What do you plan to do with your income tax refund this year?
Unfortunately, I don’t get to do anything terribly exciting—we need a new roof.
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I am not planning on getting one.
Yeah, what refund? I think mom will get a refund, she’ll put some of it towards my oldest’s tuition at his pre-school.
Already spent it on bills.
We used ours to help with our move and for baby stuff. I still have some of it left for any other baby things we may need once our son arrives. If we don’t end up needing it for baby stuff, we’ll save it.
Received and spent on bills already.
My son has been sleeping on a mattress on the floor since we moved to our new home, so we bought him a bed. The kids also got some much needed new clothes and my daughter got a new mattress for her bed. Quite a bit of it went to fill our propane tank and it’s also helping us with gas money for my husband to get to work right now (he’s got an 80 mile round trip each day). The hike in gas prices really hurts us.
I put it into buying a new gun.
No refund for me. I owe $1300.
You DO realize, do you not, that the money you get back in “refund” is your OWN money that the US gov’mint has been using since it was taken from your paycheck? Had you placed that money in savings instead of letting the US gov’mint use it, you could have had at least a little interest to add to it.
Mine will be used for bills, rent, groceries, etc. I’ll probably put some into savings, too. Actually, I don’t really distinguish between the refund and regular income. It can feel like a windfall, but really it’s your own income coming back to you, as @CaptainHarley pointed out. Of course, it can be fun to treat oneself now and again. :)
@CaptainHarley Yes, very true, but very difficult to do when you live paycheck to paycheck. That little extra we receive in February is a life saver for us.
I just wrote a big fat check to the government.
I wish I had a refund. No I don’t. I’d rather hold onto my money as long as possible before they get it.
@JLeslie Me too. Feels soooo good to do my civic duty. :-(
@josie felt better when my savings account earned some interest. Then I felt like I had made some money holding onto it longer.
I work under the table. No refund coming my way. Hopefully all you people getting one will spend it on the guy that works for cash cutting your grass, doing handyman work, or on the black market.
@buster Those of us getting one are the working poor. I cut my own grass and we do our own handyman work. :/
@buster Is that you? You are the one cutting my lawn? Or, doing my handy work? The guy making more money than me because you don’t pay taxes?
@jonsblond I second that.
Our refund is sitting in savings. Did not want to spend it until I was sure my husband would continue getting paychecks. I will keep it there until we need it.
We got over eight thousand back, most of it went into savings..only some stayed in our regular checking account. We got our youngest a new carseat, it helped pay for his first birthday party, and moving expenses. So, the majority is in savings for an emergency/future house.
I just signed the bank withdrawal forms…ouch!
@casheroo $8,000?! You definitely need to change your witholdings. If we were still getting 6% on savings account you would have lost about $300 probably during the year. I know that is not the situation now, but it is a good habit to try to be as close to zero as possible with owing or getting back money at the end of the year.
@JLeslie Most of that is EIC. And we had a baby in 2010.
I don’t know if I get a refund this year, but whenever I do, my mom gets it. She pays my taxes and she’s spent hundreds of thousands dollars raising me plus all that other awesome stuff she has done and still does so I’m cool with not getting that money back. :)
Paid off a vehicle… car payment free, baby!
I’m not getting one. In fact, I can’t remember the last time we got a refund. On the contrary, I am running around like an insane person trying to pay my city tax.
@casheroo Ah, EIC. I’m not sure how that works, if there is a way to get it throughout the year? Seems like it would be more helpful to get it throughout then one lump sum.
After paying for my school, I might have enough left for a beer.
typed in “bear” at first. That would be cool but I don’t think there’ll be enough for that
@Blueroses Don’t know why but that made me laugh. Thanks.
We already got ours back in February and put it directly towards the 2nd installment of our house taxes..pretty much what we’ve been doing for the past couple of years now.
@optimisticpessimist Glad to help XD. You really do have to watch what you get when you buy bears on clearance
Someone explain this to me, because I have real trouble understanding it.
If the federal government can force you to send it enough of your pay that there’s a sizeable “refund” left for them to give back to you, why would you not be able to simply invest that money, or even to just put that money in the bank to recieve interest? Do you honestly need the government to save FOR you but WITHOUT paying you any interest???
If you owe the governement I can absolutely guarntee that they willl charge YOU interest!
@Blueroses That is why I always pay full price for my bears:)
@CaptainHarley Our financial situation has changed drastically over the past two years. Previously, I was employed, but had to quit to PCS with my husband. We also had another child and bought a house in that time frame which changed our taxes. I have not adapted the W-4 because until our financial picture becomes stabilized I do not want to end up owing taxes and not have the money. Prior to this move, job loss and family addition, we were pretty much even maybe a small refund of a couple hundred. We also received tax credits for homebuyers and energy efficient improvements.
I cannot speak for anyone else though.
@CaptainHarley Our finances have changed a lot since getting married as well, so for us, it’s easier to make sure the government gets paid up front (with income withholdings) than to try to balance it out right now. In the 3 years we’ve filed taxes together, they’ve been very different and had very different issues with them (from multiple state incomes, moving multiple times, selling a house, closing out my 401K when I moved to be with him after we got married, a year of him not having any taxes due to a deployment, children, my student loans, my tuition, etc…). Once things get more stabilized for us, we will work on getting closer to a balance instead of getting a larger refund.
I tried that one year – having lower withholding and putting estimated payments into savings. It earned me a whopping $53 in interest and I ended up using the savings when my water heater exploded and owing the gvt money I no longer had. In retrospect, it would have been cheaper and easier to pay off the Home Depot card.
It’s a good idea for people who have a comfort zone in their finances, but for a lot of us it makes more sense to let the gvt hold the money. In a dire emergency situation, you can negotiate with creditors or get bankruptcy writeoffs. Not the case with tax bills.
I plan on spending the fuck out of it, crazy ghetto style.
how the hell else am i supposed to stay poor enough to continue getting a large return?
Oh, my income tax refund has come and is long gone, new tires for the truck, pay off that bill and that bill and puff, No more!!!
Eh, just bills, largely. I do plan to keep a small, weak dying amount to buy a few movies and beer.
What refund? I can’t remember a year where I didn’t have to pay in additional but I guess that beats knowing the govt. had money of mine to misuse instead that extra being in my pocket where it belongs.
Thank goodness, my husband has monitored the deductions from his paycheck so that our tax bill is equal to the withholding. He monitors it on a monthly basis.
and that @YARNLADY is why I need a husband. To open jars, monitor the tax withholdings, and make sure the oil gets changed in the car. I’m ok without one otherwise, but it sure sounds handy.
@Season_of_Fall Thank you
@Blueroses I have a story for you. A neighbor girl taught me a lesson. I told her that my husband would replace the burnt out light bulb when he came home from work. She told me that her Mom replaced the light bulbs in her house, and why couldn’t I.
This was a family that had one Mom, four daughters, and three different non-custodial Dads.
I plan to hand it directly to the plumber, who will be here in the morning. :/
meh, @augustlan Good to have it when you need it. Sucks that it can’t go to something more fun like paying off your porn site subscriptions
Tax in the UK is worked out to be accurate so unless your income changes wildly during the year (like going from a well-paid job to being unemployed) there is no such thing as a tax refund.
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