My Refund Is Waiting

I think it was only last weekend that I completed and filed my taxes.  I used to use one web site--used to rave about it on this blog!--but it's gotten ridiculously expensive recently, so I tried FreeTaxUSA.  It wasn't as "smooth" as the previous site, but it worked just fine for me and cost me only $14.

And as of today, both my federal and state refunds are sitting in my checking account.

Update:  And while we're talking about taxes, let's talk about tax burdens:

The right-leaning, nonpartisan Tax Foundation just ran the numbers to rank the states based on their average combined state and local tax burden. This does not include the many federal taxes all Americans must pay regardless of state residency. 

Here’s what analysts Erica York and Jared Walczak found: 

The 5 States With the Highest Tax Burdens 

New York: 15.9 percent 

Connecticut: 15.4 percent 

Hawaii: 14.1 percent 

Vermont: 13.6 percent 

California: 13.5 percent 

The 5 States With the Lowest Tax Burdens 

Alaska: 4.6 percent 

Wyoming: 7.5 percent 

Tennessee: 7.6 percent 

 South Dakota: 8.4 percent 

Michigan: 8.6 percent