Tax Refund/Payment Thread?

[Deleted]

Let's have a thread where we all post our final results after doing taxes.  We can even declare a "winner."  That would be the one who gets closest to zero without actually having to pay.  To keep it fair, make it federal taxes only.

We are getting a $688 refund.  That works for me since it is only overpaying by $50 a month.  I don't even know how to tweak it even more finely than that without having to write Uncle Sam a check in
April.

[vonna]

Well, I won't be the "winner", but I will play!

My personal goal is to always owe state (we itemize, and I don't like to have to declare the state refund as income the next year).  My goal is to owe less than $250.

For federal, my goal is to come within $500 of getting it right, so I am happy with owing/getting a refund of $250 or less.

I made both goals this year! Only owed the state $71, so I need to look at that closely for next year to I make sure we owe again, and we owe the Fed $217.

So, I am a happy camper this year!  It is always hard to predict the div/cg portion of our income.

[Rob Base 2.0]

I always try to get a big return. Then I invest it. Otherwise I would waste this money throughout the year

I know it goes against everything YM stands for. But oh well, guess who is tracking to retire at 53? 😀

[Tiny]

 I'd retire at 53 if I had your pension and health bennies ...      I'm green with envy. 

[Deleted]

Feb 26, 2017 13:33:47 GMT -5 Tiny said:

 I'd retire at 53 if I had your pension and health bennies ...      I'm green with envy. 

I'd retire right now (48) if I had a 49K pension and free healthcare! 

[phil5185]

I always try to get a big return. Then I invest it. Otherwise I would waste this money throughout the year

Simple - quit wasting the money thru the year, then you can invest it a year earlier. (Use auto-pay to have the extra income invested in your stock fund). I usually owe $1500 or $2000 on April 15.

[resolution]

My refund this year was so large it was embarrassing. I blame impulsively going back to school. *slinks away*

[whoisjohngalt]

I am very bitter that my puny salary is being taxed at my husband's rate, so I am not discussing taxes anymore.

But I am very happy that I found job that I REALLY love and hopefully my boss won't fire any time soon....

[steph08]

We are getting a fairly large refund. Yes, a ym sin.

[buystoys]

Yeah, for the third year in a row we are getting a large refund.  *sigh*  Pesky medical expenses!  I keep thinking I'll get our estimate correct and then BOOM!  This year isn't starting off too well, either.

Fortunately we have no state income tax. 

[Cookies Galore]

I haven't filed anything yet, but based on previous years I predict $300 back from federal and owe state $17.

[msventoux]

I'm getting a couple thousand back. Bad YM person! My best year was owing something like $20.

It used to be a fun game to play before I started doing taxes. Now, as long as I don't owe a ton, I'm good. Plus my employer uses an outdated system that doesn't really follow current tax tables, so even if I do get my withholding dialed in, the amount withheld is likely to randomly change during the year and I have no desire to watch it that closely.

[swasat]

Against all YM advice, we always owe Uncle Sam big bucks, never get a refund.

DH and I prefer not getting much withheld. Instead we invest the money throughout the year, and always pay our big 5 figure taxes in April. The ROI on investments has always been so high that the method works wonderfully for us.

So I am on the opposite extreme No close to zero or low refunds, instead negative tax balance!

[Deleted]

Not as bad as I initially thought, if I entered the amounts from our major brokerage tax statements correctly.  (Import not quite available yet so I had to work from PDFs).  Looks like I owe the Feds $2,000 and the state $2,500.  Our income (still "ours" since I can file jointly for 2016) is hard to predict because of capital gain distributions from mutual funds.  Last year we owed zero to the Feds. 

I'll do the actual import and some fine-tuning next week.  My early estimate, just based on dummy values I created from year-end statements, was a total liability closer to $10K, which was really scary because next year I'll be filing as Single and would have a much bigger bill if 2017 income were similar.

Interesting calculation- the effective tax rate for state and Fed combined on our SS is 11.5%.  Don't ever let anyone tell you SS isn't needs-tested.   The Federal tax receipts on SS go towards beefing up the solvency of the SS system (or so they claim), but most states,being lazy and greedy, start with Federal taxable income as a basis for state taxes and do NOT subtract the tax on SS from that basis.

[Opti]

Well, I won't be the "winner", but I will play!

I won't be a winner either, but on the federal return I will hit an effective zero. Mainly because I owe the federal government some taxes from prior years and they will sweep up whatever "refund" I get. Like last year. I find it weird that there is no line on the 1040 that says take this refund and apply to what I owe the IRS.

I hope this will be the last year of this, but that will only happen if my income & employment picture improves enough. (And I can pay off the rest of what I owe before next year's taxes.)

[Opti]

Feb 26, 2017 17:35:12 GMT -5 @wxyz said:

Why consider it a WIN if you are close to zero?

I will owe on April 18 $8188.  In addition, I made no quarterly payments for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarters.  I made a $15000 payment in mid January 2017 for my 4th quarter estimate.  I do it this way every year.

Penalty owed for underpayment is $396, according to Turbotax.

So I had the use of $23,188 for the entire year till mid January of 2017 when I paid $15,000.  I will have the use of my remaining $8188 till I send the IRS a check on April 18, 2017.  ALL at a cost of only $396.  That $23,188 was invested in my stock account for all of 2016 and some of 2017.  I made a lot more on the money than $396.

I consider it a WIN to pay the IRS as little as possible and have the use of my money for the entire year at a minimal cost (penalty).

Did you make enough on the $8188(actually less, the first three quarters) for $396 penalty to be a good deal?

Aren't you market timing for tax time every year if you are investing the $15K or whatever it is in stocks?

[Regis]

Refund of $270.

[countrygirl2]

I paid quarterly estimates totaling $7k, this year just have no clue what we will

owe. Turned out he got a W2 for $46k, he did not work last year, part was his

last pay and I'm guessing the rest was some type of carryover on his return.

But they did take $11k for fed. I just want to be covered, they will do the hypo

tax thing, should be the last one, so here forward we will know what we owe.

We are setting up the RMD's to automatically pay out annually, 2 done, 2 to go.

We haven't had refunds perse for 15 years and likely never will again as we

have to pay estimated taxes quarterly.

Also we will no longer take DD as a deduction, her SS went up when drawing from

DH and I really don't think we could justify that, but its ok.

[Gardening Grandma]

Already filed and received our refund. $137. 

[taz157]

Feb 26, 2017 18:46:36 GMT -5 Opti said:

Well, I won't be the "winner", but I will play!

I won't be a winner either, but on the federal return I will hit an effective zero. Mainly because I owe the federal government some taxes from prior years and they will sweep up whatever "refund" I get. Like last year. I find it weird that there is no line on the 1040 that says take this refund and apply to what I owe the IRS.

I hope this will be the last year of this, but that will only happen if my income & employment picture improves enough. (And I can pay off the rest of what I owe before next year's taxes.)

It's already set up for the IRS to automatically take refund once you file so there's no need to have a separate line item for it.

You can also always call the IRS to find out what the latest account history is in case you've misplaced your notice to find out how much is owed. Just ask for an Account Transcript.

[TheOtherMe]

I failed to take in to consideration that I was no longer preparing tax returns and the church closed and that caused that job to go away. 

I also did not realize that because of that and paying for Medicare Part B, I could now itemize my medical expenses.

My federal and state refunds were right at $2K.  Paid down debt and saved some.

[Deleted]

Feb 26, 2017 18:46:36 GMT -5 Opti said:

I won't be a winner either, but on the federal return I will hit an effective zero. Mainly because I owe the federal government some taxes from prior years and they will sweep up whatever "refund" I get. Like last year. I find it weird that there is no line on the 1040 that says take this refund and apply to what I owe the IRS.

One year when money was tight, my then-husband liquidated an IRA he'd set up a couple of years before. Of course we owed taxes and a penalty on that but he spent the entire amount. Money was still tight when the tax bill came so I set up a payment plan with the IRS. I was still paying as agreed when he and I separated. I used the Married Filing Separately status because I knew he'd be too irresponsible to file taxes and didn't want to get involved in his troubles. I was owed a refund but never got it- they just used it to wipe out the remaining debt rather than allowing me to continue payments. Very annoying.

Believe me, you don't need to remind them to grab your refund!

[LlamaLlamaDuck]

With all the salary reductions I have, even with 2 exemptions, I still get a bit of a refund.  Based on prior years, around a thousand combined.  I will sock it into my bathroom renovation war chest.

[imanangel]

Based on the past few years, I expect to pay around $2K to the feds. I still haven't done my taxes. I am afraid of what I am going to owe. 

[saveinla]

Between the fed and state, we will most probably owe between 2500 & 2750. 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Looks like GG is the current leader. 
I turned in everything this last Wednesday. On Thursday,  our accountant's assistant gave me a list of five documents to find. I need work on that and get them back to the assistant by this coming Wednesday. Hopefully We've had much fluctuation the past three years with a lay-off and the sale of a rental house; it's too difficult to gauge exactly where our liability will fall. I'd rather get a refund than have no idea how much I owe. For 2017, we'll have the sale of my house; hopefully for 2018, we'll have settled down a bit. 

Anyway, I'll be back on this thread on Thursday with my number!

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

We got a state refund.
We got a federal refund.
Apparently, my spurts of generosity in charitable giving added up giving up a larger deduction.

[Rob Base 2.0]

Feb 26, 2017 13:48:36 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Feb 26, 2017 13:33:47 GMT -5 Tiny said:

 I'd retire at 53 if I had your pension and health bennies ...      I'm green with envy. 

I'd retire right now (48) if I had a 49K pension and free healthcare! 

Health care not "free" but cheap. I pay monthly and have to do co-pays up to a limit. Still pretty good

[Apple]

I won't win, refund was $1200.  It's really hard to get it just right when my overtime can swing wildly (last year almost 400 hours, the year before that I think I had about 40).  This year I figured I'd end up with around 200, but I got called in the last three days to cover someone who called in sick.  I'm already at 109 hours for the tax year.

[alabamagal]

We owe about $1200 and have state refund of $600.  Reminds me I need to adjust withholding.  We are losing a dependent this year (Yay! in general, but will have negative impact on taxes).