Author Topic: What was your tax refund/bill this year?  (Read 9759 times)

YTProphet

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What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« on: February 03, 2015, 12:38:38 PM »
Like most Mustachians, I try to get my tax refund/bill as close to $0 as possible since I'd rather not be giving Uncle Sam an interest free loan. However, this year, I overwithheld due to a few unforseen circumstances. We just finished our taxes and it looks like I'll be getting $3,000 back! I would've rather had that during the year, but a $3,000 ACH deposit still feels darn good when I thought we wouldn't get much, if anything, back.

How about you?

MontanaMoneyMustache

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2015, 12:51:41 PM »
Looking like $1,600 this year. Closest ever to $0 for me, so a big win!

JLee

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #2 on: February 05, 2015, 09:27:45 AM »
$35 owed to state; $1017 refund from Federal.

ShoulderThingThatGoesUp

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #3 on: February 05, 2015, 09:28:59 AM »
How are you guys already in possession of your 1099-DIVs?

sabertooth3

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #4 on: February 05, 2015, 09:31:44 AM »
Looking like about $2500 back from federal and will probably break even on state.

MetalCap

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #5 on: February 05, 2015, 09:34:23 AM »
Unfortunately my new job which is much higher paying messed things up for me this past year and I owe just less than 4k.

I'm working on my '15 witholdings now, maxing the 401k's earlier than planned (prior to 100% debt free) and using the irs calculators to figure out how to keep it as close as possible to 0.
Since finding MMM and Mad Fientist etc happened late in the year, being more aware of taxes and not being happy with the usual large refund came just a couple months too late for 2014.

seattlecyclone

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2015, 10:34:44 AM »
I'm still waiting on a couple of 1099s, but it's looking like we'll owe $10-15k. I guess that's what happens when you exercise all of your vested, very much in-the-money incentive stock options before switching jobs. I made sure to have over 110% of the previous year's taxes withheld, so there shouldn't be any penalties.

nanu

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #7 on: February 05, 2015, 10:41:54 AM »
Not sure yet (still missing some forms), but probably refund of about $2800 from federal and $52 from state.

My situation was weird because I worked part of the year in one state (MA) and another in a different state (WA),
and quite frankly, before finding MMM in December, had absolutely no understanding of how taxes work...
It just felt like black magic to me (though I'm not from the US, so that's a decent excuse I think)

cautiouspessimist

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #8 on: February 05, 2015, 10:48:36 AM »
I got about 1800 from federal and 900 from state. (side note; got my state return today and it went straight into my Betterment account. Wewt.)

This is actually the smallest I've had in a while since I'm apparently no longer eligible for a 2500 credit I'd received for the last couple of years.

FoundPeace

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #9 on: February 05, 2015, 10:56:06 AM »
Far too high. I live in Washington and work in Oregon, but I spent a lot of time (half the year) traveling abroad for business. HR couldn't figure out how to file separate W2s for the state and Fed. So, I will be getting a lot back from state taxes (around $2,500). I won't be getting as much from the IRS though.

starguru

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #10 on: February 05, 2015, 11:07:13 AM »
Jeez I havent even got my W2 yet.

Mr. Green

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #11 on: February 05, 2015, 11:10:42 AM »
I intentionally set our situation up this year to owe money in case we found ourselves unexpectedly without insurance. Since there is currently no way for the IRS to collect that penalty outside of taking it from your refund, I have no problem owing every year until I die (or they change the rule) so that I never expose myself to the possibility of paying the penalty.

Plus, I like borrowing Uncle Sam's money for free. Why would I give the the government a free loan for a year?

FarmerPete

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #12 on: February 05, 2015, 11:12:42 AM »
From my preliminary estimates, I'm looking at $3800 back.  I made an unplanned $11000 to our IRAs and I never changed my withholdings after my wife quit her job in May.  Much different than last year where I owed $2500 between state and fed.

On a side note, anyone have any good resources for estimating state tax/withholdings?  I live in Michigan, and I can't find anything that tells you what number to use.  I tend to just use the same number I use for the fed exceptions, but I know that isn't necessarily a good thing to do.

FIreDrill

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #13 on: February 05, 2015, 11:14:04 AM »
I still need to max out our IRA's for 2014 but after that is done we will be getting about 2500 back.

RWD

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #14 on: February 05, 2015, 11:24:46 AM »
Still waiting on some documents, but I'm guess we'll be getting around $3k back between federal and state.

cynthia1848

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #15 on: February 05, 2015, 11:31:03 AM »
We don't have all the 1099s and K-1s yet.  Pay estimated quarterly, prob around $20K.

NinetyFour

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #16 on: February 05, 2015, 11:48:03 AM »
I am still waiting on a couple of documents.  I will probably owe $3000 - 5000.  Eesh.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #17 on: February 05, 2015, 11:55:25 AM »
I am getting back $90 from Fed and owe $124 State.

-$34 and very happy with this!!

I laugh at my friends who are happy about large returns. "Forced savings" as they call it which they blow on something absolutely absurd each spring.

MustachianAccountant

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #18 on: February 05, 2015, 12:06:17 PM »
Honestly, I'd rather see everyone's 1040 line 22 and line 63, and the calculated percentage.

That's where the badassity will really come out.

seattlecyclone

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #19 on: February 05, 2015, 12:09:50 PM »
Honestly, I'd rather see everyone's 1040 line 22 and line 63, and the calculated percentage.

That's where the badassity will really come out.

I'll probably lose that contest. My aforementioned ISO exercises don't figure into line 22 at all, but they get hit heavily by the AMT.

MustachianAccountant

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #20 on: February 05, 2015, 12:13:10 PM »
Honestly, I'd rather see everyone's 1040 line 22 and line 63, and the calculated percentage.

That's where the badassity will really come out.

I'll probably lose that contest. My aforementioned ISO exercises don't figure into line 22 at all, but they get hit heavily by the AMT.

NII tax too? Or do ISO's not count?

boarder42

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #21 on: February 05, 2015, 12:13:50 PM »
whats line 63

frugalnacho

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #22 on: February 05, 2015, 12:17:31 PM »
I still need to max out our IRA's for 2014 but after that is done we will be getting about 2500 back.

I believe you can file before you fund your IRA and still include it on your tax return, as long as you end up funding it the amount you claimed you did before the April 15 dead line.

MustachianAccountant

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #23 on: February 05, 2015, 12:18:19 PM »
whats line 63

Line 22 is total income, and line 63 is total tax. So line 63/line 22 is your overall income tax rate.

seattlecyclone

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #24 on: February 05, 2015, 12:19:36 PM »
Honestly, I'd rather see everyone's 1040 line 22 and line 63, and the calculated percentage.

That's where the badassity will really come out.

I'll probably lose that contest. My aforementioned ISO exercises don't figure into line 22 at all, but they get hit heavily by the AMT.

NII tax too? Or do ISO's not count?

Purchasing ISO shares is a complete non-event as far as the regular income tax is concerned, NII tax included. However the difference between grant price and FMV on date of purchase does count as income for AMT purposes.

MustachianAccountant

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #25 on: February 05, 2015, 12:20:34 PM »
whats line 63

Line 22 is total income, and line 63 is total tax. So line 63/line 22 is your overall income tax rate.

And of course, I should amend my comment by saying even that percentage might not be a true reflection, as 401k contributions never even see your tax return.

Chuck

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #26 on: February 05, 2015, 12:21:34 PM »
Federal return is prepped, and I'm looking at 6200 back. Don't know how my state return looks yet.

I was unmarried until September of last year, my spouse does not work and I got to claim the college tax credit on her behalf. So... yes. It's not going to look like this next year, lol.

boarder42

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #27 on: February 05, 2015, 12:21:40 PM »
.1116 on a greater than can contribute to TIRA total income

.0863 when factoring in 401k contributions
« Last Edit: February 05, 2015, 12:25:05 PM by boarder42 »

CheapskateWife

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #28 on: February 05, 2015, 02:16:41 PM »
$3400 face punch here...but 2014 was a killer.

I had 2 jobs in 2 different states.  We sold a rental property, lost huge money on another, rented a 3rd house, and had an apartment in the city I was working in that we were AirBnbing when I wasn't there.  In short, it was taxable chaos.

This year we only have one job each and one house....2015 is going to be a good year.

jeromedawg

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #29 on: February 05, 2015, 05:21:26 PM »
I owe over $7k :O :X

Sucks... but one of the big reasons why is because I sold off a bunch of mutual funds in overhauling my portfolio and had a bunch of capital gains.

Currently on dual income and not a whole lot to deduct other than charitable contributions mostly, which aren't significant compared to everything else in our context. I think I may be withholding too little as well... Yikes, time to look into adjusting the w4
« Last Edit: February 05, 2015, 05:25:40 PM by jplee3 »

teen persuasion

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #30 on: February 05, 2015, 06:49:21 PM »
whats line 63

Line 22 is total income, and line 63 is total tax. So line 63/line 22 is your overall income tax rate.

And of course, I should amend my comment by saying even that percentage might not be a true reflection, as 401k contributions never even see your tax return.

And this completely ignore refundable credits.  If line 63 is 0, and you have refundable credits, wouldn't your rate be negative?

caliq

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Re: What was your tax refund/bill this year?
« Reply #31 on: February 05, 2015, 07:02:48 PM »
whats line 63

Line 22 is total income, and line 63 is total tax. So line 63/line 22 is your overall income tax rate.

And of course, I should amend my comment by saying even that percentage might not be a true reflection, as 401k contributions never even see your tax return.

And this completely ignore refundable credits.  If line 63 is 0, and you have refundable credits, wouldn't your rate be negative?

Yep.  We had a -3.65% tax rate for 2014.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!