Everyone's favorite day is here. It's tax day in America. I'm getting slammed. Mostly, well, almost all, because of capital gains on a particularly inefficient mutual fund. It doesn’t help that I have virtually nothing to deduct: no kids, no business, no mortgage. So I had to cough up about 1600 bucks.

The fund has gone up, which is always good, but the captial gains are really high and since the gains were paid out at the end of last year and the fund has subsequently gone down, it feels like I'm paying tax on phantom income. Sorta sucks, but the fund will come back. It's very volitale but mostly heading in the right direction.

There's a strange psychology in this country. People get really happy when they're expecting a refund and bummed as all hell when they have to make a payment to the IRS. I can understand the second one, but the first one is really nonsensical. Sure, people like getting a check. No getting around that. But the truth is that when you get a refund, all it really means is you've provided an interest free loan to the federal government. I don't get the feeling that many people would be excited about that.

The ideal situation is where on April 15th, you owe nothing and pay nothing. The way to do this is to adjust your withholding amount on your paycheck. If you're getting a refund, simply withhold less. You won't get a refund check anymore, but you'll get a de facto raise and you'll stop being a creditor to Uncle Sam. If you're having to pay, withhold more. That way you spread your tax liability over the course of many months instead of having to write a huge check to the fed and the state. Not that this is anything you don't already know.