Friday, January 30, 2009

Tax Season Blues

I'm sure I'm not the only one stalking my mailbox for W2's. It's time to file our taxes and for many of us that means were are getting money back (unless, of course, you live in CA.). Depending on what your situation is, this might be what you need to make a nice dent in your debt repayment or maybe boost whatever savings you have (I am really hoping none of my readers are going to blow their money shopping). I am getting a rather large refund because I started working in September and got 2 bonuses (not performance-related, I'm not that good) which were taxed very highly. Voila, 3k+ refund. I say 3K+ because I don't know the exact amount. I don't know this because even though I started up my turbotax filing Jan 3rd my office has not sent me my W2. We have an automated epay system and they have not put that up there either. Have I mentioned I work in an accounting environment?

Well, using the information I got from my last paycheck, my fed. refund should about somewhere around 3k. I don't have a W2 from a job I worked last year because it's getting sent to my mailbox in my previous city. I don't have the form from my bank letting me know how much interest I made from my savings (HSBC - making me feel like a rich person that gets interest income). In fact, the only people that have been on point with this whole tax brouhaha have been the federal government - with my student loans. I've been able to view that information since the first week of January -ONLINE! Chase, who has my other student loans just sent me that info.



Anyway, that's just me complaining. It has technically been only a month so I should be patient. My real problem is that I might not get my refund from one of my states. The state I moved from requires health insurance before you can take your deduction. I am not sure if I had health insurance when I lived there.

UPDATE

I started this about a week ago so a lot of things have changed. I am not in possession of my main W2, my student loan info and I have confirmed I had health insurance coverage! wohoo. My federal refund is sitting at 3k now and my state is around 1k. It's going to change b/c I had a part time retail job but that W2 got sent to my former state. Going to pick it up this weekend and then I'll be all set. I'm toying with putting it all towards my Bank of america Gold option. It would be nearly paid off and probably take 3-4 more months to be paid off. That would free up $450 a month!! I have to look at my cash flow, because I need to set some money aside to pay for the cable and Internet I just got. I'll let you know how that works out. It's exciting to be so close to having one debt paid off! Even though I just moved some of the balance around it still feels good.

How are you guys utilizing your tax refunds?

4 comments:

  1. Straight to credit card debt! The very second it comes in, if not sooner.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I get a whopping $89 from the feds, $39 from my former state, and I owe my current state $901. So much for any debt progress. =(

    ReplyDelete
  3. I try to avoid having a huge refund because that's extra money each month I don't have. Keep in mind a refund is an overpayment to the IRS. Divide the number by 12 and that's what is missing from each month. I used to get large refunds too but have recalculated things to keep them low. We still need to file but I'm not sure if I'll do it myself or not yet.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks to everyone for the comments. @ Jim - i usually don't get big refunds except I started working in september and I got 2 bonuses. Bonuses are taxed at a much higher rate and when u don't work a full year they tax you like you did. That's the only reason my refund is so large. Next year i'll be a lot closer to 0. Trust me, I need as much money as I can get each month

    ReplyDelete

Hit me with some tough love