I just did mine, and am furious.

refunds:

fed: $7437
state: $570


I'm already claiming a ridiculous amount of exemptions on the W4.. don't remember exactly how many, but having a wife bringing in zero income and being a fulltime student can't have this much of an effect, can it?

That's $600 a month wasted on a free loan to people who want to waste my money.

anyway, post up your refunds/liabilities when you get your shit done.

2/8/2007 10:14:57 PM

ill be there next year

the government wants you to own a home...

2/8/2007 10:24:10 PM

damn son, my wife stays at home, I claim a 6, but i'm paying about $800 to federal, so I'm not doing anything else until April 15th. What is your secret? Make a shitload of money because to refund $7500 you had to be bank rolling shit.

2/8/2007 11:04:17 PM

I dunno, i need to check my W4 tomorrow.

I ran it all again, this time through turbotax (used taxcut originally) and it came out to be about the same. last year i got a similarly large return, but i never increased my exemptions after i got married, which accounted for the large return, but this year i had ramped it up, so i figured it should be about even. only thing i can think of is that my updated W4 didn't get processed.

I guess on the bright side, the roth is getting funded early.

2/8/2007 11:09:49 PM

my return state and federal combined is about -$1500

2/8/2007 11:34:39 PM

fuck a bunch of taxes.

2/9/2007 1:34:47 AM

submitted jan. 27th.

refund of ~3k.

miscalculated some things. only worked half a year put me in a different bracket than i thought, relocation for work deductions, and i had forgotten that i had intentionally paid my spring tuition this year.

to the house fund with you! (plans to purchase spring of '08)

hey bobby, whens that dip commin ssjamid keeps talking about

2/9/2007 8:45:10 AM

refund of about $500 total.

Student loan interest helped a ton, not sure how this year will work out as in 2006 I graduated and only worked full-time for half of the year.

Will be opening a 401(k) and a Roth this year as well - leaving everything alone to see how this upcoming year pans out.

2/9/2007 9:19:14 AM

holy cow bobby...I think my net last year was only like 300 bucks...of course, my salary is probably 1/6 of what you started at, so that might have something to do with it...lol

2/9/2007 9:41:56 AM

That's a lot of money you could have invested.

2/9/2007 10:58:26 AM

i think i got like $10 back last year. I had it pretty much perfectly set up.

2/9/2007 11:01:25 AM

[Edited on February 9, 2007 at 11:03 AM. Reason : k]

2/9/2007 11:02:29 AM

right around $550

can't complain

2/9/2007 11:06:37 AM

what the hell...the goal is to not have such a huge refund (or payment due). you really need to adjust something if you're getting $7k back. that's ridiculous.

2/9/2007 11:08:03 AM

fed: $4705
state: $1578

needless to say, im not very happy. this is the first full year of owning a house, and we did the calculations that we would get more money back if i claimed all the mortgage interest on my taxes rather then split it (with the fiance). needless to say, ive already made corrections on my tax forms so that this won't happen again.

2/9/2007 11:08:36 AM

from the looks of this thread, i need to hurry up and get married and buy a house

2/9/2007 11:33:26 AM

Turns out that i'm currently claiming 0 exemptions when i should be claiming 6.

my handwriting may be to blame for this. Looking back at the copy of what I mailed in last year, it looks like it could be a 6 or a 0.

very mad at me right now.

2/9/2007 12:03:41 PM

i was at 2....but im up at 6 now as well.

2/9/2007 12:07:03 PM

Somehow I'm getting an additional $1300 lifelong education credit for being a full-time graduate student in addition to full-time professional. I don't question it ... more money to put into savings.

2/9/2007 12:10:50 PM

I estimated perfectly last year. Owed the state 26, got back 25 from the fed.

This year, I think I claimed too many exemptions and wouldn't be surprised if I have to pay a grand to the fed.

2/9/2007 12:36:08 PM

how are you guys claiming 6?

2/9/2007 12:52:50 PM

you can claim however many you want.

theres a calculator on the irs webpage where you can enter in your financial information and it tells you how to adjust it so you will come out as close to even as possible.

2/9/2007 12:56:23 PM

Oh man I was thinking about making this thread. I posted this on Fat Wallet but I figured I'd try here too:

Quote :

"There's got to be something I'm missing... I live with my girlfriend, who is a student paying enough tuition to qualify for the entire Lifetime Education credit of $2000, but she only made $3500 in 2006. Her taxable income will be $0 so she won't be able to use the credit at all. I made $46,000, but since I don't own anything I just take the standard deduction, and I'll probably end up owing about $400 fed because I mistakenly took two exemptions when I took my new job halfway through the year. It seems like a waste for us to be paying tons of money for education and missing out on the tax benefits because she made $200 over the amount that would qualify her to be my dependent. Is there anything we can do? Does opening an IRA lower the amount of gross income for the test for dependents? Please help!"

2/9/2007 1:07:07 PM

Yes, an IRA should lower the AGI if that what it is based on. I know the retirement tax credit is based on this, but not sure about education. I would assume so.

2/9/2007 1:13:32 PM

^ Sorry, what I meant was that if she lowers her gross income by $200 to $3300 I could claim her as a dependent and therefore utilize her credits/deductions. I need to know if there is a way to do this without a time machine.

2/9/2007 1:18:21 PM

Do you pay for over half her expenses?

2/9/2007 1:24:20 PM

I claimed a 6 because I'm married, wife stays at home and doesn't earn income, we have a kid, and I make less than what ever amount of $ the w-4 says.

2/9/2007 1:25:41 PM

I pay almost all of her expenses. She doesn't work. Here's Pub. 501

Quote :

"Gross Income Test To meet this test, a person's gross income for the year must be less than $3,300. Gross income defined. Gross income is all income in the form of money, property, and services that is not exempt from tax. In a manufacturing, merchandising, or mining business, gross income is the total net sales minus the cost of goods sold, plus any miscellaneous income from the business. Gross receipts from rental property are gross income. Do not deduct taxes, repairs, etc., to determine the gross income from rental property. Gross income includes a partner's share of the gross (not a share of the net) partnership income. Gross income also includes all unemployment compensation and certain scholarship and fellowship grants. Scholarships received by degree candidates that are used for tuition, fees, supplies, books, and equipment required for particular courses may not be included in gross income. For more information about scholarships, see chapter 1 of Publication 970, Tax Benefits for Education. Tax-exempt income, such as certain social security benefits, is not included in gross income. "

But it keeps referring to "gross income" not AGI. If it were AGI I would have her throw some cash into an IRA and get somebody to do this for us. If the $3300 figure is coming from line 1 on her W-2 I think we're screwed

On edit: it clearly says income "not exempt from tax." I'm going to call a buddy who does this for a living, get him to set us up an IRA.

[Edited on February 9, 2007 at 1:35 PM. Reason : SWEET]

2/9/2007 1:33:28 PM

An IRA contirbution would be "exempt from tax"

2/9/2007 1:35:36 PM

I don't do my taxes, I have a tax guy do em for me. Should hear back in the next week or so how much I'll be getting back. I think its going to be a lot

2/9/2007 3:30:06 PM

nm.

[Edited on February 9, 2007 at 4:51 PM. Reason : .]

2/9/2007 4:49:33 PM

I rolled over my old 401K to a roth. Not looking forward to see what I owe this year.

2/9/2007 4:51:18 PM

i owe

will submit first week in April

2/9/2007 7:31:04 PM

-8172. i will mail it april 12th. thievin ass niggers

2/9/2007 9:04:59 PM

$2500 back w/6 exemptions.

Now I have 8. We'll see how it goes.

It would be great to get $0 back and owe $0.

It would also be great to abolish the 16th Amendment of the US and enact the fair tax (http://www.fairtax.org/).

2/9/2007 9:17:50 PM

HAS ANYONE COMPARED USING A TAX SOFTWARE TO A TAX PREPERATION SERVICE SUCH AS H&R BLOCK?

I'd really like to know of a comparison between the 2, such as differences in rebates/payments.

[Edited on February 9, 2007 at 11:31 PM. Reason : -E +A]

2/9/2007 11:31:24 PM

anyone?

2/11/2007 2:53:10 PM

never used a tax prep service.

always used various software.

Used to use turbotax, but switched to taxcut b/c it was considerably cheaper, but just as good of a product.

I trust software more than some in-store HR block or jackson hewitt tax guy who probably sucks at his job, or he'd be working somewhere better. but that's just my opinionion.

2/11/2007 3:16:42 PM

Are there any good free versions out there? I usually use a tax guy but would be curious as to what amount the software came up with.

2/11/2007 3:28:48 PM

you can run everything through either taxcut or turbotax for free... you pay when you get to the efile or print part.

[Edited on February 11, 2007 at 3:53 PM. Reason : if you use the web version, that is.]

2/11/2007 3:53:09 PM

the federales owe us $1300
we owe the state $1250

the woman did them all by hand and i ran it through turbotax 2006 deluxe at the same time and then compared

they came out the same except for the tax owed because turbotax, even fully updated, has THE WRONG TAX TABLES - it was only a $100 difference or so, but that's a pretty big red flag



[Edited on February 11, 2007 at 5:31 PM. Reason : _n]

2/11/2007 5:28:54 PM

Quote :

"I guess on the bright side, the roth is getting funded early."

BobbyDigital, I hope you mean Roths, b/c you can fund a spousal IRA for your wife.

David0603,
You can use Turbo Tax online to see what number the software comes up with, and just not file through them if you intend to still use your tax guy. You only pay when you file.

OR, Free TurboTax for State Farm customers
http://tinyurl.com/32ab86

2/11/2007 6:03:39 PM

Thanks. Looks like I'll owe about 2K.

2/11/2007 6:40:24 PM

Fed refund $945
Owe NC $43

2/11/2007 10:32:17 PM

if you make under 52,000 a year you can file your federal taxes for free thru various companies including turbotax and tax cut. go to the irs website and look for the list...there's a bunch of different options for free software.

you have to pay to file your state taxes though, and that varies depending on the site you choose. it's usually $10-30.

federal is always free though.

2/11/2007 11:37:08 PM

Quote :

"Are there any good free versions out there? I usually use a tax guy but would be curious as to what amount the software came up with."

I had 5 separate forms this year and TurboTax did a pretty good job sorting them all out. Only took about an hour. Federal was free, VA state was $29.95 to efile. You can use TT without paying, but you have to pay to file.

I guess it really depends on the complexity of your things and how you value your time. Sometimes the experts aren't experts on everything; other times they'll know things that aren't programmed into the software. I'd personally use the software as a ballpark estimate (as already mentioned) and see how much better an expert can do.

2/12/2007 7:34:38 AM

Quote :

" BobbyDigital, I hope you mean Roths, b/c you can fund a spousal IRA for your wife."

not if she has 0 taxable income. she's a med student. no income.

2/12/2007 8:04:53 AM

837 fed
30 state

dont think i can do any better than that, I would owe if i claimed more

2/12/2007 8:25:31 AM

Quote :

"if you make under 52,000 a year you can file your federal taxes for free thru various companies including turbotax and tax cut. go to the irs website and look for the list...there's a bunch of different options for free software. "

ive used h and r blocks software for a while now, and for some reason i still get federal for free, and i make over 52k.

i dont know if its a discount so ill stick with them or what.

2/12/2007 8:38:33 AM

Quote :

"not if she has 0 taxable income."

WRONG!

2/12/2007 10:17:05 AM