...nvm

Sorry; I understand what you are going for and am not calling shenanigans. Maybe I am confusing myself.

You are distinguishing "gross income" from AGI and have not referenced taxable income (what I think of as "net income")? You are basically comparing your AGI to a salaried person's AGI?

I perhaps used the term "Gross Income" improperly in my first post. "Gross Receipts" would have been a more proper term.

None of what I have described previously should be construed as meeting the IRS definition of "AGI", as I've not counted any deductions or exemptions. Only business expenses, which would make it "Gross Income" as per IRS definitions.

For the purposes of this thread, do we want to use 1040 line 22 (Total Income) or 1040 line 37 (Adjusted Gross Income)?

(Also, I'm starting to become suspicious of the number of people we have here claiming >$150k.)

OK, so I've been called out. But it's a good question worthy of an answer.

3 reasons:

1. The Miata is a great car. Why wouldn't I drive a Miata?

2. Like most of you (I'm guessing), I like working with my hands and the Miata is a great car to mod.

3. I'm a 1%er based upon ordinary income. I wasn't born with a silver spoon. I've scraped and struggled and worked hard (including a significant period in the armed forces while married with kids) for decades to get where I am. The experience has made me a bit of a tightwad. I've only bought two new cars in my whole life, and both cost less than $15,000. I've noticed that my favorite cars (my '66 Sport Fury and my '90 Miata) both cost me less than $4K when I bought them. That's my personal sweet spot.

Honestly, I have a hard time spending money on me.

Now, where are the junk pictures?

I am almost at the top of the 25-50,000 only but loose about 10k after Uncle sam, insurance, retirment hits.

How does being married affect my tax bracket? I need to look at filing single but married vs. joint for next year.

I think AGI (2011 1040 line 37) makes the most sense as it allows a deduction for 1/2 of self-employment tax and is close to what most people think of as "their income." In other words, those that voted thinking about their "gross income" are in the same ballpark as their AGI and would not need to change their vote.

Damn, not counting my GF's salary makes me look like a chump. My hourly salary isn't much when looked at alone, but if you consider the fact that my lovely GF pays the morgage...

My brother and I own a business together. Exactly 50/50, our income from the business is exactly the same. I am married, and he is not. His fiance does not work, and my wife made ~30k.

I paid 6976, and my brother paid 11920.

A rather significant difference.

Ok. Then my vote remains the same.

I had to file an extension. My accountant fell ill and passed away this year leaving me to scramble for a new accountant. I am going to miss the old man.

My income last year was not that great, but it is looking pretty good for 2012. I think I will finally get to have some 'cheese' on my burgers.

Just looked it up. It would really change.

true that cost of living is different in different areas.

but one could argue that job availability and life enjoyment are different as well, depending on who you are.

big question: would someone making 75k, spending 1/2 of their salary to live in upstate NY feel just as rich as someone making 150k spending 1/2 to live in SF proper?

of course there's no answer, only a discussion/debate.

I think I'd prefer the latter.

blah

wut? I think you mean someone paying 2x as much to live in san fran


Btw lars ur a dum shi to stay in hicksville nc.

Move to dc in a year and make $75/hr. you can even buy your own $300k place for that much money. And have more left over for turbloners.

Got $12k back from Fed... no state income tax for FL. Yes... I've fixed my deductions and my paychecks (twice monthly) are not about $400 more each.

I am in college and poor, so yeah. At least I have a paid internship this semester, got 550 back in taxes.

About the same here. Got 630 back. I do make ~100 a week doing car work for friends and family though.

This summer, I'm going to start working full time as a gas turbine field service tech.

I hover between 20k-25k depending on overtime and taxes.

I got 350 back this year, and $1 back from the state.


I bought a gun.

So I voted based on an estimate of our household (DINK) AGI. I have no way of telling if I am in the top 1% of MTers by income, but we are in the top 25%for sure. I think it's like Hornetball said - most of us "mass affluent" weren't necessarily born that way and didn't move up the socio-economic scale by overspending, overpaying or otherwise consistently making bad economic decisions.

While most of us are not quite as stingy as Braineack seems to be, we didn't end up with Miatas for project cars because that's all we could afford. It's what we chose to spend.

Simple solution, stop paying your kids college tuition.

Cut the cord...

LOL! My parent's gross contribution to my college experience was something along the lines of about $800.

Compared to the money they saved by not having to feed and house me, I think they made bank on the deal...