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We get back around $5,500 from Fed and a few hundred from state. My husband doesn't want to change the withholding and it isn't worth fighting about.
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Originally posted by disneysteve View Post
Ah yes thanks for the clarification disneysteve. And yes it is owing the money that depresses me. Being single & having no kids is liberating and I love my freedom, peace and quiet, no one to slow me down, crying babies, not having to wait to use the bathroom, watching what I want on TV, no alimony, no child support payments, fully funding my 457 & Roth IRA instead of a 529, etc. I can go on and on but I digress (lol). I have thought about making an adjustment to my withholding.Comment
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I finally filed our taxes this afternoon (it's been busy recently). Ended up getting a ~$2500 refund. We had a second child last year, so I wasn't able to forecast our taxes very well. But with this tax return, I increased our W4 allowances to reduce most of that excess
Living in Alaska, no state taxes... But I did (ignorantly) expect to owe some state taxes to Oklahoma for our rental home there. Turns out nothing due, between all the deductions & the normal exemptions, since the net income is relatively low after factoring in expenses & depreciation.Comment
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Why wouldn't he want an extra $400-$450 in the monthly income?? I think that getting it throughout the year gives you so much more flexibility than getting back a big chunk of your own money (without interest) once a year. I've never bought that philosophy...Originally posted by msomnipotent View PostComment
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I'm only speaking for myself, but my DH is the same way. He could care less about money. And the effort to contact someone in payroll to get a new form and fill it out just isn't worth his time. His disconnect with money just amazes me. He is my true polar opposite but a great guy none the less. But when it comes to money, it's not important to him.Originally posted by kork13 View PostComment
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In as few words as possible: fun money, misguided info, and inertia.Originally posted by kork13 View Post
We used to get over $8,000 most years until we were bumped into the next tax bracket. One time it was $12,000. Mostly, I think he just thinks of the refund as "free money" to spend on something fun. He just bought a $4,300 massage chair yesterday. It wasn't a spur of the moment thing, but I did research and chose a $2,000 model and then Costco sold out of them. I thought we should wait and see what else goes on sale but he wanted one sooner than later, so now here we are.
He also thinks that he can't change witholding unless it is at the beginning of the year and then only if things change like we have a baby or someone dies. I even pulled up the W-4 info from the IRS website that proves we can change it whenever today, and he still said "Maybe next year after we see what the new taxes will be this year". So he is just going to coast this year, and probably next year, and I'm too tired of fighting about it.
On the plus side, I asked him if he realized that a $5,000 refund amounts to over $400 a month that we could have been investing this whole time, and I really don't think he realized it. The odd thing is that he doesn't think of $5,000 as being a large amount of money anymore, but $400 a month is. Maybe because we can just write a check if a $5,000 expense popped up, but $400 per month is cumulative?Comment
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We got a refund. Sometimes we pay, sometimes we get a refund. It depends on the income from DH's business which varies a lot. We pay estimated taxes each year based on our total tax from the previous year. It's the system that works for us and allows us to avoid penalties. A refund is nothing to celebrate or bemoan for us.
When we were both W-2 wage earners I'd try to tinker with our withholding to bring us as close to even as I possibly could.
As far as the mindset of some people about getting a refund ... I know a few people for whom that is the only way they will save up for an irregular expenditure or purchase.
My brother who has an intellectual disability is one of the people who truly cannot save. Money in his pocket is money spent. He gets a "big" (to him) tax refund every year, and uses it to either make a large purchase like a new bike or to take a vacation. Given the way he thinks and what he is capable of learning, it's really OK!Comment
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I've found that to absolutely be the case. For some reason the mind is okay with a large one-time purchase, but the same cost spread out over time seems overwhelmingly expensive. Not sure why, but I've had success a number of times in the past explaining things to people that way.Originally posted by msomnipotent View PostComment
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Dang! Total income taxes (fed + state) we paid 241K cumulative over the last 15 years.Originally posted by corn18 View PostGot debt?
www.mo-moneyman.comComment
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I just finished my Federal tax and I will pay $2300. This is a result of owning a rental where I generated $10,800 in rental income for the year from a property I own in Hawaii. It comes out to about 25% tax, does that sound correct? Any knowledgeable tax people out there?Comment
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missed the "savers credit" by about $1100 dollars (made too much), so we'll owe about $150 (I try to break even each year)Gunga galunga...gunga -- gunga galunga.Comment
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I got back $7,264 from Federal and $1,531 from the state I moved to, but owed $181 to the state I moved from. However, $6,780 of that went into the joint account with my partner since most of the refund was due to paying interest and taxes on the house we bought, which all went onto my taxes since we're not married yet.
I'm not really going to adjust any of my withholding this year since we had so many changes last year so I'm not really sure what a "normal" year looks like yet. Plus I have no idea if we'll possibly get married this year yet or not. So it's just not worth messing with.Comment
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Just finished my taxes a few minutes ago and some of my brain synapse feel like they are about to snap.
I always like seeing the % that Turbo Tax shows of taxable income. -2.14% for us. We owe $503 for the feds, but that is Social Security, mostly on my account due to the value of the Amazon Vine products that I got. We get $840 back from the State which is exactly what I made into as estimated taxes. Just remembered I still must do the local ones. I paid estimated for state and local but not the feds so all in all I think things are okay. I have money set aside for taxes that will cover it. Unfortunately, we also have property taxes due on April 30 which I don't have the whole amount for yet.
I still have to decide if we should pay estimated state taxes this year or not and I cringe at the thought of giving them my whole state refund now when it would go a long way towards the property tax. And it is much easier to come up with the smaller amounts of money throughout the year and having the bigger chunk now. Same with trying to figure out if we should do estimated IRS also. Those are the hard decisions, to be made when my brain isn't so tired.
I did laugh at one point when trying to see if we were eligible for some credit and it said we weren't because we had too much in investments!! At the same time the state gave us tax forgiveness because we are so poor! Just how you look at things.
I'm happy. I do wonder if a few years of me paying into SS again might change my amount in my check for the good? I do love the Amazon Vine program!
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