Tax return money

amberrrjade · February 2014

Is there anything -special- you're buying for LO with your return?

amberrrjade · February 2014

OMG I MOBILE GIFFED!!!!!!!!

barista411 · February 2014

I'm getting the ergo 360! I am so excited now if they would just release it already! I also order a roomba which I am claiming I am buying for DS so my floors are clean when he starts to crawl.

PeachsMama · February 2014

We paid bills but I ordered a boba carrier that I'm super excited to get! He has clingy days and I plan on spending a lot of time at the zoo this summer so it'll be nice!

Jennybabe0706 · February 2014

We are putting half in her college fund and using the other half in our "house fund". Super fun stuff lol

AlisonM12 · February 2014

Used it to pay off our new HVAC system. Wha, Wha..... But I'm super excited to have that paid off!! Saving for a roof now...

GopherBaby13 · February 2014

A running stroller!

SamanthaPo · February 2014

Paying off bills and conquering student loans! We are a fun bunch in this house!

McJen715 · February 2014

We used some to pay off my H's truck, so now we are debt free besides our house! Woop! The rest is in savings for now, I may buy a glider for L's nursery. I use DD1's chair to rock her sometimes, but it would be nice to have one in each room.

michelleh0385 · February 2014

We're using it for all of the yearly stuff that comes around this time of year like car tags and get the dogs shots updated. Also any leftover medical bills from having LO and some spring clothes for the kids.
I did get T25 for myself which is currently kicking my ass.

Kim22 · February 2014

Using ours towards getting LO a room, either an addition to our current house or a new house. I can't decide.

CarrieB. · February 2014

I want to a dishwasher put in our kitchen! No more hand washing pump parts and bottles every night. The rest will go into savings and to pay off some credit card debt. I need to fix our withholdings, because we are getting a large amount back this year. Having 2 kids is kind of awesome!

cagoldi · February 2014

Tax return? I wish! We owe every year. Haven't gotten anything back since before we got married. I just hope it's not $5,000 like last year.

Karadee1 · February 2014

We owe, too. Boo.

rbtrumpet · February 2014

We're (hopefully) getting new windows. We've been saving for a while, and our return should cover the rest. It's "for LO" because the nursery window is one of the worst - when we moved in, the top panel was hanging open about 1", and there was a hornet's nest at the top! (we pushed the panel up and glued it in place for now - and the nest is empty - we're pretty sure!). The windows are about 30 years old, and are in terrible condition.

I'm also hoping DH will let me get some more diapers, hopefully looking for "earth day" sales

Kfran84 · February 2014

chrisy_01 said:
We will probably owe since my DH got some inheritance. I don't know yet since DH wants to use his sisters CPA

No... You don't pay taxes on money that is gifted or inherited. The person giving the gift or the estate that it comes from is subject to gift taxes, but not the recipient.

If you got property and sold it for a gain then your gain could be taxable.

Anyway... just thought I'd throw that out there. You CPA will be able to help with all that.

jacqgomar · February 2014

No one should ever owe taxes. If you do you don't have a good CPA. It's not cheap to have one but I sure like getting money back every year. Things I've learned over the years, never do your own taxes unless you are an account and never go to H&R Block.

This year we will invest some and start a college fund for Quinn. We are also gonna start our master bathroom remodel. I love getting our taxes done.

EandIMommy86 · February 2014

We are going to put it in savings.

cagoldi · February 2014

jacqgomar said:
No one should ever owe taxes. If you do you don't have a good CPA. It's not cheap to have one but I sure like getting money back every year. Things I've learned over the years, never do your own taxes unless you are an account and never go to H&R Block.

This year we will invest some and start a college fund for Quinn. We are also gonna start our master bathroom remodel. I love getting our taxes done.

I just don't agree with this. While it would be nice to break even, that doesn't happen. And even as much as it sucks writing out a fat check at the end of the year, it's better than letting Uncle Sam borrow it interest free, like LJGS stated.

We claim 0, we're in a high tax bracket, we pay 10.5% state income tax, and have a super low interest rate on our mortgage. We just don't have substantial enough deductions to completely offset our tax burden.

[Deleted User] · February 2014

I get depressed when I file my taxes, even with a refund. It just shows me how much money I'm giving the gov't. Your welcome Washington.

michelleh0385 · February 2014

I'll be honest and say I'm completely stupid when it comes to this tax stuff.

For the ladies that are saying you shouldn't get anything back...how do you know? How do you make sure you're doing the right thing to begin with? Is it how you file your taxes or does it have to do with what you claim on your paycheck?

I'm a SAHM so DH is the only one that works. Because of the tax bracket we're in, they take a lot out of every paycheck. We have 3 kids and DH has a crapton of student loans (and some have a relatively high interest rate). Those factors are what I thought made us get back a return.

I know a lot of it is a case by case situation...just trying to understand a little better because I've never heard of this.

bglovesbabyk · February 2014

We owe every year. I miss the days of getting money back. Now I'm in a pissed off mood thinking about it and some of the dumb shit my tax dollars goes to. X(

AnsbyGamber · February 2014

michelleh0385 said:

I'll be honest and say I'm completely stupid when it comes to this tax stuff. For the ladies that are saying you shouldn't get anything back...how do you know? How do you make sure you're doing the right thing to begin with? Is it how you file your taxes or does it have to do with what you claim on your paycheck? I'm a SAHM so DH is the only one that works. Because of the tax bracket we're in, they take a lot out of every paycheck. We have 3 kids and DH has a crapton of student loans (and some have a relatively high interest rate). Those factors are what I thought made us get back a return. I know a lot of it is a case by case situation...just trying to understand a little better because I've never heard of this.

Getting a refund is just the government paying you back the money you overpaid by having it withheld from your paycheck through the year. If you get a refund, it means that your tax deductions at work aren't set up correctly and your job is taking too much tax money out each paycheck. Some people like having that refund to get a chunk of money at once. My husband and I try to not get a refund because we would rather have that money on our paycheck every month than all at once in a refund. Your husband can adjust his deductions at work to get it right and not get a refund. But then you run the risk of owing if you don't get it right. We get our taxes done by a cpa and get advice on how to set up our deductions for the next year at the same time.

Karadee1 · February 2014

Re owing money: when DH switched jobs this year we opted to take his pension out to pay off some debts so we could hopefully buy a house this year. They took federal taxes from the withdraw, but we knew we would still owe a bit on the federal side from that. State taxes were not taken out, and that's where a good chunk is going to this year. But we planned for that and held some of the pension back for that reason.

I agree with some of the others though, I'd rather break even at tax time then get a big refund back.

alexisjo88 · February 2014

To be honest, I am terrible at saving money, so I claim 0 and married but at a single rate. I don't know what is wrong with DH's w2, all I know is he owes every year and my taxes cover him and give us a small return. This year was different as I got all of my state taxes back because of the military spouse exemption. Yay for a down payment for a mommy car. Sadsies to having to get rid of my 350z.

Kfran84 · February 2014

michelleh0385 said:
I'll be honest and say I'm completely stupid when it comes to this tax stuff.

For the ladies that are saying you shouldn't get anything back...how do you know? How do you make sure you're doing the right thing to begin with? Is it how you file your taxes or does it have to do with what you claim on your paycheck?

I'm a SAHM so DH is the only one that works. Because of the tax bracket we're in, they take a lot out of every paycheck. We have 3 kids and DH has a crapton of student loans (and some have a relatively high interest rate). Those factors are what I thought made us get back a return.

I know a lot of it is a case by case situation...just trying to understand a little better because I've never heard of this.

It has to do with the withholding from his paycheck. He is having them withhold too much (hence your refund) when you could have access to that money all year as your H earns it.

There is a tax worksheet that's associated with the W4 (the form you use to tell work how many exemptions you claim). It helps take into account other factors that affect your tax due, so that can help people be more accurate than just saying, "married, 5 exemptions". If you guys have a mortgage, student loans, education credits, etc. it might be more accurate to claim 6 or 7. The worksheet should help you.

Honestly, the worksheet is a little hard to use, but maybe give it a shot and see what it says vs what he has withheld.

Also, some people never update their W4, so make sure his isn't so old that he left some of your kids off and is only claiming 2 or 3 exemptions.

If he's paid in large part by bonus, that's a whole other story.

Kfran84 · February 2014

@devynnmarie I had the longest response typed out then LO wacked my phone.

I'm guessing it was Earned Income Tax Credit if he was mentioning your income being below a certain level. That would be all yours. I wouldn't worry about not spending it.

Kfran84 · February 2014

@CFox815 Bonuses are supplemental income and typically require an automatic 25% fed tax withheld. I have no idea what the IRS logic behind that is, but that's the rule.

One of my friends in sales had a base of $40K but made 80K in bonuses. He had $20K in withholding just from the bonuses and owed nowhere near that on his return. This wasn't something he could fix by manipulating his withholdings. So he gets like 5-10K back every year.

ETA words are hard

hologram87 · February 2014

I selfishly want to get a Clairsonic for washing my face. It will all depend on what we get back. We really need to have our driveway redone and possibly widened, so any money we get will probably go towards that. we want to teach DD to ride a bike and our driveway is a bit bumpy and weird.

p.s. you all sound so smart talking about tax stuff! I'm jealous, and feeling a bit stupid

mmm50 · February 2014

LJGS1010 said:

All this talk about not getting money back is scaring me, not going to lie. My CPA did nothing other then check off I had a baby... And in getting back a nuts amount of money. Now I'm confused... I was told it was because I made under a certain amount.. Maybe I should hold off touching any of it until I know I can deff keep it.. ?!
This year might be like this because you're receiving a child credit, plus your withholdings wouldn't have reflected C as your dependent....I'm not an accountant, so I don't know what else plays into this, but that would be a big factor.

And I bet working only part-time you qualify for the earned income tax credit @DevynnMarie. It's one of the few credits where you get cash even if it is more than the tax you owe. The EITC amount for one child in 2013 was $37,870 with one child. So if you made less than that you're probably getting that credit, the child credit, and working only part-time, are probably in a low tax bracket.

[I guess my nerdy job as a tax accountant was bound to come out at some point.]

Edit: typo

1sloqwen · February 2014

We usually get money back and I want to use the refund to update the bathroom vanity, repaint our deck and pay off my car.

dobrydney · February 2014

I know we shouldn't get $$$ back, I get that whole theory. But we usually end up with a small refund which is always nice versus having to pay. We have a tree in our side yard that needs to be removed that we have been putting off. We're finally going to take care of it!

katie.725 · February 2014

A new carseat and paying the pedi bill for getting his tongue un-tethered..

cagoldi · February 2014

CFox815 said:

hologram87 said:
I selfishly want to get a Clairsonic for washing my face. It will all depend on what we get back. We really need to have our driveway redone and possibly widened, so any money we get will probably go towards that. we want to teach DD to ride a bike and our driveway is a bit bumpy and weird.

p.s. you all sound so smart talking about tax stuff! I'm jealous, and feeling a bit stupid

Yo, return or not, get that Clairsonic.

I have had mine for years and its the shiiiiit.

Agree 100%. I never knew how much make-up I wasn't getting off my face before I got it. I would still end up with a lot when I would swipe my face with the cotton pad and toner, and I'm not one to cake on the face make-up. Now there's hardly any at all by the time I get done scrubbing with the Clarisonic.

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