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I claim the deductions appropriate for a family of my size. Some people don't claim deductions so they end up getting a larger refund. I view it differently, not wanting a refund. Why should I be excited about getting back money that was already mine? More importantly: Why should I hand over more money than I need to from the start?
that is a good way of looking at it. Would make sense to have more money in each paycheck.
i can't believe i got back the most - between fed and state it's about $4500. doing nothing with it but saving. this is far less than previous years (and yes, i know about the free loan blah blah blah). i get my bonus in march too so it's officially my fav month of the year.
Me too! $400 that could've been in my pocket every month.
OTOH: If you aren't a saver, it does serve as forced short term savings. My wife has a friend like this. She just can't wait for her refund every year; and delights in planning how she will spend it in advance.
The whole giving the government a free loan was true in the past, but not anymore. Let's use the poster with the highest refund of $4,500. Even with a high yield saving account at Wells Fargo, the interest would only be $2.25 for one year which is hardly worth being concerned about. As for me, I got back $81 this year.
The whole giving the government a free loan was true in the past, but not anymore. Let's use the poster with the highest refund of $4,500. Even with a high yield saving account at Wells Fargo, the interest would only be $2.25 for one year which is hardly worth being concerned about. As for me, I got back $81 this year.
There is no guarantee that returns will stay that low-in fact they are almost guaranteed to go up at some point in the future.
That $4500 could've been used to almost totally fund the posters IRA for the year-providing tax advantaged savings for future years.
Conversely, that is money the person could've had access to throughout the year. Why let the gov't have it, when you could utilize it for your own purposes much sooner-increasing the quality of your life?
I usually have mine worked out to break even every year. I'd much rather have the money at hand during the year than depend on a refund for any purchase.
But last year I took a lump sum distribution and came within $500 of going into a higher bracket. I deferred investment dividend distributions until next year so that will be more easily bearable then. That way I was able to avoid the Alternative Minimum Tax.
So this year I got $522 back. That's cutting it close!
There is no guarantee that returns will stay that low-in fact they are almost guaranteed to go up at some point in the future.
That $4500 could've been used to almost totally fund the posters IRA for the year-providing tax advantaged savings for future years.
Conversely, that is money the person could've had access to throughout the year. Why let the gov't have it, when you could utilize it for your own purposes much sooner-increasing the quality of your life?
i already put $16K (or whatever the max is) in a 401K (over $25K if you count my husband) yearly.
obviously i don't "need" it. I get the rationale, I really do, it just isn't a big deal to me.
tears of joy? you would've been drowning 2 years ago when we got $13K back. (that one even shocked me, lol)
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(that one even shocked me, lol)
