tax refund so low this year?

[tinkntraining]

Same here. I just checked and my bank shows my refund pending. I think mine was accepted early in the morning on the 22nd, before 10:00 am when I checked my email.

Mine was accepted by the IRS by 1/22 at 12:30 pm. I just checked to see if my deposit date was moved up, but sadly, it hasn't been.

For those of you whose return was accepted on 1/22 and moved up to be deposited tommorow, did you itemize or take the standard deduction? I'm wondering if taking the standard deduction speeds up the IRS review process. Or if it has no effect at all, and the IRS just likes jerking our chains, lol....

TIA!

 

[HelenePA]

Mine was accepted by the IRS by 1/22 at 12:30 pm. I just checked to see if my deposit date was moved up, but sadly, it hasn't been.

For those of you whose return was accepted on 1/22 and moved up to be deposited tommorow, did you itemize or take the standard deduction? I'm wondering if taking the standard deduction speeds up the IRS review process. Or if it has no effect at all, and the IRS just likes jerking our chains, lol....

TIA!

Mine was accepted at 1am on the 22 I am standard and I did not get bumped up every year I see all these ppl who get bumped with the hopes maybe this year but so far no such luck!

 

[tinkntraining]

Same here. I just checked and my bank shows my refund pending. I think mine was accepted early in the morning on the 22nd, before 10:00 am when I checked my email.

Mine was accepted at 1am on the 22 I am standard and I did not get bumped up every year I see all these ppl who get bumped with the hopes maybe this year but so far no such luck!

LOL -- there goes my theory....thanks for replying and I hope you get yours soon!

 

[wvjules]

I've never been bumped before. I feel giddy!

The money is sitting in my Navy Federal account but is "unavailable". So close but so far.....*sigh*

It hasn't shown up at all in my regular bank account yet.

As an aside, I've noticed Credit Unions post a lot quicker than regular banks.

 

[tinkntraining]

I've never been bumped before. I feel giddy!

The money is sitting in my Navy Federal account but is "unavailable". So close but so far.....*sigh*

It hasn't shown up at all in my regular bank account yet.

As an aside, I've noticed Credit Unions post a lot quicker than regular banks.

I'm excited for you too, wvjules! I'm just whining about not being bumped....I would SOOO love to be bumped!! Sadly, being bumped just doesn't seem to be in my future. Okay. I'm done whining now

 

[DancingBear]

I am sure we have been getting the credit in our paychecks already however when I go through the questions in turbo tax it only asks if we received Social Security Benefits, Railroad retirement benefits, or veteran's benefits. The answer to all three is no and it is showing us with a credit of $800 for this even though we are receiving it through our paychecks...am I doing something wrong?

This is why TurboTax asked that question:

The Making Work Pay tax credit, normally a maximum of $400 for working individuals and $800 for working married couples, is reduced by the amount of any Economic Recovery Payment ($250 per eligible recipient of Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, Railroad Retirement or Veteran's benefits) or Special Credit for Certain Government Retirees ($250 per eligible federal or state retiree) that you receive.

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=204447,00.html

 

[ead79]

We finally got all the paperwork we needed, so I filed our taxes last night. We are very excited that our refund essentially went up from last year. This year's didn't include the fabulous 1st time homebuyer's credit we got last year, but if you ignore that amount, we actually got more back this year. Whew!

 

[PrincessSuzanne]

We qualified for the EIC credit this year, because Dh's income was down a little bit and I have a just turned 19 year old that lives in the home that was a full time student.

Now, if I could only claim those furry dependants that I have

Suzanne

 

[flamingglobessigmund]

I was confused about the Making Work Pay question in Turbo Tax. I don't think it's very clear. But after reading over it again, I believe it is only asking about payments that you received if you were a retiree. I don't think the question has anything to do with extra money in your paycheck due to lower withholding.

So unless you actually got a check in the mail from the federal government for a making work pay payment, I think the correct answer to the Turbo Tax question is no.

I don't think you're doing anything wrong. The $800 credit reduces your tax liability. It doesn't mean they are going to send you an extra $800. So the question on turbo tax doesn't have anything to do with the extra money in your paychecks. It already knows about that from your W-2's. It's only asking if you received a payment from the feds.

Think of it this way:
Tax liability = amount of money you are legally required to give the government for the year.
Tax paid = amount you actually gave them, usually through paycheck withholding for the year.

All of the deductions, credits, exemptions, etc. are used to calculate your tax liability.

If tax paid was more than tax liability, you get a refund.
If tax paid was less than tax liability, you owe taxes.

So the $800 Making Work Pay credit reduces your tax liability. But the extra money in your paycheck is due to a lower amount of tax paid out of each check. In other words, you get the credit on your tax return, but it doesn't mean you'll get a bigger refund because you've paid less.

Thanks for clarifying this. Much appreciated.

 

[Yzerbear19]

I've never been bumped before. I feel
As an aside, I've noticed Credit Unions post a lot quicker than regular banks.

Mine is also going to a Credit Union account, so I wonder if that is why some get bummed and some don't.

 

[yolie912]

I have a quick question, I filed last week on the 18th and I did it with an
accountant. But when I check the IRS website it tells me I have an error and that it hasnt been recieved.....what do you think?
Please help....

 

[jme829]

Mine was accepted by the IRS by 1/22 at 12:30 pm. I just checked to see if my deposit date was moved up, but sadly, it hasn't been.

For those of you whose return was accepted on 1/22 and moved up to be deposited tommorow, did you itemize or take the standard deduction? I'm wondering if taking the standard deduction speeds up the IRS review process. Or if it has no effect at all, and the IRS just likes jerking our chains, lol....

TIA!

We e-filed Monday night (Jan 25..) got accepted Tuesday a.m. and our direct deposit is scheduled for Feb 2 We did itemize and we are getting a large refund, going to a regular bank (not credit union) and was originally scheduled for Feb 12. So we are getting it exactly 8 days after filing.

 

[wvjules]

I have a quick question, I filed last week on the 18th and I did it with an
accountant. But when I check the IRS website it tells me I have an error and that it hasnt been recieved.....what do you think?
Please help....

Did your accountant efile or paper file?

 

[yolie912]

e-file..

 

[Silent1CB]

Blame it on the Making Work Pay credit. You know, that $10 to $20 extra you saw in your check each week starting April 1st of 2009.
That was an advance of any "refund" you might have received on your income taxes because the tax tables were not adjusted, just your withholding.

If both you and your spouse worked at W2 jobs, you both received this "extra" money each week and if you didn't have to pay in, be grateful. I know many, many dual-income families having to pay this year because of that "credit".

This is correct. I'm a little worried to do ours because on top of that extra stimulas, we changed DH's withholdings last year becauase our refund was getting larger and larger each year. We thought we could use it in his take home pay instead. I'm just hoping we didn't go too far.

Only thing saving us this year is that we installed a window that qualifies for the energy credit and bought a car where the sales tax will be deductible.

Wishing the rest of our documents would come in soon so I can get started.

 

[jlewisinsyr]

I try to avoid the large refund bit, if I'm plus or minus $500, I'm fine with it and will either pay or get some additional dollars. That said, I missed the change in education credit for people attending college at least 1/2 time (which I do). Because of that, I'm getting more back then I anticipated...

We filed on the 15th and received our deposit on the 26th.

 

[jekajekalynn]

Finally got my w-2. Federal refund has actually increased quite substantially for us since we had several life changes , so I'm not complaining. However our state refund went down from last year, but its not like we ever get a HUGE a refund with that anyway.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

We got extra money this year. Dh is making a little more than last year but because of the making work pay thing we got more. I didn't realize it hurt some people.

 

[jme829]

We e-filed Monday night (Jan 25..) got accepted Tuesday a.m. and our direct deposit is scheduled for Feb 2 We did itemize and we are getting a large refund, going to a regular bank (not credit union) and was originally scheduled for Feb 12. So we are getting it exactly 8 days after filing.

ETA...well dang! I just checked our state refund and that is scheduled for Feb 1... so we'll have them BOTH early next week....

 

[Piecey]

We were surprised by ours... definitely larger than last year. I didn't realize it helped so much to have a kid!

Plus, we put in a new energy efficient furnace/air conditioner. That was a pretty big chunk of change back to us. We also bought a new car so we got to deduct the sales tax...

Our state was less then $50. Typical, though.