Tax Refunds--Whatcha gonna do with it?

[kork13]

my internet's acting screwy, duplicated post... sorry.

[kork13]

I'm actually expecting to get a higher refund than I intended, somewhere between $500-$1k... Not sure where my estimates went awry, but I think I had figured out that I need about 1.5 exemptions from my paycheck, so I meant to change it to '2' in June to make it work... and I'm pretty sure I forgot to do it. Hopefully I remember it this year.

anyway, I don't really have any plans for whatever it may be, so I'll probably put most of it toward my EF. Depending on the size, I may earmark some of it for future spending, but we'll see.


Honestly, I'm not surprised by the largely blasé responses (save it, pay off debt, or not getting one)... We're all far too reasonable to actually do something cool with a check from the government... jeeeez...

[disneysteve]

Honestly, I'm not surprised by the largely blasé responses (save it, pay off debt, or not getting one)... We're all far too reasonable to actually do something cool with a check from the government... jeeeez...

Yep, we're a rather boring and un-American group, aren't we.

Besides, I think funding my Roth is pretty cool.

[mdcrim]

I will be getting a ridiculous refund this year (self employed), did not earn as much last year as normal and bought a work truck (179 deduction). I will probably take a partial 179 to spread the deduction over a few years but I'm still looking at a ton of money coming back (not that I'm complaining). As a result of my income being reduced last year, we are now eligible for a lot of tax breaks we weren't able to get when I was making more. Now every deductions seems to add pretty significantly to the refund. For the past few years, a loss on a rental property wasn't even affecting my taxes-this year it is crazy how it's helping.

We refinanced our primary residence at 4.5% fixed (from 5.0%) to fund the purchase of a vacation home, which increased our monthly payments by $244 per month. I'm going to use my refund to pay for this years worth of the increase, as well as utility and entertainment expenses at the weekend place. Beauty is that there is no mortgage on the vacation home...

[Thrif-t]

We usually don't get much but this year we bought a new car and some energy efficient appliances for the house. We got credits for those and will get a 1k refund. It's going to savings to replenish a little that came out for the kids ortho bills.

[nmboone]

I am going to put anything I get (it is usually a tiny refund, maybe a few hundred) and put it toward car debt. I'm getting really close to paying it off! And yes I guess this group is a bit boring when it comes to spending our money, lol, but we love it because it makes us richer!

[cptacek]

It is going to the swather loan or my snowball.

[disneysteve]

It is going to the swather loan

Had to Google that one. Had no idea what a swather was.

[maat55]

I usually end up paying a little or getting a little, if I get a little it gets applied to the next quarter.

[kork13]

Had to Google that one. Had no idea what a swather was.

Steve, you can't pique our interest and not elaborate! That's like giving an 8-y/o a tour of a candy factory and not giving a free sample!

Swather: the big guy that cuts hay/grain.

[maat55]

It is going to the swather loan or my snowball.

Without searching, I'm guessing it it farm related. Right? wrong?

[Ima saver]

If we get anything back, it always goes into savings!

[gertymac]

We're expecting the $8K for buying a home this year, but I don't think we'll get the full $8K due to owing a bit on our taxes this year.

So, what we get back is going to open and fully fund a Roth IRA for my partner. If there's anything left, it'll go to the emergency fund (and hopefully meet our goal of 6 mo worth of expense in the EF).

[Russell]

We're getting about $2k back which will likely go towards our "one home-improvement per year" project. Last year it was upgrading all the 20 year old windows and sliding glass doors. This year will be replacing the old carpet with composite wood floor.

If not there're several other things on our 'want list'.

[PrincessPerky]

1. Go out to eat
2. Replenish EF from the job loss, and then some

as to why we get a refund, we have our withholdings set so zero came out of regular paychecks, but overtime and bonus' we couldn't make them do that, there is usually a surplus due to him working a lot of overtime.