Upthread I posted about our projected $2700 federal refund; I have absolutely no idea about a state refund. I forgot to mention that it's also so high because the woman who does payroll for our small business accidentally put in 10 allowances last spring instead of 1. 2014 is my first year of full-time work, so the % w/h actually stayed about the same as when I was working part-time in college, and didn't look too fishy to me. So then I changed it to 0 + $20/week extra withheld, which later in the year I readjusted to just 0, then later to 4 as I reused the IRS calculator. And then my husband never put in a new W-4 when we got married, so he was w/h at a way high rate. Also, we work hourly pay jobs with very variable hours, so that's why I kept checking in. When DH works 50 hours it changes his % w/h that week (b/c payroll takes that week and bases w/h on a year of that salary), vs. when he only works 20 hrs. And it was his first year in that job so we didn't know quite what annual income we could expect to plan for. So w/h fails alllllll year long.
But that was 2014. In a different thread, I found out other ppl have tax spreadsheets. I figured this is brilliant! I put in all of our deductions/exemptions/student loan interest/etc. and ballparked where we should be for 2015. I wanted 0 allowances b/c my DH is in a new crazy job situation, and I figured we can adjust to having more take home pay later this year (yay!) when I can better estimate our gross income. Well, the woman who does our payroll is my mother. And she thinks mothers know best :p So she put in 2 allowances because we're married and there's 2 of us. This coincided with a raise, and I figured the increase in take home pay was due to the raise. Actually, half of the increase is due to those 2 allowances. So I very nicely explained to my own mother that I had actually filled out the W-4 form correctly and pretty please change it in the payroll software. And now I'll have to carefully watch my paychecks to be sure she doesn't change it back. So 2015 could turn out interestingly.
I chatted with coworkers today about tax refunds. Said ours was going on student loans. I asked if they were saving up for anything big (one wants cattle to start his own farm. one wants to start a mechanic shop). Nope. No go there. Two guys plan to buy trucks (one fairly new with payments, one super old with cash) and the other plans big upgrades for his current truck. And then they all complain that they'll never have enough money for their goals and try to angle for pay raises. I tried to encourage saving half towards their dreams, gave a little uplifting speech, but I don't think it worked. Oh well.
