I finished my taxes last week, and I was just reviewing all the information–I haven’t sent my amount owed to the IRS yet. Hey, every penny counts!
I use Taxact.com every year. Initially, when I first started using Taxact.com, it was because the price was dirt cheap. Today, I use it because I’m just familiar with it, and I’ve never had any issues. I think it’s still really cheap.
At the end of filing, they give you one report called TaxWatch 2009, in it is one thing I find really useful, and that’s the “Effective Tax Rate.” ETR = Total Tax Paid / Adjust Gross Income x 100. The lower the better!
- 2004 = 16.30%
- 2005 = 17.33%
- 2006 = 20.50% (highest AGI)
- 2007 = 11.43% (lowest AGI)
- 2008 = 17.30%
I need to figure out a way to reduce my ETR.

I have always estimated my effective tax rate at 18% year-over-year. However, I never had anybody to compare it against before now.
Thanks for the post.