Tax Return Check

BaggedLancer

Horray! My state tax return check came today....pretty pathetic but better than nothing

To the bank then to ING!

MrNightly

Got mine on Saturday! I was happy!

The biggest one yet in my lifetime!!! Over 8K. Having a rental house and two kids, and being unemployed for a few months pays off... haha.

BaggedLancer

MrNightly wrote:

The biggest one yet in my lifetime!!! Over 8K. Having a rental house and two kids, and being unemployed for a few months pays off... haha.

Way to ruin the party :mad:

Mine was just over $300 and I was excited.......:(

dane_peterson

And I had to pay $50, so quit your bitchin.

Holydoc

Mine helped me replace my entire car stereo system. Talk a little about it here:

http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?t=49678

So far very happy with it.

Face

I get over 10k because my job taxes the **** out of me, but most of it usually goes to credit cards.

daboyz

Paid in $800, wifey self employed(realtor). I don't look forward to tax time anymore.

Strong Bad

I'm preparing to get boned hard by Uncle Sam! :eek:

wallstreet

I underestimated mine a little this year. I'm in the hole $9K. So much for my nice downpayment on the VW GTI.

MacLeod

I have to pay $800 myself. But the IRS being the warm human beings they are, are only going to charge me an extra $105 for the privelege of paying it off in monthly payments.

[polictal rant]****!

Abolish the income tax!

Fair tax now!! [/politcal rant]

lomic

I'm sure most have heard this by now, but haven't heard the words spoken in this thread yet ...

If you're getting money back from the government, it's not a reward - you've given them an interest free loan. Best to get back a little, or pay in a little. If you constantly underpay a large amount they'll nail you for that as well.

If you're usually getting back a chunk of cash every year, talk to your HR department or a tax specialist and work out how to adjust your W-4 to reduce your withholdings.

Demiurge

lomic wrote:

I'm sure most have heard this by now, but haven't heard the words spoken in this thread yet ...

If you're getting money back from the government, it's not a reward - you've given them an interest free loan. Best to get back a little, or pay in a little. If you constantly underpay a large amount they'll nail you for that as well.

If you're usually getting back a chunk of cash every year, talk to your HR department or a tax specialist and work out how to adjust your W-4 to reduce your withholdings.

Thank you!!!!!!

Getting money back is generally only good for people who lack financial discipline. There are exceptions, obviously (like being unemployed for a while).

MrNightly

Demiurge wrote:

Thank you!!!!!!

Getting money back is generally only good for people who lack financial discipline. There are exceptions, obviously (like being unemployed for a while).

Ya, the only perk to it really!

But you are absolutely right, it's all your money to start with!!! (Although, there are perks with having multiple houses, and kids that give you instant cash back...)

bobman1235

Demiurge wrote:

Getting money back is generally only good for people who lack financial discipline. There are exceptions, obviously (like being unemployed for a while).

I hate to admit it, but that's me.

It would be pretty funny if the government were forced to pay interest on any extra money they kept from us.

[Deleted User]

If you still want to get back a chunk at the end of the year, adjust your W-4 like Iomic said. Then take the difference and put it into a savings account. If you have direct deposit, you can have your job put a certain amount into that account for you. You'd never see the change. Plus, that money would earn a little interest. Not much, but it's better than the government using your money all year.

jdhdiggs

If you are getting more than a couple hundred back, you are really **** yourself and it's not something to be proud of.... You really should adjust you witholding rates to fix this (And if you are getting 10K back, you should definately fix this) - Nightly's problems would be a bit of an exception


That, or you make a stupid amount of money and give a ton of it to charity al la Dick Cheney

Willow

Filled ours about 1 week ago and through online services, we should be getting a deposit in our account any day now. We are not expecting much but it will pay off a bill or two. The only reason it's as much as it is due to our registered retirement savings plans.

bobman1235

jdhdiggs wrote:

If you are getting more than a couple hundred back, you are really **** yourself and it's not something to be proud of....

Unless you INVEST the money you would have been giving to the government, how are you **** yourself exactly? You end up getting it eventually.

BaggedLancer

ok so for a $300 my withholdings are right on the money

Demiurge

bobman1235 wrote:

Unless you INVEST the money you would have been giving to the government, how are you **** yourself exactly? You end up getting it eventually.

I'd rather have my $300 in my bank account for a year getting a measley interest rate than in the hands of the government for a year to get back less. Hell, you could even put it in a year long CD...

I think it's a good idea for people 25 and under to get back money because they're less likely to be financially responsible, but even then the I.R.S. gives crazy extentions and payment plans if required.

All in all, we get taxed way too much in this country, and I'm all for some reform there.

In a way it would be nice to force the entire workforce to write out a check for the government each payroll cycle for their taxes. I realize that would never work, but it would also cut all this pork barrell spending to almost zilch.

BaggedLancer

Demiurge wrote:

I think it's a good idea for people 25 and under to get back money because they're less likely to be financially responsible, but even then the I.R.S. gives crazy extentions and payment plans if required.

Hey now that's not nice! That's stereotyping!!!!!!!

bobman1235

Demiurge wrote:

In a way it would be nice to force the entire workforce to write out a check for the government each payroll cycle for their taxes. I realize that would never work, but it would also cut all this pork barrell spending to almost zilch.

I've actually always agreed with that sentiment in theory, but that's more of a "the government taxes too much" argument than a "I'd never sock away money if it wasn't tied up in tax witholdings" argument.

Hmm, now that I'm over 25, I guess I should start being more responsible with my money, eh?


Mark, I hope that's FAKE indignation, because a) he said they're LESS LIKELY to be financially responsible, not that they ARE less financially responsible, and b) he's right.

BaggedLancer

bobman1235 wrote:

Mark, I hope that's FAKE indignation, because a) he said they're LESS LIKELY to be financially responsible, not that they ARE less financially responsible, and b) he's right.

Yea, i was joking....to be honest I'd say I'm more financially responsible than anyone else I know my age...:D

Demiurge

BaggedLancer wrote:

Hey now that's not nice! That's stereotyping!!!!!!!

I know you're kidding, but..

While I never got myself into debt, I spent like a drunken sailor early on. I'll be 27 in less than 2 months and I'm not saying that 25 is a magic number on financial responsibility.

Think of it like how car insurance view male drivers under the age of 25.

Demiurge

bobman1235 wrote:

I've actually always agreed with that sentiment in theory, but that's more of a "the government taxes too much" argument than a "I'd never sock away money if it wasn't tied up in tax witholdings" argument.

Hmm, now that I'm over 25, I guess I should start being more responsible with my money, eh?


Mark, I hope that's FAKE indignation, because a) he said they're LESS LIKELY to be financially responsible, not that they ARE less financially responsible, and b) he's right.

Hell, if you're single have a good time.

jdhdiggs

Hey Bobman, could you just send me $3K right now. I'll give it back to you in a year.... Since you get it back anyway, it shouldn't really matter, right? All you are doing is giving an interest free loan to the government. So in fact, you are losing money just in inflation. If you choose to do nothing with it, that's YOUR choice, not the governments.

Look what people have said in this thread: Pay off bills, pay of CC. If they had the money in the first place, those bills and CC's shouldn't exist. I shudder to think of people paying CC interest waiting for their tax returns to pay it off.

bobman1235

jdhdiggs, believe me, I completely understand how moronic the thought process is. It doesn't make it any less true.

I get paid every two weeks. The first thing I do when I get my paycheck is pay off every bill that's in my pile o' bills. Anything that's left tends to just get spent. I don't even really KNOW where it goes, I just see that I have money in the bank, so I go out and do something with it, I guess. If I had an extra hundred dollars every two weeks in that paycheck that wasn't going to taxes, it would just end up in the same void. Whereas, when at the end of the year, I get 1500 dollars back from the government, I tend to do something useful with it (like go on vacation).

Sure, I could throw that same hundred bucks a paycheck into a savings account, and actually make interest on it, and have even more money at the end of the year to go on vacation with. But, personally, I don't trust myself to do that (or at least, I never did; over the past year or so I've gotten a LITTLE better at it).

And I KNOW I'm not alone in this. It's illogical and inefficient, but it's the way it is.

BaggedLancer

Demiurge wrote:

I know you're kidding, but..

While I never got myself into debt, I spent like a drunken sailor early on. I'll be 27 in less than 2 months and I'm not saying that 25 is a magic number on financial responsibility.

Think of it like how car insurance view male drivers under the age of 25.

My car insurance LOVES me....I pay them almost $3500 a year.

jdhdiggs

You could always split your check to a money market account (where it isn't easy to get to) and then end up with 1800 instead of 1500 at the end of the year... Sounds more like a discipline than real problem and you're in the good situation. Also, that methodology is a PRIME reason why the fairtax would be great.

At the same time there are people who spend tons of dough for Christmas depending on the refund to pay their CC bills. Only problem is they have to pay interest for a month or more. These people are hosed.

Amazingly they are also the same people who thinks the government is giving them money (not the government is returning the money they already owe) Best trick the government ever pulled- Make the masses happy to pay taxes.

cfrizz

I hope the you at least have an IRA or a 401k at work. Otherwise you are going to be in big trouble if you ever hope to retire!

bobman1235 wrote:

jdhdiggs, believe me, I completely understand how moronic the thought process is. It doesn't make it any less true.

I get paid every two weeks. The first thing I do when I get my paycheck is pay off every bill that's in my pile o' bills. Anything that's left tends to just get spent. I don't even really KNOW where it goes, I just see that I have money in the bank, so I go out and do something with it, I guess. If I had an extra hundred dollars every two weeks in that paycheck that wasn't going to taxes, it would just end up in the same void. Whereas, when at the end of the year, I get 1500 dollars back from the government, I tend to do something useful with it (like go on vacation).

Sure, I could throw that same hundred bucks a paycheck into a savings account, and actually make interest on it, and have even more money at the end of the year to go on vacation with. But, personally, I don't trust myself to do that (or at least, I never did; over the past year or so I've gotten a LITTLE better at it).

And I KNOW I'm not alone in this. It's illogical and inefficient, but it's the way it is.

bobman1235

cfrizz wrote:

I hope the you at least have an IRA or a 401k at work. Otherwise you are going to be in big trouble if you ever hope to retire!

I have a 401k. It's perfect, money that gets taken out automatically that I'm not allowed to touch