tax refunds

[skipper]

Another bit of advice is fill out your taxes early then if you have to pay you have more time to get it into your budget and if you do get a refund you get the intrest and not the government

[KathMorgan]

Or if you get a big refund every year, adjust your withholding so that you get the money all year instead of Uncle Sam. Then take the same amount of money you are now getting "extra" in your paycheck and have it directly deposited into a savings vehicle of some kind. That way you are still living on the same amount of money every payday, but at the end of the year you have your "refund" right away plus the interest that you earned.

[cheapbastard]

Good advice from Kath Morgan. I will be doing that next year. I filed for my considerable tax refund as soon as I recieved the forms. My wife filed her's 5 weeks after mine. In two weeks she had her refund of $28.12. It took 12 weeks before I finally got my refund. What is up with that?

[KathMorgan]

Sounds like she filed on line and you mailed. Or if you filed on line also and you get Earner Income Credit, you may have been hit with a random look-see. They are doing a lot more of that nowadays. Especially if you filed Head of Household.

[cercis]

I'm afraid our withholding is going to be too small this year. My work isn't withholding anything for federal taxes (we have no state income tax). I'll have to get out taxes figured out first thing so we can start saving for the tax bill.

I think we'll be okay penalty-wise because we got EITC last year.

[acezz4e_tish]

we file for the earned income credit for two kids. we got additional 2200 dollars. this year were using it for fencing. the next year we will prolly use it for updating our vehichles, with a paint job. i wish i could afford foose.lol does anyone watch that? yesterday they had a marathon, it was gr8 stuff. but if hes doing cars for adam carolla and such i know i couldnt afford him.lol. even with four refunds.lol but that is something my brother went to college for, so paint jobs for both our cars will cost approx the same as getting one done.

[more freedom]

I posted this somewhere before, but I think it is very useful:http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/...306874,00.html

[dinomorea]

Does making adequate plans for tax well in advance help in budgeting? I never had this idea, but with the expenses being high I think there is certainly a need to fill up the taxes early. There is hardly any point in grumbling when we find that we have to meet up all ends with limited money.

[cptacek]

What is a "self-insured medical reimbursement plan" (from article) and how do you set it up?

[cptacek]

I finally found out what a medical reimbursement plan is, and if it is legal or not...
http://edzollars.com/2007-02-17_Medical.pdf

It looks like if you are self-employed and legitimately hire your spouse, (with W-2's, compensation and all) you can reimburse the spouse's (and the spouses's family - including you) out of pocket medical expenses and write off the expenses as a business expense...basically being able to write off all medical expenses, not just the part over 7.5% of your AGI.

But you have to have and sign a plan, if you hire someone else, they get the benefit as well, and you have to keep records of what the spouse actually did and got paid for their work.

If you are single, you can't do this for yourself.