david, I save about 1k a month. You are barking up the wrong tree.

Call, I must admit. It does piss me off to give the govt an interest free loan.

We are going to need a new car soon. Im going to take this refund and put it into a CD, then use it and whatever next year to pay cash for a car. Thats the plan right now.

3/6/2008 1:26:27 PM

You were the one who said

Quote :

"It forces you to live below your means."

I'm a big boy. I can live below my means without being forced to do so.

[Edited on March 6, 2008 at 1:28 PM. Reason : ]

3/6/2008 1:27:56 PM

david, I see what you are saying. Clearly by looking at the spending practices and the credit problems in this country you can tell a majority of americans dont live within thier means. If people have an extra buck, they have to spend it now. We are a society of instant gradification.

I just took offense that you mentioned I was the reason we cant get away from SS. In fact, Im not even planning on SS being there when I retire. And if it is, im sure Ill get means tested out.

3/6/2008 2:19:32 PM

I can see it being offensive, but when you bluntly state

Quote :

"that would make more financial sense"

yet do the opposite, what kind of reaction did you expect?

3/6/2008 2:39:02 PM

sure it would make more sense to put it in a stock that will earn 8% vs one that will earn 3%. However, there is risk involved.

I do see value in claiming 0. 1. I dont have to come up with money for a tax payment (unexpected bill) 2. I believe it does force you to live below you means. 3. I get an sizeable return that is unexpected/not budgeted for.

I already save 10% of income, pay extra on my loans and mortgages, so Im doing the right things. However, financially people will argue if its better to buy a car with cash vs payments and investing the rest... Its just my preference to do it this way now. Once I have kids I probably wont be able to continue it.

3/6/2008 2:45:29 PM

Quote :

"I dont have to come up with money for a tax payment (unexpected bill) "

You can easily use the irs calc to determine how much you should pay as to avoid having an unexpected bill.

Quote :

"I get an sizeable return that is unexpected"

Haha. Kind of sounds like it's expected to me...

3/6/2008 2:54:23 PM

I still claim 0 and have to pay $texas

3/6/2008 2:55:36 PM

joint filing with a refund of $2,212

it was about $600 + change until we included the $3k in interest my husband's been paying on loans.

this refund just got rid of one of our credit cards

[Edited on March 6, 2008 at 2:58 PM. Reason : .]

3/6/2008 2:57:04 PM

david, Im assured I wont have to pay. This year was by far my biggest return.

Joe, did you have other income besides your job that was substantial?

3/6/2008 3:04:52 PM

What is the turnaround for direct deposit? I filed with turbo tax and had my fed refund set up to deposit into my account. I decided to save the extra $20 or whatever it was and mailed in my tax paper work. I did this a few weeks ago and I haven't seen anything in my account yet...just wondering.

I didnt read through the entire thread before I asked, so sorry if this has already been answered elsewhere.

3/6/2008 3:05:56 PM

i think it's up to 12 weeks for a return

3/6/2008 4:22:07 PM

^^ im impatient so i did mine all online 2 weeks ago, had it in barely a week

3/6/2008 4:23:31 PM

did my taxes (state and federal) on taxACT.com

it was 16 bucks total for everything. filed last week.

Direct deposit came in yesterday. HOLLERRRRR

3/7/2008 11:43:43 AM

$669 - Federal
$448 - State

Filed Joint w/ Turbotax online...

I itemized everything, just to find out that the standard deduction was still higher. Wasted a couple of hours going through reciepts and bills

3/7/2008 12:05:39 PM

When the heck is this check for 300-600 supposed to come and where am I looking for it at? Thanks

3/19/2008 4:12:30 PM

depending on when you filed and how you filed (electronically or snail mail etc) it could be anywhere from may to late july i think. it also depends on the last 2 digits of your social.

[Edited on March 19, 2008 at 4:20 PM. Reason : ]

3/19/2008 4:20:01 PM

I claim my car because I use it to go call on clients when I make out of office calls. I keep records of all of my milage used for business and I don't get reimbursed for it. It only saves me a few bucks. I also got to claim my law fees due to a divorce...and under my lawyers recomendation, I also withheld an additional 20 per fed and state per week. That got me an automatic $2080 back. The only thing that sucks is if you file a large refund, you may have to wait longer to get your return.

3/20/2008 11:13:56 AM

Quote :

"under my lawyers recomendation, I also withheld an additional 20 per fed and state per week. That got me an automatic $2080 back"

What?

3/20/2008 11:57:05 AM

owe fed $69
CA refund $115

not bad

4/1/2008 5:19:52 PM

~$1100

I wish I knew how to make it lower and get more money in my paycheck

4/1/2008 5:24:45 PM

Net I get $14 back.

I didn't make that much to begin with, but it ended up being pretty balanced, considering.

4/1/2008 5:54:20 PM

~9k to fed
~4k to nc
~400 from ga

less than planned for at least - also no rebate

4/4/2008 8:22:04 PM

I owe less than the previous year by a lot, but i made more. So I am like you I planned for more. The 'extra' that I saved went instantly to pay off credit card bill.

I want my govment check already to put in a savings account and NOT spend

4/4/2008 8:50:53 PM

i was hoping to break even this year. instead i owe $3k

4/5/2008 3:15:57 PM

TurboTax says I owe about $1500 total State & Federal....

I hope I just screwed up I doubt it though.

I made about 24k at my internship last year, had about 6K in financial aid/grants....

And my parents are claiming me as a dependent. So therefore I cant claim myself. I think i'm screwed

4/8/2008 2:24:48 PM

^^^^ Did you not have anything taken out all year, that amount it nuts!

^Do you still live at home? Otherwise I wouldn't let me parents claim me. It only hurts you in the long run. My parents did this one year and there was a big difference for me. Luckily my dad was nice enough to give me the difference.

I'm getting back about $150 total.

4/8/2008 2:35:52 PM

Federal - $164
State - $187

and i have to say i was completely shocked that i was getting a return this year. previous years i have had to owe until i entered in the part-time grad school expenses, but this year i had no expenses to put in and i had gotten a sizable pay increase halfway through the year

yay!

4/8/2008 2:57:42 PM

secu does your tax returns for free but they wont do it if you have a 1099 form

4/8/2008 3:28:59 PM

$1200 Federal
$252 State


Education Credit FTW.

4/13/2008 6:30:03 PM

Quote :

"I made about 24k at my internship last year, had about 6K in financial aid/grants.... And my parents are claiming me as a dependent. So therefore I cant claim myself. I think i'm screwed"

How are they able to claim you as a dependent? It seems like it would be very difficult for them to do that legally.

4/13/2008 6:33:49 PM

Your parents can claim you as a dependent if you are a full time student, under the age of 24, and dont provide over half of your own support.

Your parents dont have to prove that they provided over half of your support, just that you did not.

Gross income is not a determining factor if you are a full time student and under age 24.

4/13/2008 11:24:08 PM

+$75 federal
-$700 state

On a sidenote my parents claim 0 allowances and they end up owing money every year + penalties. They have other investments but they pay quarterly estimated taxes so this doesn't make sense to me.

4/14/2008 11:00:40 AM

I owe Uncle Sam $4
State owes me $99

I give lessons on witholding the proper amount for $100 each

4/14/2008 11:30:37 AM

But you gave uncle same too much money...

4/14/2008 11:35:44 AM

feds owe me $890
state owes me $196

4/14/2008 1:18:07 PM

sooooo...first time I did my taxes it came out to me owing over $1500...

I just redid them and found out I screwed up big time before.

Now I am getting a net refund of $16!!!! W00T

I dont have to scrap my Jeep project!

4/14/2008 11:46:48 PM

Ugh. $324 from the feds, and a whopping $30 from the state. God DAMN this was ridiculous.

4/15/2008 12:50:57 AM

fuck i'm a procrastinator.

i'm almost done.

Next year i'm gonna get a pro to do this. My shit's gotten more and more complicated and time consuming.

4/15/2008 7:31:18 AM

here's a weird situation that pissed me off about using one of the major online sites to do the fed/states

the standard deduction was different between the federal and the state i live in.

i selected the "choose whichever is highest"

didnt have to itemize for fed, did for state

the schedule a IS NOT ACCESSABLE ON IT'S OWN.

so what happened was on the e-file, took the standard for federal, itemized for state, w/o submitting a sched. a.

of course this bombs, and was easy to fix (the local state revenue dept. rep called, the difference was like $30 on a refund, so to make it easier i just took the standard and she ammended the return), but from what i found, if you needed it, the schedule a on it's own was not available.

this was turbotax.

4/15/2008 7:52:50 AM

~$300 back federal.
~$1500 back state

i obviously forgot to change my witholdings on my state form. last year i got about 6k back from federal, so im moving in the right directino.

4/15/2008 8:30:29 AM

Quote :

"fuck i'm a procrastinator. i'm almost done. Next year i'm gonna get a pro to do this. My shit's gotten more and more complicated and time consuming."

Same. I did mine a month ago but wasn't sure i had done everything correctly, didn't get around to checking until last night. Next year someone else will do this for me. I'm just thankful I only owed $170 this year.

4/15/2008 8:47:19 AM

~$1500 back from feds.
~$500 back from state.

4/15/2008 8:53:41 AM

Quote :

"But you gave uncle same too much money..."

no i didnt. i owe uncle sam $4

4/15/2008 10:28:01 AM

If you filed and had direct deposit, you should see your rebate hit on the following days. #'s on the left are the last two of your SS#.

00 - 20 May 2
21 - 75 May 9
76 - 99 May 16

BTW, if you owe State or Federal tax to any state from previous years, they will take it out of this check if they catch it. So if you owe NC $500.00 from 2005, don't be surprised if they take it from you. The NCDOR lady I talked to last week wasn't even aware of this.

4/15/2008 10:37:16 AM

Its probably because its not true. Provide me with the link that says they will use the rebate to pay back state taxes. There is no way they coordinated that in time for the rebates.

In fact there is no federal system in place to pay back state taxes. Federal refunds/rebates can only be used to pay off irs/fms debt. Fms debt does not include state taxes.

4/15/2008 10:01:51 PM

You may want to edit your post, strike out everything you wrote, or just delete it entirely.....

Quote :

"Q. I'm eligible for a payment but I still owe federal income tax from a prior year. Will my payment be reduced? A. Yes. For this purpose, the Stimulus Payment is treated like any other tax refund. This means that part or all of your payment can be used to pay past-due federal or state income taxes or non-tax federal debt such as student loans and child support."

From http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=179181,00.html

Updated today.

4/15/2008 10:09:54 PM

You better edit your post. It says it is treated like any other federal tax refund. Federal tax refunds are not used to pay the state of NC.

4/15/2008 11:00:05 PM

ok, so i'm getting married next week

1. do i need to amend my taxes to say i'm married
2. can i make changes (like reducing my extra money taken out for federal/state) and keep myself single
3. am i at a higher risk for being audited if i make changes mid-year?

4/22/2008 6:45:35 AM

^1. you filed taxes for 2007 and you're getting married in 2008 so you don't amend your taxes to say you are married. next year you can file jointly.

4/22/2008 7:45:14 AM

^^They withhold less if you're married, but that could leave open the possibility of owing taxes next year.

Our refund is only $550 federal, $150 state, even after $14,000 in itemized deductions.

4/22/2008 10:32:03 AM