We filed our income tax return several weeks ago. In fact we've already received both our state and federal refunds.

But, I was looking through our Turbo Tax documents again yesterday and I noticed that this year we fell into the 15% tax bracket for the first time in many years.

I got a small raise last year, I think it was 2.1%, and DW was paid for half her freelance project, I think around $5,900. That was enough to push us into the 15% tax bracket. We still didn't pay any federal income tax - with 4 child tax credits, and carry-over adoption credit, our effective tax rate was still -7.19%.

In fact, this might be the first time we've ever been in the 15% tax bracket as a married couple. Back in the dual income, no kids days we were in the 28% tax bracket, and DD1 was born (DW quite full-time out-of-the-house work) at around the same time as the Bush II tax cuts, and the introduction of the 10% tax bracket.

DW will be getting the other half of her freelance project income in the next few weeks. That probably means that we'll slip into the 15% tax bracket again this year. It sure doesn't seem to have made a difference in monthly cash flow.