Yesterday I turned the big 25 years old. I’m enjoying the weekend with my wife and my parents. Took the day off of work and plan on relaxing most of the day.
Here are some great articles I ran across this week:
- The Carnival of Personal Finance included one of my posts as an editor’s pick!
- The Festival of Fugality and the Carnival of Debt Reduction were both hosted by Ask Mr. Credit Card. I had another Editor’s Pick at the Festival of Frugality! Sweet!
- Get Rich Slowly ran a guest post of mine titled Economic Stimulus and Marginal Propensity to Consume.
- I’m currently running a contest where I’m giving away 5 Scrooge Strategy accounts and possibly (if enough people participate) a Flip MinoHD or iPod Touch.
- PT Money shares a great piece of art in his post How to be a Millionaire: Explained by a 4th Grader.
- Cash Money Life wants to know what you think: Is It Worth it Change Your Own Oil?
Again, thanks for your continued readership!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Happy Birthday!!!
Happy Birthday. Saw the following on AL Tax Refunds:
The Alabama Department of Revenue gets its money for income tax refunds from the state’s Education Trust Fund, because that’s where income taxes are deposited.
However, with the economic downturn of the past year or so and the proration that followed, there’s not enough money in the fund to recompense what taxpayers overpaid.
“The people who got their tax returns processed early got their refunds pretty quickly,” said Carla Snellgrove, public information manager for the Department of Revenue. “As we get closer to the filing deadline, we’ve had to deal with cash flow issues from the Education Trust Fund.
“It comes down to priority.”
First in line are public elementary and secondary schools; colleges and universities get paid next; and tax refunds are handled with whatever money remains.
Alabama law gives the state until July 15 to fulfill its refund obligations before interest begins accruing on those unpaid refunds. On average, 1 million out of 1.8 million tax filers get refunds. In this fiscal year, Snellgrove said about 629,000 refunds have been issued.
Snellgrove said, hopefully, revenue will soon pick up and keep pace with expenditures through the trust fund. Revenue comes in monthly via money withheld in employees’ paychecks. Self-employed Alabamians will file their quarterly taxes by the end of April.
“We have gotten a lot of phone calls from taxpayers who are accustomed to getting their state refunds quickly,” she said. “I think in the past several weeks, taxpayers have gotten concerned about reports that the state of California and Kansas were putting tax refunds on hold and that they didn’t know when they’d begin issuing them.
“We are issuing refunds, but they’re going out a bit more slowly.”
Happy Birthday! Thanks for sharing my article. Looking forward to subscriber swap.