I have tried several different online tax services and they all come back with only a $76 refund?!?!? I have never not gotten back most or all of my Federal tax. I am single, own no property or anything, made around 13,000 last year. Any insight? Thanks!

What are your withholdings? How much were your federal withholdings for 2006?

Federal withholdings for 2006 are $549. Single filing status.

It seems the answer lies in the amount of deductions you have on your W-4. I ran the numbers based on $13200. Deduction is 8450 so that leaves your taxable income at 4750. Tax on that amount is $473 and with having $549 taking out, you'd get a $76 refund. You must have your deductions higher than 1 thus not having very much taken out. Which is good or bad depending on if you like refunds.

I have my deductions on my check as 2. Is that bad? I put that because I am single and because no one can claim me as a dependant which would be 2. Should I change it?

that right there is the reason you are only getting 76 back.. 2 withholdings.

So I just gave the govt. all that money? That seems unfair when everyone else is getting back thousands. I WANT MY MONEY! lol.

Not bad at all. Like I said it depends on if you prefer to get a larger refund or not. You can go here and check out the withholding calculator.

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196,00.html

I put in $13,200 and with 1 allowance you'd get a refund of $275. It says if you claim 2, you'll underpay by $75. If your income is going to stay the same, you can do 2 and just pay next year when you file, or adjust your W-4 mid year to get close to the break even point.

I can access my W-4 online. Should I change it now or wait?

You got more money back in your paycheck instead of getting it at refund time....as I posted above, claiming 1 would have got you $275 back, but you got it spread out in your checks.

If you want to get back the larger amount I'd change it to 1 allowance now and leave it that way for the year. If you want to get close to not owing/no refund, I'd leave it at 2 for half the year, then change it to 1 for the remainder of the year.

You were gonna have to give all that money to the government anyway (minus the $76). Those that get thousands back (and I'm sure it's not EVERYONE), typically have more deductions they can take to offset the tax: EIC, Child tax credit and/or additional child tax credit, SL interest deduction, tuition credits, mortgage interest deductions, health care expenses, dependant care deductions, etc.

OOOOps double post

So what you are saying is that you would rather lend the Government more than $76.00 interest free by lowering your deductions??? Ideally you want to owe the IRS 0-100.00. Your witholding needs no change...and you don't need a big refund....With a salary of 13k you need the money now....not later. I wouldn't adjust a thing if I were in your shoes.

I paid the IRS $17k this year I will be darn lucky to get any of it back

umm...you already got your money...

its not your money its the govts.

nm

Change your allowance to zero & get a whopping $500 refund next year

Everyone else that is getting back thousands, has paid too much throughout the year. Would you rather have more money taken from each paycheck & returned to you in April?

You just didn't have much taken out. Why is that something to be angry about?

If you are single and have no kids, unless you make less than $8450, you aren't going to have a zero tax liability. At least all your income is only in the 10% bracket.

Tax refunds arent everything. If you had a spouse and 2 kids on your income, you might get $5000 back. But your family would be in poverty, probably be starving, with no heat, homeless, or worse. So be thankful you don't have to pay any taxes and don't have to worry about too many obligations.

People who get big refunds usually either pay a lot of taxes in the first place or don't make enough money to live.

Yup, that's the way I see it as well.

Getting back is ALWAYS better than OWING more!

We always owe state. I can't figure out WHY but that's the way it goes for us.

nope. why would you want the gov't to have your money during the year instead of being able to use your money to pay down debt or invest?

That's not necessarily true (I guess it would also depend on the definition of big).

This year we'll probably get about $3k. Fi paid about $130 in taxes, and we certainly make enough to live.

Last year we got about the same. I think in 2004 though, we got about $4k back.

Why? Our money runs so tight coming up with extra to pay in would really suck.

Even $100 would really be difficult to scrape up right now.

um, well what if you put that money into savings throughout the year? then, when you know for sure your tax burden, you write a check from the money you've saved. in the mean time you 1) make some interest and 2) have that cash around if you have a dire need. getting back is not ALWAYS (as you put it) better.

Getting back is better when you don't have the dicipline not to spend it. But you do make a very valid point. Unfortunately for me every year my employer finds away to withhold more than I need taken out and I get a huge refund.

I know I've tried to lower it but then we get our bonus and that's taxed at a different rate and now when they do our retro pay for our raises they tax it at a higher rate too. I don't understand that part. If they gave me my money when it was due it would've been taxed at the rate I specified so why do I get penalized because they want to wait 2 - 6 months to give me my raise money?

I changed up my W4 in 2006...I was getting in the neighborhood of 1k refunds. It looks like I went a little too far this year because my preliminary estimates indicate I will owe about 400 this year. Not too bad...but I'll adjust my W4 shortly to put me closer to $0 for next year.

There may be more tax withheld when you get your retro pay, but you don't actually OWE any more tax. That happens because most payroll systems look at your paycheck, assume that's what you make all year, and withhold the appropriate amount of tax. The problem with getting a lot of retro pay in one check is it makes it look like you are making a lot more all year long. You aren't being penalized although they do end up withholding more than necessary. But when you do your income tax return, it gets straightened out.

For all of you idoits out there that think getting a refund is great!!!!Lend me all the money you want @ 0 percent interest and I will give you a refund next year! I can loan it to others at prosper.com and make money while you give it to me for free!

That was rude.

Unless they default, then you've lost all that money.

Are you always such a class(less) act? It isn't going to happen here again. You want to call people names go elsewhere. We don't want it here and we won't have it here. It was completely uncalled for. You earned an official warning for that one.

What's an idoit?

I have a specific dollar amount withheld for each paycheck. So when they go and withhold 20% instead of the $xx.00 that I told them to withhold I am being penalized. I get less in my paycheck and a huge refund at the end of the year.

One year I wanted to file exempt. I got yelled at by HR. They said that I couldn't do that. I had to sit down with our accountant (the company's) and figure it all out. Turns out I would owe $300 before credits and deductions. So then I wanted to break it down to dollar amount. I got hell for that too. I finally told them that they could either take out nothing and allow me to file exempt or they better take out a dollar amount because it was MY money and the feds say I can do WTH I wanted. They decided to take the dollar amount. I don't understand what the problem is. If I underwithhold that's my problem not theirs. Why do they care?

This is exactly the problem for us. WIth little kids, it's too easy to blow it here and there through the year.

And be very sorry when tax time rolls around.

We've talked about adapting the W4 (and we're going to try that this year) but have always nixed it in the past because - - well, we're just not very disciplined.

We're going to try it this year. AT the first sign of (even more) foolish spending - it's back to getting a big refund.

And for those who may think we're idionts? Well, you don't pay my bills....what works for you may not work so good for us.