You realize that this information is used by the IRS when you go to check your return status online? It’s not a good idea to put it out in a public forum.
Or pay a massive amount of student loan interest each year, like me.
Really, it depends on how you fill out your W-4.
It’s not always that easy to do the tax withholding calculations. In many years I’ve been thrown off because of mutual fund distributions. They are unpredictable, come in December (often at the very end of December), are taxable, and sometimes come to thousands of dollars. Once in a while I end up owing a lot to the IRS.
In order to anticipate that possibility I overwithhold on my regular income, so other years, when distributions are small, like this one, I get a big refund.
this, but add a zero.
I’m getting almost three grand back - middle class mortgage tax break is AWESOME. I’m getting cabinets!
I’m getting $2200+ back (no kids). It would have been a bit more if not for dividend income, but really I am thrilled to have dividend income at all, especially compared to my history of financial misfortune. I suppose I could wiggle my deductions to avoid the interest-free-loan effect, but having been bit in the butt by a big surprise tax bill that I couldn’t afford, I am more comfortable this way. And my gf will be more comfortable with the extra trips to the sushi restaurants.
Almost forgot: WOOT! 
There’s an underpayment penalty if you didn’t pay enough quarterly estimated taxes though, that basically amounts to interest. And if you don’t have the money to pay the April 15 tax bill, that’s of course a big problem. Now you’re taking this year’s earnings to pay last year’s taxes, and of course you have to pay taxes on this year’s earings, lather rinse repeat.
I haven’t did my taxes but hope to about even out this year.
:dubious:
Care to back that assertion up?
We appear to be getting back enough to pay off my car loan (which admittedly is down to 4 months of payments), from the feds. We actually were majorly over-withheld at the beginning of the year due to a mis-processed W-4 with Typo’s payroll. I used the tool with the IRS to estimate and we made the changes it suggested… and we’re still getting back more than last year!
Which, considering my first pass through Turbotax showed us owing 2400 bucks (due to a rollover being processed as income when I imported it from Quicken), is quite an improvement.
Had a bad scare 3-4 years ago. I had an inherited IRA in a CD. When the CD expired, I had the bank transfer it to a money market account while I thought about what to do next.
They treated it as if I’d taken a distribution of the entire amount. All taxable income. Which among other things, destroyed any child tax credits, wiped out some of our itemized deductions, and I think made TurboTax think about the Alternative Minimum Tax.
Fortunately, the bank fixed their error. Phew. Otherwise we’d have lost about half the balance of the IRA to taxes.
We have kids and that does make a difference, but the real issue is that we’re overwithheld (which can be independent of whether you have kids).
Oh - and as we’ve found, even the IRS calculator (which took into account how much we’d already paid at that point) didn’t do the job correctly.
I’d certainly rather get a refund than have to pay; at least it didn’t err in the other direction.
:::ouch::: (for you and for the others who’ve listed even larger debts).
FWIW, you can fill out the W4 to say “x deductions, AND y additional withholding per pay period”. If you’re consistently owing a lot, I’d recommend doing that.
I was shocked to discover we are getting back about $3200, about twice what we got back last year. I think there was more withheld from my bonus at work then before, plus we had over $7000 in charitible contributions on top of our mortgage interest, child credits, etc.
Those of us who are self-employed pay our taxes at least quarterly (one can pay them monthly if you so choose). Often it’s a cash flow problem which leaves us unable to pay as much as we need to, so that we end up owing a big chunk at the end of the year; or, we might make more than we had projected, so that the amount paid in over the year wasn’t enough, but we didn’t find out about it until taxes were figured.
Huh?
The underpayment penalty is pretty small potatoes. And the rest of it is just part of the rigamarole of running a business.
Yeah, that’s what I find. So I’m tired of all the people who always say, “If you get a big refund that means you didn’t figure out your withholding correctly.” I use the IRS forms. They don’t work right for my situation.
We will likely owe. We owed last year, despite paying quarterly estimated taxes, and I don’t see that changing this year.
I never get nothin’.
Any refund I may be due goes to a back debt (child support – I’m not a deadbeat … it’s a long story). I try to rig it so I end up just about even at the end of the year. Usually I end up writing a check for $500 or so. I just budget for that.
Happened to me last year only we were still married at tax time (I moved out of the house in late October of 2009). Dear wifey figured she’d get more back if she lied and filed head of household (which is why she didn’t want to give me her social when I filed). She got back four grand and gave some of it to her ex-fiance with whom she has a child. The ex-fiance with whom she broke up because she caught him in bed with another woman. Nice, huh?
I was thus forced to file married but separate and had to pay in $525.
After the dissolution (around May) I started claiming zero. Still have to pay in about $200.