Tax Refund is half of what we got last year!

[Momma2PrinceNPrinces]

We use turbotax every yr. I SAH and DH works full time. He makes 6 figures, and gets taxed at 33%. He also gets quarterly bonuses which are taxed higher (40%). But with all our deductions plus his small business that just got set up last yr, we're getting back between $6000-7000.

 

[si-am]

What's so crazy (DH is a teacher) is that the other two teachers that he works with, makes about $15000 more than us, has two kids, makes no donations, but one is getting $6400 and the other is getting $7000 (they spend their lunch time talking about this). How is that even possible?!

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Kids.

 

[runwad]

My DS turned 17 on Jan. 15th of this year. That means we still get the credit for last year, right?

Yep 2011 is the last year you get the credit on him. My dd will be 17 in Dec 2012 so 2011 will be the last year we get the credit on her too

 

[ceecee]

Ideally you don't get any or owe any. Otherwise Uncle Sam gets a loan at 0%!

 

[tar heel]

Sammielynn -- Are you sure you had to take all out all the IRA money? Both of my parents died last year and I inherited their IRAs. I was not required to remove all the money, but I do have to take the minimum disbursement THEY would have been required to take each year. They had already taken last year's, so I didn't have to contend with that. I'm going to do next year's soon. An investment guy I talked to said, while you can't directly roll it over, there are ways to avoid any taxes (some kinds of annuities). I decided not to do that since I'm trying to keep their house and may sometimes need the money for expenses related to it.

I may have been lucky because I was listed as a beneficiary on the IRAs.

 

[Green Tea]

OP here


What's so crazy (DH is a teacher) is that the other two teachers that he works with, makes about $15000 more than us, has two kids, makes no donations, but one is getting $6400 and the other is getting $7000 (they spend their lunch time talking about this). How is that even possible?!

I do trust our CPA but am wondering if I should run the numbers online still before we e-file? I'm not really good with numbers and not sure if I could even do it myself online What would you do?

tar heel - sorry, I meant tithing and misc donations.

What refund someone gets has ZERO to do with the tax owed. The refund is the amount withheld over the tax due. You have no idea how they structured their withholding forms. Say all 3 teachers went to the dentist and had the same cleaning done and the cost was $100. One had a prior credit and only paid $45. Another had a past due amount and paid $115. And one had insurance and didn't pay anything. The same $100 was true for all 3.