How are you handling your return?

[beaucoup]

That has already been discussed to death on another thread. Not everyone has a straightforward situation that makes it easy to get their withholdings just right. Good for you for getting to that point.

Not loaning the govt the money helped get to that point.

 

[dreamin_disney]

1. set money aside for car insurance for the year
2. buy outdoor cameras for our house (someone's been going into the backyards and breaking into the homes in our area)
3. maybe a new matress (ours is old and my body is sore every morning)
4. towards some of dh's cc debt

luckily my car and dd's braces will be paid off next month so will leave us tax money to use on the above items.

Dh is finally on the same page as me and we are going to try and be debtfree in 2 years besides our mortgage. Next years taxes will also go to the remaining creditcard debt

 

[snarlingcoyote]

We do not use the government as a non-interest bearing savings account & loan. We prefer a small refund & prefer to receive the money in our paychecks, where we put some into a high (lol - right) interest bearing savings account. House & all debt is paid off.

Earning some interest is better than loaning it to the government interest free.

Makes even less sense to loan it to the government while you are paying interest on a credit card balance.

As some other posters have pointed out, we discussed the pros and cons of this to death just a short time ago.

Enjoy!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3053763

 

[Fredericks44]

We get a tiny refund- some will buy a bunk bed for dd and the rest is getting saved for disney, of course

 

[Bnb0627]

We will be buying new living room furniture (and after only 5 years how dare we lol)

And paying for our May Disney trip

 

[ilovemk76]

If we get a refund, it will join the others in our investments for retirement account.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

Tell ya what? I'll replace our furniture when I see fit, and you do the same! K?
Why would anybody comment on this???

wow.....

We are moving into a house on base and have a few months left on our lease so our taxes are going to the extra rent payments. Hopefully the house rents soon and we wont have to use it on that!

What base in TX if you don't mind me asking. We just moved from Ft. Hood last year.


As to the OP...

We just bought a house, so we will be paying some things off.

Maybe a small home project, like replacing the baseboards and painting the bathroom.

I would really like to get a corner reef aquarium going in my living room because I have a weird spot behind the corner of my sectional couch, but I might have to just settle for a plant or something for a while.

 

[4HppyCamprs]

We do not use the government as a non-interest bearing savings account & loan. We prefer a small refund & prefer to receive the money in our paychecks, where we put some into a high (lol - right) interest bearing savings account. House & all debt is paid off.

Earning some interest is better than loaning it to the government interest free.

Makes even less sense to loan it to the government while you are paying interest on a credit card balance.

That wasn't an answer to the question. Your way is not the only way but good for you. There is always somebody who pops up doesn't answer the question but preaches that their way is the only correct way.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[happygirl]

That wasn't an answer to the question. Your way is not the only way but good for you. There is always somebody who pops up doesn't answer the question but preaches that their way is the only correct way.

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[AmericangirlinFrance]

We will probably use ours to beef up various savings pots - for future medical expenses, flights home to visit our families (we live far away), auto maintenance for the future, etc. Don't have any plans to really spend it right away. Well, DH really wants to get a tablet, so maybe.

 

[pjlla]

New roof. Wish it could be something more exciting.... even a deposit in DD's college fund would make me happier. But a storm last week tore off 10+ shingles and the roofing contactors are saying that the roof is too far gone for just a repair. We knew it was coming, but were hoping to hold out a few more years.......................P

 

[Colleen27]

It's not hard to figure out. Just adjust your withholdings. The irs puts out a calculator every year to help with this. Just google irs withholding calculator and it will come up. It is not up for this year yet but it should be coming soon.

That is simple if your situation is simple - earned income from a single job (or a single job per working adult) with no significant income from other sources over the course of the year and no major changes in circumstance. But in more complicated situations it isn't so straightforward and when dealing with the IRS it generally doesn't hurt to err on the side of caution, especially right now when that money would be earning less than 1% interest anyway.

 

[crashbb]

Boring... Half on our mortgage, and the other half to the kid's resp funds. We won't be getting a big refund though; I don't think there are the deductions here that there are in the US.

It isn't really about there being a difference in deductions so much as how you manipulate them. For example, here (Canada) when you start a job you get a form to fill out with all the possible deductions you'll be eligible to claim, which is used to calculate how much tax should be removed on each pay cheque (based on an estimate of your final tax burden). On this form, you can ask them to withhold an extra amount of taxes - nominally this is for those who have an additional source of income (say investments) and want to cover the taxes on this other income (which isn't taxed at source), however you can use it to create a situation where you get a big refund. You can re-do this form at any time (at least, I can at my work - I think some only let you do it for January). Places like the UK this doesn't hold true.

I am one who tries to come up neither owing nor getting a refund, but I will err on the side of a small refund. If I get a refund and I haven't filled my RRSP (our retirement plans) or my TFSA (a tax free savings account, with a limit of $5,500 deposits each year) by the time I get the refund, the money goes there. Otherwise, it goes in the general investment account.

 

[MissManda]

We are getting a larger refund than normal this year. I really should put it into savings, but we are "splurging" on all new bedroom furniture and mattresses.

DH and I are still using furniture that I got from my great grandmother when I moved into my first apartment. I moved in 1999 and who knows how long she had it before then. I'm also replacing my mattress which isn't that old, but I really hate it. My nephew who lives with us, has been using my great aunt's furniture. The furniture is all in really great shape, but I feel like its time for a change (probably well past time actually). Hoping to donate the existing furniture so someone else can get some use out of it!

 

[smcabee]

Im putting some of my refund to my solo trip in april. Some goes to paying car taxes, and the rest will go into the emergency savings fund.

 

[tyniknate]

Some will pay our taxes, a couple hundred toward our summer vacation and the rest will go toward our son's college costs.

 

[Funfire240]

we're using ours to pay on property taxes then divide up towards new carpet in the family room and starting to finish our basement

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Ours is going into savings to replenish what we just paid out for a new AC/heat unit.

 

[Pandora5]

We aren't getting back as much as we thought.
1/3 toward our Disney Wedding in Oct.
1/3 to pay off some bills
and the rest is going in the bank. We are hoping to refinance the house since we bought in 2008 when rates were higher, its only in my name right now and we would like to have it in both names, and cutting our payment in half with the same 15 year mortgage would be nice =).

 

[JillMSH]

We aren't getting a ton, but it should pay for flights to Disney this fall!!