Ups and downs here...refund came in

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Ups and downs here...refund came in
19
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 9:59am

We got a fairly big refund. So today I paid all the bills I've been avoiding for months (medical copays and such from my sons ER visit). I paid my mortgage which was 2 weeks late due to our car repairs. I paid most of my bills for this month too. I started getting together our numbers. How much debt do we still owe? Who are we going to pay with this money? I had a moment of sadness when I called Toyota and realized we have 3 more payments due when I thought we were done. I was going to write a big happy post today that I had paid off my car, but just in case I called Toyota to get my balance and instead of a 50 dollar balance, I had a 300 dollar balance. WHAT!!! It turns out that the dates on our payment arrangement were wrong so instead of my last payment being this month, it's actually in May! BOOO!

I also started dealing with my last credit card. We are going to settle. We've settled everything else so my credit is already ruined and I just want to get it over with. It's a discover card and I owe them $4,356. They have previously offered us a $3500 dollar settlement. I currently have $3000 dollars so I'm hoping to get their settlement down by offering them a lump sum of cash! We'll see. So overall, the money is all gone. It's depressing, but it is also joyous that I was able to pay so much off with it.

Here's what I paid:
My mortgage: 1240
Medical payments: 116.09
Toyota: 150
Condo Assoc: 215
Dentist: 50
Credit Card Settlement: $3000 dollars put aside
Total $4771.09 and I do have $500 left. I guess I'll put that in my Efund!

I also changed my automatic Emergency Fund transfers from $10 dollars to $50. I realize that I need my savings to accumulate faster and ten dollars just isn't doing it!

How depressing to wake up to over 5 thousand dollars in your account and now only have 500! But at least I had the money to pay it!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-05-2006
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 2:53pm
You know...I'm not too sure why it's such a large refund. We do have 3 kids so we get a lot back for that. Last year, we got back about $3000, but we settled a lot of debt last year and took out a 401K so that affected our refund. I'm pretty sure we claim all the exemptions we can. I may have to find out why we get such a large refund. If we claim 5 exemptions...what more can we do so that the government doesn't take so much of our money? But we have always gotten back large refunds. At first it was because we qualified for the Earned Income Credit. I remember one year I got back 6,000 dollars! Now we no longer qualify for the EIC, but we still don't make that much money for a family of 5. We're about 10,000 dollars over qualifying for state programs. So maybe it's because of our income bracket and they give us back much of what we put it. Taxes confuse me!

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-04-2008
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 3:39pm

The stimulus payment does not "show up" but it is a refund of taxes in a prior year that adds to income for the current year.


That $900 put us over the AGI total for the MFJ for the year.




iVillage Member
Registered: 05-20-2005
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 4:25pm
Exemptions you use for payroll are not the same as the number of dependents you claim on your tax return.
Wedding
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-07-2003
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 4:49pm

Ditto what Jennifer said.


Teresa
http://www.affordingpickles.blogspot.com

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-29-2007
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 7:01pm
A refund is NOT income. It is actually a tax cut. So if you made 100,000 last year, you paid taxes on 100,000. Say 20,000. You paid that in installments through the year - say 1,800/month. By the end of the year you had paid 21600, so the government owed you 1600. That isn't extra income, that is part of the 100,000 you earned. That you "got back" 2400 in overpaid taxes or 1600 in overpaid taxes makes not one bit of difference. It is just a refund, not income.
You need to find another accountant right away. If you really were only 900 from losing 5000 in exemptions any competent accountant would have advised you to defer income, prepay your state taxes or any one of a dozen financial moves last December that would have prevented you from moving up a bracket.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-15-2005
Thu, 03-12-2009 - 9:02pm

But you don't just go from getting all those deductions (CTC and SL interest).

Jennifer


 


iVillage Member
Registered: 08-04-2008
Fri, 03-13-2009 - 9:15am

I guess she was kidding us about the stimulus after all, can't read




iVillage Member
Registered: 08-22-2008
Fri, 03-13-2009 - 9:35am
Hope you don't get too killed, Skibunions.
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-01-2006
Fri, 03-13-2009 - 8:27pm
I went to my tax preparer today and he is guesstimating I will owe 3,000.00 I receive alimony evry week plus when we sold the house I got 1/2 so I decided to go online to ing direct, so I get interest from there.I only pull in 30k a year I get 323.07 a week from alimony plus interest about 3k . $750 for scripts $550 for glasses 1425 a month for rent. $300.00 clothes for work.I don't know what to do.Would you suggest I take the money from ing out and stuff it under my mattress?is there anything that I can do to not owe this amount next year?

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