A Taxing Time

So my taxes are now filed, electronically no less. How about yours?

On the upside it looks like we will be getting a decent refund this year.

The downside:
a. A refund simply means you're getting back money you had the government withhold and use for no interest to you.

b. The reason we're getting a refund is not due to any accounting magic or government stimulus or tax breaks. Instead it is beacause we badly overwithheld our taxes. Why? Well we figured my wife's business as a Marriage and Family Therapist would do as well this year as it did last year (the whole safe harbor witholding thing - if you don't witthold the appropriate amounts you're penalized). Instead it was down 90%.

Why is it so down: Well the Michigan economy is a great explanation. People won't pay for therapy and try to hold a marriage together or other counselling needs when they need to focus on necessities.

Another reason is beacause of the strange insurance landscape in Michigan. Blue Cross / Blue Shield does not recognize my wife's Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy, for counselling purposes mainly due to the lobbying of Psychologists and Social Workers (Social Workers mind you have far less training than MFTs in counseliing but due to their numbers provide a large lobby indeed). Other states do, and amazingly enough, BC/BS in other states also recognizes it and will have MFTs as providers.

This year doesn't look much better either, but we'll see what happens.