basketdiva
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,649 
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Post by basketdiva on Feb 10, 2019 16:09:43 GMT
Last year we paid due to some extra income and this year we will get some back. Our goal is get as close to zero owed/refunded.
I don't understand how people get such large amounts back. I'm assuming it's beacuase of children and large mortgages.
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Post by papercrafteradvocate on Feb 10, 2019 16:23:42 GMT
We did wonderful! Last year, we paid $5,000 in estimated taxes and still owed. We haven't been able to itemize for years. The standard deductions is higher than our deductions we could itemize. We've owed over $1,000 for several years. This year we're getting over $1,000 back. My take home also increased about $60 every two weeks with the tax reduction. Win-Win situation! You’re one of the few lucky ones I guess. |
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Sept 30, 2024 9:38:49 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2019 16:26:01 GMT
Last year we paid due to some extra income and this year we will get some back. Our goal is get as close to zero owed/refunded. I don't understand how people get such large amounts back. I'm assuming it's beacuase of children and large mortgages. 2 kids We rent a townhome Single income - dh is a teacher and total pre tax income is about $109k We have always gotten back quite a bit back with refunds. Only once did we owe state and it was $16. We have been married 17 years this April and dh even got money back when he filed single before we were married. |
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Post by papercrafteradvocate on Feb 10, 2019 16:26:02 GMT
Last year we paid due to some extra income and this year we will get some back. Our goal is get as close to zero owed/refunded. I don't understand how people get such large amounts back. I'm assuming it's beacuase of children and large mortgages. We try like crazy to be as close to zero as possible. The last few years we’ve gotten refunds even with balancing our withholding. This year nope. I think not being able to take the job related expenses deductions are what killed it. Plus we never saw an increase in take home pay. |
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Sept 30, 2024 9:38:49 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2019 16:34:45 GMT
Last year we paid due to some extra income and this year we will get some back. Our goal is get as close to zero owed/refunded. I don't understand how people get such large amounts back. I'm assuming it's beacuase of children and large mortgages. We’ve always opted to have the maximum + an additional $ amount withheld for federal so we would get back enough to contribute to our IRA. I’m a bit nervous to do our taxes this year. Guess I should face my fears and just get it done. |
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Post by mustlovecats on Feb 10, 2019 16:37:22 GMT
Last year we paid due to some extra income and this year we will get some back. Our goal is get as close to zero owed/refunded. I don't understand how people get such large amounts back. I'm assuming it's beacuase of children and large mortgages. 2 kids We rent a townhome Single income - dh is a teacher and total pre tax income is about $109k We have always gotten back quite a bit back with refunds. Only once did we owe state and it was $16. We have been married 17 years this April and dh even got money back when he filed single before we were married. Holy shit, where does he teach that he makes that much money? I am in the wrong district. |
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Sept 30, 2024 9:38:49 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2019 17:05:15 GMT
2 kids We rent a townhome Single income - dh is a teacher and total pre tax income is about $109k We have always gotten back quite a bit back with refunds. Only once did we owe state and it was $16. We have been married 17 years this April and dh even got money back when he filed single before we were married. Holy shit, where does he teach that he makes that much money? I am in the wrong district. He is a teacher (teaching his 20th year so step and ladder increases), is department chair, and is a demonstration teacher that is an added district position. The district position added about $15,000 a year to his paycheck and last year he received a $5,000 bonus for being selected (4 step interview process to get this highly sought after position). We are in southern Ca. Health care, dental, vision is 100% covered. |
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ddly
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,019
Jul 10, 2014 19:36:28 GMT
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Post by ddly on Feb 10, 2019 17:07:34 GMT
This thread had me a little paranoid so I did mine.
For federal I am getting 3x more than last year, equivalent to 1 pay check. I paid into state last year, only $73, and this year I’m get $250 back. I file married filing separate, own my house and have adult kids, so no dependants.
I must be one of the lucky ones. I don’t know.
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Post by mustlovecats on Feb 10, 2019 18:03:00 GMT
Holy shit, where does he teach that he makes that much money? I am in the wrong district. He is a teacher (teaching his 20th year so step and ladder increases), is department chair, and is a demonstration teacher that is an added district position. The district position added about $15,000 a year to his paycheck and last year he received a $5,000 bonus for being selected (4 step interview process to get this highly sought after position). We are in southern Ca. Health care, dental, vision is 100% covered. That’s pretty awesome. He sounds like a good teacher and leader. |
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sassyangel
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,456
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Post by sassyangel on Feb 10, 2019 18:38:00 GMT
What? It's not even April yet? There are a lot of people who intentionally have more taken out of their paychecks to make sure they will not have to pay in and will get a refund. Those people tend to file really early because they anticipate getting money back. I should add, we both did this too. Adjusted our withholdings when we were told we were probably underwithholding by a lot. I compared our taxes, and we paid more this year. Otherwise we would have paid in more. It especially hurts us, cause we are DINKs, and we fall just over a new tax bracket. 😏 |
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sassyangel
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,456
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Post by sassyangel on Feb 10, 2019 18:39:19 GMT
Last year we paid due to some extra income and this year we will get some back. Our goal is get as close to zero owed/refunded. I don't understand how people get such large amounts back. I'm assuming it's beacuase of children and large mortgages. We try like crazy to be as close to zero as possible. The last few years we’ve gotten refunds even with balancing our withholding. This year nope. I think not being able to take the job related expenses deductions are what killed it. Plus we never saw an increase in take home pay. We actually saw a decrease in take home pay, cause we upped our withholdings. |
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sassyangel
Drama Llama
Posts: 7,456
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Post by sassyangel on Feb 10, 2019 18:42:52 GMT
Ouch. That's brutal.  The loss of deductions —-grrrrr. Yeah, they were more popular than they figured, it seems. 🤨 It’s hurt a few people I know, although not to your degree, but close. |
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Post by Really Red on Feb 10, 2019 18:58:01 GMT
What? It's not even April yet? Yes. I love you. |
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Post by chances on Feb 10, 2019 19:17:43 GMT
I was paranoid, so increased my withholding. So, I got more back on federal. Half as much for state.
I'm just nervous to see what happens in a few years when most people's taxes go up again. It's so frustrating. I'm sick of subsidizing tax cuts for ultra wealthy ppl and corporations.
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Post by papercrafteradvocate on Feb 11, 2019 2:02:34 GMT
I was paranoid, so increased my withholding. So, I got more back on federal. Half as much for state. I'm just nervous to see what happens in a few years when most people's taxes go up again. It's so frustrating. I'm sick of subsidizing tax cuts for ultra wealthy ppl and corporations. We did the same, and we still paid more in taxes. |
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leeny
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,754
Location: Northern California
Site Supporter
Jun 27, 2014 1:55:53 GMT
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Post by leeny on Feb 11, 2019 2:25:12 GMT
This thread had me a little paranoid so I did mine. For federal I am getting 3x more than last year, equivalent to 1 pay check. I paid into state last year, only $73, and this year I’m get $250 back. I file married filing separate, own my house and have adult kids, so no dependants. I must be one of the lucky ones. I don’t know. Wow, even though you are filing married filing separate? That is the highest tax rate! |
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Post by boys5times on Feb 11, 2019 3:29:40 GMT
We did good. We're self employed so we always end up paying a LOT, and this year only will be paying about $6K.
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Post by papercrafteradvocate on Feb 11, 2019 4:10:20 GMT
I just finished everything out, checks off in the mail.
Oh and get this...my state sent me 1099-G's THIS YEAR for the last 4 years that we received state refunds and I HAD TO CLAIM ALL OF THEM AS TAXABLE INCOME!!!!!! and because I filed using Turbo Tax, when calculating the state return, I would have also had to have included on my 2018 federal as taxable income a state refund from 2018 if I were to have gotten one (we owed $1000).
I swear to all that is holy this tax shit is for the birds. We paid over $70,000 in taxes out of our paychecks.
And my hubby worked out of state for a part of the year, and those state taxes we paid don't count towards taxes paid in our home state, even though they are reciprocal, but we had to count ALL of his income as taxable in our home state---but could not use the other state tax paid to offset.
Such a racket. I sometimes think these people doing the W2 for my hubby's work really are not doing it right. I just feel so screwed at tax time.
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Post by 950nancy on Feb 11, 2019 4:38:45 GMT
Holy shit, where does he teach that he makes that much money? I am in the wrong district. He is a teacher (teaching his 20th year so step and ladder increases), is department chair, and is a demonstration teacher that is an added district position. The district position added about $15,000 a year to his paycheck and last year he received a $5,000 bonus for being selected (4 step interview process to get this highly sought after position). We are in southern Ca. Health care, dental, vision is 100% covered. That is awesome pay. I had 28 years, a master's, a master teacher, and 70 extra credits on top of my degree. I made a lot less. I realize CA isn't cheap, but the difference is quite substantial. |
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Post by ~summer~ on Feb 11, 2019 4:42:48 GMT
I haven’t done our taxes yet because we always owe. I’ve maxed our deductions but we always owe a lot...(two incomes and barely any deductions ) we usually owe around $2-15k. |
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Post by cade387 on Feb 11, 2019 5:08:14 GMT
This thread had me a little paranoid so I did mine. For federal I am getting 3x more than last year, equivalent to 1 pay check. I paid into state last year, only $73, and this year I’m get $250 back. I file married filing separate, own my house and have adult kids, so no dependants. I must be one of the lucky ones. I don’t know. Wow, even though you are filing married filing separate? That is the highest tax rate! We file the same way Plus withhold extra every pay. When we got married we got hit with a $9k tax bill just because we got married. Even with kids, we have to put away or we owe a ton. I’m not sure yet on this year - we will do our taxes this week. |
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Post by fkawitchypea on Feb 11, 2019 11:13:34 GMT
More. About $1,000 more between federal and state. I was surprised about federal. I don't usually file so early but was concerned I would have to pay so I did them last week.
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blue tulip
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,004
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Post by blue tulip on Feb 11, 2019 12:54:20 GMT
we lost about $1200 off last year's refund. we lost $16,000 in deductions thru the new laws which hurt us.
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Post by rockymtnpea on Feb 11, 2019 13:17:41 GMT
Papercrafteradvocate...70k in taxes you all paid?  ?? |
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Feb 11, 2019 13:37:48 GMT
Last year we paid due to some extra income and this year we will get some back. Our goal is get as close to zero owed/refunded. I don't understand how people get such large amounts back. I'm assuming it's beacuase of children and large mortgages. The people I know who get the biggest refunds are actually people who have a very low income and/or live primarily off or government assistance already, and don’t have a lot of deductions. I don’t know how it works, but they definitely get back more than they paid. |
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Sept 30, 2024 9:38:49 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Feb 11, 2019 13:38:33 GMT
Most of my clients are benefitting from the increased standard deduction. I have a couple who can still itemize. We owe, but it's less than in the past. I don't like giving the government an interest free loan.
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pridemom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,843
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Post by pridemom on Feb 11, 2019 13:48:31 GMT
We are paying an additional 30%. Even though our income decreased.
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Feb 11, 2019 13:49:55 GMT
I love how they are explaining the low refunds or having to pay more by saying that people either got more in their paychecks so are getting less now, or that they should have changed their withholdings so that more was taken out, resulting in paying less at tax time. Duh! The problem is that most people didn’t see an increase in their pay checks and are still getting hit at tax time.
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Post by pjynx on Feb 11, 2019 14:05:48 GMT
I think the article makes a good point. Looking at your refund doesn't give you the whole picture. You really need to look at your effective tax rate or the total $ you paid in taxes from one year to the next. ^^ This. Exactly! People may have gotten a smaller refund because the adjusted tax tables might have taken out less taxes from their paychecks. Just looking at a bigger or smaller refund doesn't tell much. Look at the actual tax liability (before withholdings are subtracted). Pam |
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quiltedbrain
Full Member
Posts: 429
Jun 26, 2014 3:34:53 GMT
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Post by quiltedbrain on Feb 11, 2019 14:37:33 GMT
I love how they are explaining the low refunds or having to pay more by saying that people either got more in their paychecks so are getting less now, or that they should have changed their withholdings so that more was taken out, resulting in paying less at tax time. Duh! The problem is that most people didn’t see an increase in their pay checks and are still getting hit at tax time. Exactly! And there's the fact that we lost the ability to deduct things we had been able to previously. Maybe it's a shame on me situation for not having paid attention to the fact that we were losing those deductions, but it's not as simple as "oh just go adjust your withholdings" as some on this thread would have you believe. Also, adjusting your withholdings is not always a simple process. I have two jobs. One of them makes you fax the W-4 in...the location I work at does not have a fax machine onsite, nor do I the ability to fax from home, so adjusting my withholding amounts takes a lot of extra steps in a life that is already kinda busy. I really wish people could wake up and look outside their privileged bubble to see that not everyone lives like they do. |
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