Tax Return 2011 Plans

[MonkeyDad]

No debt besides mortgage (and plan to sell the house in about 12-15 months). Sooo....

It's all going into the bank to help make the move easier.

[Mulligan]

Will be getting about $4500 back and it will go into the highest low yielding savings account I can find. Got an unexpected boost when I found out my first 20k of pension is state tax free. Obviously, I over payed and its my money being returned to me, but it still feels better than a Christmas present when I get it. Would fritter it away monthly if I didnt do it this way.

[MBAVisionary]

Just found out I'm getting a little over $1000 back. Not a huge sum, but enough to accelerate my get out of debt plans. I think using it toward my 6.99% auto loan (principal payment) might be the best decision. Credit card is 0% until September and student loan balance is too high for it to make a difference.

[foxfirev5]

We are getting a whopping $72 from the Feds and $7 from the state. We used the standard deduction this year so it was easy to calculate and adjust our withholding. We carried over and are lumping deductions into 2011 which should allow us to lower our witholding a little this year. Targeting to hit the final tax bill within $200 or 1%.

[segfault]

Haven't played with Turbotax yet this year. Preliminary estimate is that I may have a small federal refund and owe a little to the state.

Any refund I get will be minimal and will be rolled into next year's estimated taxes. One of the joys of quasi-self-employment... For what it's worth, you can set up monthly EFTPS payments instead of paying quarterly. This makes the payments more like having a second house payment and less like having a root canal every three months.

[Sue J]

We will be getting back about $3300 from Federal and owe about $175 to the state. The federal is big because we got new windows and will be getting the $1500 tax credit.

The plan was to put this in savings but last Saturday we woke up to 53 degrees in the house. Our 56 year old furnace (never had a major repair) needed a part from the previous century so we had a large expense this past week. Had a new 95% efficient furnace installed and we also got new A/C at the same time. Our A/C was 18 years old and the expected life of the outside unit is 12-15 years so it was about time to do it anyways.

We had planned to do this in 2012, just had to move it up a year.

Considering that our old furnace was maybe 55%-60% efficient we should see a noticeable drop in gas consumption. Add in the effect of the new windows and I'm hoping it's significant dollars.

[FreqFlyer]

Unfortunately I estimate I'll owe ~$2,000 to the Feds and will get back a couple hundred from state. I detest writing a check for taxes and look forward to a small refund normally.

This year my mortgage interest declined (refi), property tax went down (lower asessed value) and I had some capital gains in my discretionary stock portfolio. Guess I shouldn't complain

[Bimmerbill]

I think I will owe this year and am not too happy about it. Temp divorce papers got signed 28DEC10 giving my dependent deduction (and the $1000 kid rebate) to my spouse.

I'm almost afraid to calculate how much I own. At least I get to file Head of Household.

[ronocnikral]

i detest this annual exercise. it's up in the air b/c of DW's small business. Hopefully we don't owe too much. Even with the CPA, I will procrastinate until April 14th, my CPA will swear at me and get pissed, then she will process our taxes in time for the April 15th deadline.

[MBAVisionary]

I just spent about $200 of my refund on Amazon.com. Most of the items I purchased were heavily marked down and items that will make my life better overall (vitamins, stand for my microphone, air freshener for the car, hanger organizer for the closet, water filters, shoe rack, personal items, keyboard cover..). I already got back my federal refund, but I am still waiting on the state. (God bless New York)

[brewer12345]

I just bought a bagel. This will enhance my life and later on will add to the rich cloaca flowing underneath the Holy City of Mammon (NYC).

[MBAVisionary]

Funny stuff brewer! :P

[Titus]

I know a lot of people like to aim for breakeven on taxes, and I commend that. It's smart and you are technically right in your approach. However, nothing feels better than "found money" at the beginning of the year. $20 found in a pair of jeans is still my money just like $20 back from the IRS was mine right? LOL

every year it seems like a big housing issue comes up right about tax time. (and it always seems to be = size of return... blessing or damnation? LOL)...

this year.. knock on wood... no big expenses. so probably will use it all to pay down debt.

[ronocnikral]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Titus I know a lot of people like to aim for breakeven on taxes, and I commend that. It's smart and you are technically right in your approach. However, nothing feels better than "found money" at the beginning of the year. $20 found in a pair of jeans is still my money just like $20 back from the IRS was mine right? LOL every year it seems like a big housing issue comes up right about tax time. (and it always seems to be = size of return... blessing or damnation? LOL)... this year.. knock on wood... no big expenses. so probably will use it all to pay down debt.

unless the gubmint "misplaces" your money and won't be able to find it for a couple of months.

[neatokimmo]

I'm getting almost 5K back. If I am reading it right, my 401K contribution knocked me down into EIC land. Then I got a savers credit, used up the last of my adoption credit and got the child credit. I paid in $225 - got to love government math.

Every penny of it is going into my IRA.