TAXES! Are u getting back more?

[tzolkin]

Just curious... what do you have to have to do the window/door/insullation credit? Not sure if just the receipts are ok or if you needed any special paperwork. And for how long would you have to keep the receipts? I have never filed any special kind of tax credit before and this is my first time using turbo tax so I am a bit confused.

For some reason my tax program gives absolutely no information about what qualifies, so I had to research through the IRS website.

Initially it was all energy star windows, but apparently they decided they didn't have enough money for that so any windows/doors purchased after June 1st must have a U-factor and SHGC of 0.30 or less (which basically eliminates almost all). So if you purchased them before June 1st, they just need to be energy star... after June 1st they probably don't qualify. We purchased our windows after June 1st and they are 0.32.

If you have something that does qualify, you need to keep your receipt and you need a statement from the manufacturer that the item(s) qualifies for the credit (you can download this from their website). You do not have to submit this info with your taxes, but you have to keep it on file just in case. It's also just the cost of the materials; it does not include installation.

Here's a link to the energy star website for more details...
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=tax_credits.tx_index

 

[jfoofj]

For some reason my tax program gives absolutely no information about what qualifies, so I had to research through the IRS website.

Initially it was all energy star windows, but apparently they decided they didn't have enough money for that so any windows/doors purchased after June 1st must have a U-factor and SHGC of 0.30 or less (which basically eliminates almost all). So if you purchased them before June 1st, they just need to be energy star... after June 1st they probably don't qualify. We purchased our windows after June 1st and they are 0.32.

If you have something that does qualify, you need to keep your receipt and you need a statement from the manufacturer that the item(s) qualifies for the credit (you can download this from their website). You do not have to submit this info with your taxes, but you have to keep it on file just in case. It's also just the cost of the materials; it does not include installation.

Here's a link to the energy star website for more details...
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=tax_credits.tx_index

Thanks for the info! We bought engery star windows before June 1st! Yay! I will keep the receipts and look into downloading that info.

 

[disneydave2003]

ok, what is "making work pay" ? and i bought a new car last summer. do i get some sort of credit or write off for that? do i just tell me accountant i bought a new car or do i have to show him my paperwork from the dealer?

 

[bettymae1121]

ok, what is "making work pay" ? and i bought a new car last summer. do i get some sort of credit or write off for that? do i just tell me accountant i bought a new car or do i have to show him my paperwork from the dealer?

"Making Work Pay" is the name of the tax cut that applies to just about all workers. Basicly, in '09 they with held a little bit less from your check each month, so you'd have a bit more take home pay. Then when you file your taxes this spring, you claim a $800 (if married, $400 if single) deduction to make up for te lower withholding. If you don't claim the deduction, then it will goof everything up because it will make it look like not enough was with held from you pay last year.

As for the car, i'm not sure, we didn't buy one so I don't know how that works!

 

[Simba's Mom]

ok, what is "making work pay" ? and i bought a new car last summer. do i get some sort of credit or write off for that? do i just tell me accountant i bought a new car or do i have to show him my paperwork from the dealer?

I'm a tax preparer, and we require the bill of sale from the new car. The sales tax that you paid when you bought the car is the credit. It's either on Schedule L or M, I can't remember which. Today's my day off after a VERY busy last few days (and evenings) so I'm just letting my brain take a day off.
Most of my customers have been getting a little more back than last year. Exept of course, if you've got children who "age out" of a credit or usually people who earn more than last year.

 

[Dax]

We're getting back $200 more than last year, but then we also made $8k less than last year. Still, when you make less they withhold less, so I would have thought our refund would have been about the same, given that nothing else changed for us (deductions, etc.). Not looking a gift horse in the mouth though, I double checked the forms before I filed with TT and everything looked correct. Our state refund was almost exactly the same as last year.

Scary, thats EXACTLY what mine is...but we don't have state in Fl...I am happy..we depleted all the savings with me on Unemployment

 

[clovergirl5]

We are getting about $2000 less than what we normally do. Nothing in household has changed. Dh did have less overtime this year than last though.

 

[*pixie*dust*]

I am getting back less this year by about $300.

 

[Tinkh]

Getting a lot more back. About 5500 more, but we made more and paid in more too. Helping us were things like the Hope credit for my school and we bought a new car this year, interest on our mortgage and my husband got to claim 59 dollars a night per diem for 103 nights. All my friends have gotten more too. Yay

 

[DMickey28]

We are still waiting for a W2. I am prepared to have to owe but hoping we get at least $500 back. We never do well with taxes. Last year we got back $200 and this year DH made about $40K less as well as his new job screwing up his exemptions and status for the first 6 weeks which resulted in approx $1350 of extra taxes being paid. I WOULD THINK we will get that back since the correction was made effective his start date BUT who knows.

We did buy a house so we have the $8K but we used some gifted (borrowed) money for the downpayment and I don't count the $8K as a refund since we don't techinically get to keep it!

 

[ReneeA]

I just used TT today to prepare our taxes, and we are getting about $500 more back this year than last year. I've used TT for the past 5 years, so I'm pretty confident that I did it correctly.

 

[tonilea]

We are getting back about $250 more than last year. The new car sales tax didn't do us any good. It is a deduction and not a credit, like I thought. Not that it makes any real difference, we would have bought the car anyway.

 

[ORMom2Four]

We are getting less this year. DD dropped off the child tax credit because she turned 17, and we had less income because Dh's company dropped everyone's income last spring.

 

[PatsGirl]

I'm getting back nearly 1/2 of what I've received for the past many, many years. Last year I got back $6500 and this year it's $3400

After carefully comparing the differences, I made $3K more this year but I also lost my only dependent (DD is claimed by her Dad EVERY year) which also decreased my earned income from two children in the home to one child, essentially worth $1800 or so. Other than these two differences, I can't find any other reasons.

Unfortunately, I always use my tax refund to pay my real estate taxes and to make home improvements and its really the only way I've been able to afford the maintenance. My taxes this year are $2500 and I've already hired someone to paint my exterior for what I thought was to be a good portion of the refund remaining. I also manage to get a one-week vacation from my refund which I leave for on 3/26 So, essentially, I'm in the hole about $4000, it's like an unexpected emergency expense but I'll figure it out somehow, someway...probably while I'm laying on the beach in Isla Mujeres sipping a Mojito that I can't afford this year. Looks like time for a third job

 

[Silent1CB]

We used Turbo tax and found that we are getting a much bigger refund than usual. Now Im worried, did we do it right?

Did this happen to anyone else?

I hear they doubled the child tax credit? I dont know?

I find using Turbo Taxes community of questions very helpful. If you've got a question, most often someone else has the same question and has already asked it. Its nice too that the questions are right there along with the section of taxes you are working on.

 

[barkley]

heard from the cpa yesterday-getting a bigger refund than last year AND because i commented to her that when i was playing around with the irs web site to see if we were eligible to a type of tax credit while all the information on the site said i was, the on-line determination program did'nt have an appropriate field to enter the type of income dh has (which the stupid thing had in their list, just no field for it)-she did some research and found we were not only eligible this year BUT ALSO LAST YEAR (her software apparantly had the same deficiency)-so we'll get a refund for that as well

 

[happygirl]

We got almost double back

 

[Keli]

We owe more but just a couple hundred more. I'm so aggrivated about that because when I heard about making work pay I went in and filed another w2 telling them to tax me with 0 dependants, at the higher unmarried rate, and take an additional $20 per payperiod out to boot.
I thought sure that would cover any additional that we got in dh's paycheck. noticed none but dh's hours did vary a lot last year, worked a lot of overtime as usual so paycheck amounts varied greatly.