Do you pay state income taxes or do they refund you like federal income taxes do?

The last 4 years, I have had to pay the Feds, and got less money back from the State.

It all depends on the amount of withholding

I get a refund from what they overtook.

It will depend on your state. Since you got money back from the Fed’s I am guessing you have listed either 1 or 0 for your dependents. Most of the time with tax breaks that equates to some of your withholdings back. I prefer to owe just a few dollars at the end of the year. That way I am keeping more of my money all year and investing to make more. To each their own.

BTW, do you know that you can list as many dependents as you like? Even if you are single and home alone, you could list 4 to have less tax taken out.

In California I had a generous chunk of change taken out for state tax, then when it was tax time, I had some of my Federal return withheld for California, b/c apparently the amount I paid was never enough. (And I filed a 0 exemption)!

So it does work the same, but it depends on how much was withheld throughout the year! You may get some, you may owe some. It’s easier to file both at the same time . . .

As @missingbite stated, it depends on your state. Each state has different guidelines. I usually get all of the money I paid into the state back, but I always claim 0 during the year and then we claim 3 at the end of the year. I do that so that they take the maximum out during the year so that I end up coming back as overpaying instead of underpaying.

Some states don’t have any state income tax at all (I know Texas is one of them). If you live/work in a state that has withheld state income taxes from you on your W-2, then you need to file a tax form in that state. It’s similar to what you did for your Federal taxes, but the form may be a little bit different.

When I used to file state taxes, I generally received a refund from them within days of getting my return from the feds.

It works the same way. The employer withholds and sends to the state. When you file you may get a return or you may owe additional tax.

Your state income tax and your federal income tax pretty much work the same. It all just comes down to what your taxable income for each amounts to, how much you owe, and how much you’ve already paid (usually through employer withholding as defined by W-4).

TurboTax.com can electronically file your federal and state returns and it tracks the progress of your e-file so you know what’s happening now and what will happen next.

—

And here I just want to express my distaste for state income tax forms with instructions similar to:

1. File your federal tax return first
2. Write down your taxable income amount from your federal form
3. Write down the amount of your federal refund. (If none, or if you owe taxes to the federal goverment, write 0.)
4. Add the amounts from lines 2 and 3. This is your state taxable income.

—> See what they did there? The state government is double-dipping by taxing the money in your federal refund a second time. @filmfann is arguably in a good place, then.

@robmandu Sorry, no. I’m in California.

@filmfann, lol. We can’t all live in Texas. ;-)