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Tax refunds!

4K views 99 replies 68 participants last post by  sunnysandiegan 
#1 ·
Have you filed yet? How much are you getting back? If you haven't, how much do you think you'll get back?

I'm getting $778 from federal and $119 from the state!
: I only paid in $447 in federal, but since I didn't make enough last year to have to file (and would have owed if I did --
: my old job screwed up the paperwork and didn't withhold anything but SS and medicare) I get last year's stimulus money this year!

What are you planning on doing with your money? I'm going to get some much needed household stuff (curtains and paint for my kitchen) and clothing, and the rest is savings/emergency money, which I desperately need.
 
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#77 ·
We just got our back today and we are getting $8200 back!!
:
:
:

We are buying a new mattress, paying mil back $600, buying myself a new dlsr camera, a few things for around the house (such as curtains and a new tv), and dh is buying himself a few things that I greatly disagree with, and the rest is going into savings.
 
#78 ·
950ish federal, 600ish state. I still haven't gotten our bank's statement, so, it might change a few dollars or so, but, not much.

I actually did pretty well with figuring out our exemptions on the W-2....600 of the 950 is the other part of our tax rebate that they didn't send...(we only got 900 instead of 1500). So, we'd really only have been getting 350 back.

It's going into savings/CDs
 
#79 ·
$4600 total Fed & State, with entire refund going to pay off cc debt.

I believe you can write off a new roof if you have a home office. You can deduct improvements made to the home as a whole, not like a kitchen remodel, but painting the house or putting a new roof or gutters on it would qualify as a write-off. We painted our house and I have a home office as I am self-employed, so we were going to get 27% of the painting costs deducted but we actually didn't need the deduction because my total income was so paltry last year.
 
#80 ·
Um, wow, so I e filed last night and this morning woke up to an email saying the IRS accepted my fed return. Already! Less than 12 hours later! Now that's what I call service considering in years past it would take a couple days to recieve that email. I should have my money by the end of next week. Bye bye car payment!
 
#81 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Shelsi View Post
I've heard they are voting to pass a bill that would make the first time home buyer $7500 tax credit an actual tax credit, not just an interest free loan. I believe they are debating it on the 25th and it will be for people who buy a home after Jan 1st 2009.
Well, that blows

here's a link for those wondering: http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com/
 
#82 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by grniys View Post
Um, wow, so I e filed last night and this morning woke up to an email saying the IRS accepted my fed return. Already! Less than 12 hours later! Now that's what I call service considering in years past it would take a couple days to recieve that email. I should have my money by the end of next week. Bye bye car payment!
Wow, that is fast. I e-filed yesterday afternoon and still no email.
 
#84 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by freespirited View Post
$4600 total Fed & State, with entire refund going to pay off cc debt.

I believe you can write off a new roof if you have a home office. You can deduct improvements made to the home as a whole, not like a kitchen remodel, but painting the house or putting a new roof or gutters on it would qualify as a write-off. We painted our house and I have a home office as I am self-employed, so we were going to get 27% of the painting costs deducted but we actually didn't need the deduction because my total income was so paltry last year.
But you can only do that if you use the home office ONLY for your business. If you have a computer "for business" that you also let your kids do their homework/myspace/video games on, it doesn't count.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/he...881041033.aspx

Quote:
The area must be used exclusively as a home office. For example, a computer room that your client shares with his children does not qualify.
I've got a friend who uses a guest room (with a Murphy bed, even!) as her office/computer room and if she ever gets audited, she is going to owe massive back taxes. We are talking 10 years of fraud. There is the potential that she could even face criminal charges.
 
#85 ·
In my case, the space I use is very small but only for business. It asked the square footage, rather than if it had walls separating it from other rooms. It is in the same room as a family room, but this small section was used only for my storage, packing, etc. I didn't need the PC write-off but it I don't recall turbo tax saying anything about the PC needing only to be used for the business. It definitely is shared by my child and my husband and I for non-work-related purposes. I'm just going by what the turbo tax guide seemed to imply, but perhaps I misinterpreted it or missed it altogether.

You can write-off a roof if you have a home with a personal office. How much of it you can write-off depends on the size of the office in relation to total house size. The turbo tax computes that percentage.
 
#86 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by freespirited View Post
In my case, the space I use is very small but only for business. It asked the square footage, rather than if it had walls separating it from other rooms. It is in the same room as a family room, but this small section was used only for my storage, packing, etc. I didn't need the PC write-off but it I don't recall turbo tax saying anything about the PC needing only to be used for the business. It definitely is shared by my child and my husband and I for non-work-related purposes. I'm just going by what the turbo tax guide seemed to imply, but perhaps I misinterpreted it or missed it altogether.

You can write-off a roof if you have a home with a personal office. How much of it you can write-off depends on the size of the office in relation to total house size. The turbo tax computes that percentage.

That is right. You can compute the total components you want to write off - even mortgage, internet service, heat - the whole package, and then assign a percentage that they are used for office vs used for house. Say 15-20%. That amount can be written off.
 
#88 ·
Still waiting on some paperwork from the bank but I know it's not nearly what DH paid in
:

We got twice as much back when DH was in the Marines paying in almost nothing. Sucks how we get punished for making more money.

Oh, and we don't do state taxes (WA).

And, to add, we claim zero because I love knowing that the money is coming back. Like a PP said, it'd be less than $20 in interest if we kept that bit each month. PLUS, it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much easier to spend it when it's in your pocket. I love getting that chuck and tossing it in savings or using it for something big. The govt. can have my dozen dollars.
 
#89 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by SAHDS View Post
Still waiting on some paperwork from the bank but I know it's not nearly what DH paid in
:

We got twice as much back when DH was in the Marines paying in almost nothing. Sucks how we get punished for making more money.

Oh, and we don't do state taxes (WA).

And, to add, we claim zero because I love knowing that the money is coming back. Like a PP said, it'd be less than $20 in interest if we kept that bit each month. PLUS, it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much easier to spend it when it's in your pocket. I love getting that chuck and tossing it in savings or using it for something big. The govt. can have my dozen dollars.
Well we do claim 3 (can claim 8 I believe) but I agree that I love getting back a big return.
 
#90 ·
I just filed ours online.

For the first time in years, we're getting a refund from the state. Not much but it's better than owing $800 like we usually have to pay.

And I came across a little tidbit for us Oregonian's - if you use E85 fuel or biofuel for your home, you can claim up to a $200 deduction (that's not the word I'm looking for but the best I can come up with at the moment). Being our van takes it and I'm sure I spent over $200 last year on it, woo hoo..


Here's hoping I get an email in the next day or two saying my returns have been accepted by state and feds.
 
#91 ·
I just filed last night. If we didnt provide health insurance for our family we would have had to pay $800 to our state. Thankfully we do, and oddly enough we are getting $500 back.

from federal we got enough back to pay a debt that has been looming over my head, the rest is going back into savings. I have been crunching the numbers trying to find out how much we would have to have in savings to survive for 3 months. well, the low number would have been $8500 the high number $11,000. the rest of my refund will at cover half of it.
 
#92 ·
Wow I just put everything into turbo tax and it looks like we're getting $7000 in federal, $14 from AZ and $1300 from VA (we moved in August). And it's not like we had claimed 0. We actually claimed 5 and to "break even" at tax time we should claim 8. I think we just got lucky this year because several months of it were tax free since dh was deployed. Then he was unemployed for a few months and we only had unemployment income which didn't even cover our rent. So basically the only income we got according to the IRS was dh's income from his new job that he got in Sept. So we got EIC and some sort of credit for VA state for his combat pay.

I bought dh a TV yesterday as a surprise. He'll also get a much needed new laptop, I need a new wedding ring, and we'll pay off the car. The rest is going into savings.
 
#96 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by choli View Post
Yep. I honestly don't understand when I hear people being all whoop over a tax rebate, like it's some kind of bonus from the gov. That's YOUR money that YOU OVERPAID being sent to you.

Do some work on your withholdings, and add what would have been the rebate into your normal budget. Your budget will be more realistic, and you can either pay off interest-bearing debt or earn interest instead of giving an interest free loan to the gov.
Yeah... I'll take the check at the end of the year.
 
#97 ·
Ok, I have a ? about claiming my 20 yr old dd on our taxes. I'm not sure I can. According to the IRS website, she has to have been a student for at least 5 months of the year. She was off at college and in April, she called us and was admitted to the hospital for major depression. She came home to recover, and was technically enrolled at her college for the May term, although she didn't go back. Can I claim her? WWYD?
 
#98 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by SAHDS View Post
And, to add, we claim zero because I love knowing that the money is coming back. Like a PP said, it'd be less than $20 in interest if we kept that bit each month. PLUS, it is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much easier to spend it when it's in your pocket. I love getting that chuck and tossing it in savings or using it for something big. The govt. can have my dozen dollars.
Ditto!!!
 
#99 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Chicky2 View Post
Ok, I have a ? about claiming my 20 yr old dd on our taxes. I'm not sure I can. According to the IRS website, she has to have been a student for at least 5 months of the year. She was off at college and in April, she called us and was admitted to the hospital for major depression. She came home to recover, and was technically enrolled at her college for the May term, although she didn't go back. Can I claim her? WWYD?
You could always call the IRS and ask. Seriously I had to call them one year to ask a question. I assumed I'd be on the phone waiting forever and it would be like dealing with the DMV but instead I didn't wait more than 5 minutes and they were so friendly and helpful!
 
#100 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by sunnysandiegan View Post
I filed last night using TurboTax and our federal refund is $27 and the state is ten times that.

The federal refund is covering the cost of the software and efiling the state return. LOL (Federal efile was free through TurboTax this year for everyone, not just under a certain AGI limit.) I am happy we FINALLY got the withholdings correct for our taxes with the Feds (various things keep coming up to throw the withholdings out of whack).


I am curious if we will actually receive the state refund. I read somewhere that if you file before the end of Jan, then the state (CA) will issue a refund if one is owed. Starting Feb 1, California is issuing IOUs. I do not know how true that is, so I figure the $19.95 to efile the state return was a small price to pay to find out.
If we do receive the refund, it'll go into our savings account for our 10 year wedding anniversary vacation this summer.

Six days after efiling our taxes, our returns were deposited into our account. Both the feds and the state of CA returned our overpaid income taxes on 1/27/09. That was FAST!!! I have never filed this early before and I may adjust my calendar from here on out.
 
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