I Got A Tax Refund!

[tifnglen]

I did my taxes and I got back $18...... Which means I didn't give the government a big interest free loan all year

[kork13]

Originally Posted by tifnglen

I did my taxes and I got back $18...... Which means I didn't give the government a big interest free loan all year

Bravo! I suppose I get to join in your little celebration... Completely unintentionally, I got refunded a whopping $9 (in fairness, partly the result of capital losses)... lol

[moneybags]

Perfect! One of my pet peeves is people that insist on getting a large refund because "otherwise, I wouldn't save the money".

[irmanator]

That used to be me. But in fairness to some low income ppl it is hard to save and I used to like my tax refund to be able to buy a reliable car with cash. So I could continue to get to work. I would also pay my auto ins. for the year, because when your poor and poop happens i didn't want to be without a car or ins. I would not have been able to save any other way that i was aware of at that time because when your husband leaves you with 3 kids and a 5 an hour job. ya do what ya gotta do.

[creditcardfree]

I'm amazed you can get it so right on. We claim 9 and still end up with a refund...this year over $600. Either I know about all the deductions, or the child tax credit just doesn't make it possible to get that close to zero.

Good jo!

[gekkoplus]

Originally Posted by tifnglen

I did my taxes and I got back $18...... Which means I didn't give the government a big interest free loan all year

IRS does pay interest on your refund if I am not wrong. The yield is probably not very high. Most saving accounts don't have high yields anyway. Not that I am proposing for a big refund, just want to bring in other side of the coin as well.

[DebbieL]

Originally Posted by gekkoplus

IRS does pay interest on your refund if I am not wrong. The yield is probably not very high. Most saving accounts don't have high yields anyway. Not that I am proposing for a big refund, just want to bring in other side of the coin as well.

Are you sure about this? That certainly isn't the case here in Canada. They will pay some interest if you are late filing your taxes (and have a refund coming), but if you just file them on time you get no interest - in other words, you've made them an interest-free loan off your paycheques throughout the previous year.

[kork13]

Originally Posted by DebbieL

Are you sure about this? That certainly isn't the case here in Canada. They will pay some interest if you are late filing your taxes (and have a refund coming), but if you just file them on time you get no interest - in other words, you've made them an interest-free loan off your paycheques throughout the previous year.

That's my understanding as well--there are cases in which they will give you interest (I think one is if you amend a previous year's taxes and it turns out they owe you more money....just expect an audit), but in most all cases, they don't give you any interest. That's why it's generally better for your paycheck witholding to shoot at or a bit below what you expect to owe for taxes.