Tax Refund/What's going in your wallet?

[Paree4g63]

Everybody uses and does their own taxes differently every year; Who do you trust and use the most to efficiently max out your refund? I've been using H&R Block since day one but I've heard that certain people can bring out more money for your refund compared to a professional company. What are some average estimates that you get every year and can you share what you know about this subject? Single/Married, etc and the outcomes(pro's and con's). There's gotta be a do and don't that everybody know's or doesn't know. Share your story! ;)

[wannab20hatch]

when i was single i always filed online and had it direct deposited. it was fast and easy. but this year ill be using h&r block since im married and my wife is a full time student. were looking to get back over 5k this year.

[9ussy]

well.. i guess imma file single head of the house hold.. and the hybrid tax rebate? iono.. lol..

[JennB]

My advice, don't pay H&R Block hundreds of dollars to do something so simple. Learn a little about taxes, use one of the free online sites or but Tax Cut or another home program for a fraction of what H&R Block will cost. I have never in my years and years of being an accountant understood why anyone who files a short form or EZ form would pay someone to do their taxes. It's simple data entry into a website or onto a form. The only time I would suggest paying someone to do taxes, and I still wouldn't recommend H&R Block, would be if you had a business, investment property, something that actually made your return more complicated.

[Frög]

I can't wait for my tax return! All my debt will be paid off!! :bump:

[AirMax95]

I can't wait for my tax return! All my debt will be paid off!! :bump:

:goodjob: Same here!

For the past few years my family has used a CPA, but not this year. She screwed up my moms financials, therefore I am not using her, lol. I will probably do it on my own and have a friend who is an accountant look it over.

Debt FREE :cheers:

[BanginJimmy]

I have a guy do mine for $70 and he gets me back a ton more cash than the home programs do. He only does military for that price though. He typically charges 450 to do it.

[JennB]

And you are military so that changes your taxes a little.

I see people with one or two W-2's, no tuition, no dependents, no property, paying $300 to get their taxes prepared and that's a complete ripoff. I actually yelled at my best friend a few years ago because she was paying $300-$400 per year to get her taxes done at H&R and I was like "WTF! I'm an ACCOUNTANT. I can teach you how to do this". She had one job all year, no kids, no husband at the time, no property, nothing. Finally she listened and let me prove it to her. It took maybe 6 minutes to do her taxes. She took them to H&R to compare for free and they came up with the exact same thing. A big "I told you so" came after that.

[Extra Made]

I've wondered if those business tax software would get me more back. But I've been using someone to do my business taxes and she's great. I prolly will never go to those large company tax services, f that.

[Paree4g63]

I've been using H&BLOCK ever since and I usually get the same amount which is alittle over $1k every year. I'm single and that's about it. I file it myself and everything but don't see how I could extract more outta my return then others can. I've got friends/family that use other people and they get like almost 1k more then I do and I've been at my job going on 4years in August. I've gotta friend that tried H&RBlock last year and it estimated he owed $2k but he used one of his contacts instead and he got back $5k. :???:

What are some wise tips and tricks that won't hurt us in the future?

[BanginJimmy]

my taxes arent anything crazy, but at the same time they can get pretty complicated because between me and my wife we skirt the edge of the AMT. We have the house, thousands in donations, my school, and a few other significant deductions. It is well worth the $70 a year I pay.

[JennB]

I've been using H&BLOCK ever since and I usually get the same amount which is alittle over $1k every year. I'm single and that's about it. I file it myself and everything but don't see how I could extract more outta my return then others can. I've got friends/family that use other people and they get like almost 1k more then I do and I've been at my job going on 4years in August. I've gotta friend that tried H&RBlock last year and it estimated he owed $2k but he used one of his contacts instead and he got back $5k. :???:

What are some wise tips and tricks that won't hurt us in the future?

Don't EVER try to compare your refund to someone else's. One person getting back $100 and another getting back $4000 only means that one person overpaid more during the year. The only way you can ever compare your taxes to someone else's is if they make the same amount as you and have the same deductions. Two people can make the exact same amount and one get back twice as much as the other, that only means that the one who got more back had twice as much taken out of his paychecks through the year, it does not in any way mean that the guy who got back more actually paid less. If they made the exact same amount and had the exact same deductions, they both paid the exact same amount in taxes, one just overpaid more during the year.

H&R Block screwed up a friend of mine back when I was in college. I had to help her file a few years of ammended returns because they did her tution deduction wrong and she missed a couple thousand dollars.

Tips... for a single person with one job, no investments and no property, there isn't much you can do. The most common savings for younger people come from college tution, buying a house, moving for a job then after that comes having kids, charitible contributions, etc. All of those things cause your tax liability to decrease.

[MachNU]

turbotax ftmfw!!!!

[Paree4g63]

turbotax ftmfw!!!!

Turbotax has the same results as H&R BLOCK. I used both their calculators and it came out the same number:thinking:

[wannab20hatch]

Im glad im getting a refund. Found out my dad made to much last year and has to pay in.

[JennB]

1) If you do your taxes correctly, all websites/programs should give you the same result.

2) You don't have to pay in because you made too much, you have to pay because you had too little withheld. You can have to pay and make $20K or $200K. It all depends on how you filled out your W-4.

[Total_Blender]

I always use Freetaxusa.com

I paid in $2,193 federal and I'm getting back $1,250.

One thing I'm looking forward to is that you can deduct the interest from your student loans. So when my loans start accruing interest I'll be able to deduct that, even after taking the standard deduction.:cheers:

The crazy part is that they have a ticker that shows you the ammount of your refund and how it changes when you answer the questions. when I entered in the stimulus I got last year, I saw my total go up from $350 to $1250. I was expecting it to go down, lol :crazy:

[SLOWR/T]

I did mine my self and I have to pay in but, then I claim me all year.

[B18c1Turboed]

Shoot i owe 5200 this year.. Oh well!!!!

[AirMax95]

1) If you do your taxes correctly, all websites/programs should give you the same result.

2) You don't have to pay in because you made too much, you have to pay because you had too little withheld. You can have to pay and make $20K or $200K. It all depends on how you filled out your W-4.


Can you explain what people mean when they say, "I can get you more" or "We can maximize your return"? I hear it all the time, but never figured out if what they do is use legal loopholes or illegal practice.

[Paree4g63]

Can you explain what people mean when they say, "I can get you more" or "We can maximize your return"? I hear it all the time, but never figured out if what they do is use legal loopholes or illegal practice.

So called *some tax preparers* can add in all your gas expenses and food expenses all into your refund somehow. I've never done that with H&RBlock but I don't know if that's legal or not. Every tax preparer does things their own way, that's why I get confused when people can extract more out with a different tax preparer. You can go around and try out different tax preparers and I'll guarantee you some will give you more or less. :screwy:

[BanginJimmy]

Its mostly legal loopholes. I honestly dont care either way. The guy that does my taxes signs them so if I am audited and end up owning more I only have to worry about the principle. He can pay the penalties and intrest.

JennB, if I was told wrong on the payment of fines and interest, please let me know.

[JennB]

I don't think the signature legally binds them to pay penalties and interest but it does give them permission to call the IRS to discuss your return and if you are audited, they must take part in the audit. It's a good policy though.

As for maximizing returns, that is mostly done by taking legal deductions that a lot of people who don't know anything about taxes could easily miss. The most common is just by itemizing deductions. After that you can get deductions/credits for tuition, dependents, home office, business expenses, medical expenses, home purchases, interest on student loans, tons of things that people just overlook or don't know they can deduct. I got a good bit off of my tax liability when I moved to Atlanta for my job. When I was living in Indiana, you could deduct a part of the rent you pay. For tuition, there is a deduction for all costs but under certain circumstances, you can take a credit instead of the deduction which gets you waaaaay more back. There are just all kinds of things you can apply to your return and end up with a bigger refund.

[AirMax95]

Ah, I see now. I asked because I moved for my job also, and I have student loan interest. I have to find another independant tax person ASAP. I am waiting on one more W2 along with my Student Loan paperwork.

Thanks! Time for me to Google and read up more.

[JennB]

Do you pay your student loans online? You should be able to access your 1098-E as soon as it's published to the website. I had mine weeks ago.

Whether or not you can deduct moving expenses for a job depends on how far you moved. You can't take it if you moved 10 or 20 miles but definitely if you moved city to city. There is a formula. You must be full time and your new job must be at least 50 miles further from your old house than your old job. Say you used to drive 5 miles to work, your new job must be 55 miles from your old home.

[AirMax95]

Do you pay your student loans online? You should be able to access your 1098-E as soon as it's published to the website. I had mine weeks ago.

Whether or not you can deduct moving expenses for a job depends on how far you moved. You can't take it if you moved 10 or 20 miles but definitely if you moved city to city. There is a formula. You must be full time and your new job must be at least 50 miles further from your old house than your old job. Say you used to drive 5 miles to work, your new job must be 55 miles from your old home.

Student loans are paid online via auto-debit through NelNet.

PM sent, lol!

[§treet_§peed]

damn i need to learn how to do my own taxes. my grandmother ran her own tax office for well over 25 years. she told me she would teach me when i was ready, but before i could let her show me she passed. anyways. damn i need to learn how to do this to save more cash.

[quickdodge®]

Cost me $44 to do H&R Block online. Done it for the last 3 years. I pull off hefty returns, too. Lolol. Later, QD.

[Paree4g63]

Cost me $44 to do H&R Block online. Done it for the last 3 years. I pull off hefty returns, too. Lolol. Later, QD.

Well, I went to the Atl earlier today and some 20year tax pro's do their own thing up over there. He gave me some advice about not to use the big companies out there like H&RBlock, turbotax, etc. He mainly said you're only cheating yourself when you use programs that don't fully give you what you really deserve. The guys I talked to can give you more back from what others can. Majority of your federal withheld number is your money and you're supposed to include every cent of whatever expense(food,gas,mileage,etc) you used that year. The tax pro's understand that we all have expenses and it's not all accounted for with the big companies. I think it depends on software usage and what each tax preparation software you use. H&RBlock doesn't have any data entry boxes about gas, food nor mileage. All they have is other business related stuff like charitie donations, mileage to and from location for charity, stocks, assets, etc. I wouldn't pay money to anyone if I had the right software legally. If people are paying others just to input simple data; they need to start doing it for themselves. For people who aren't fluent in English, at least ask you children or a friend/family that can enter your data properly. The guy said I could itemize all of the years I didn't include my expenses and get alot back this year or next year if I wanted to. I understand that some people can do underhand stuff and get away with it but it's up to that person's choice to use them. We'll see what happens in the future.

[JennB]

H&RBlock doesn't have any data entry boxes about gas, food nor mileage. All they have is other business related stuff like charitie donations, mileage to and from location for charity, stocks, assets, etc.

Because that is what is legal to deduct. You cannot simply deduct all of the gas you used, every mile you drove and all of the food you ate in a year. For mileage, you can deduct miles driven for your work (errands, travel, etc), you can deduct miles driven to do charity work, miles driven for medical care, miles driven from one job to another or from work to school but you cannot deduct miles you drove to go get laundry detergent from Target or miles you drove to go pick up a pizza for dinner.

[Paree4g63]

Because that is what is legal to deduct. You cannot simply deduct all of the gas you used, every mile you drove and all of the food you ate in a year. For mileage, you can deduct miles driven for your work (errands, travel, etc), you can deduct miles driven to do charity work, miles driven for medical care, miles driven from one job to another or from work to school but you cannot deduct miles you drove to go get laundry detergent from Target or miles you drove to go pick up a pizza for dinner.

Yea, I didn't see any entry boxes about how many miles it takes from home to work everyday on the H&RBlock site unless it was in a different abbreviation. I still feel cheated though. :D At least we're not in California.

[Elbow]

$7,482.29

[SL65AMG]

im paying about 3k in taxes this year. my asshole is gonna be pretty sore this year

[mike's02ls1]

Do you pay your student loans online? You should be able to access your 1098-E as soon as it's published to the website. I had mine weeks ago.

Whether or not you can deduct moving expenses for a job depends on how far you moved. You can't take it if you moved 10 or 20 miles but definitely if you moved city to city. There is a formula. You must be full time and your new job must be at least 50 miles further from your old house than your old job. Say you used to drive 5 miles to work, your new job must be 55 miles from your old home.
Hey I can pay you to do my taxes, I don't have the time to sit and do mine, plus I must have ADD cause I can't sit there to read all the stuff... LOL Now if what car shit I have all day.....LOL

[Julio]

Cost me $44 to do H&R Block online. Done it for the last 3 years. I pull off hefty returns, too. Lolol. Later, QD.



Sorry man.. I bet you are getting ass rapped with your own money..

H&R block sucks.. if you think you are getting all you think you should..

You should try and use the companie I use in the future..

You may be surprised.

[Julio]

Taxes are easy to do BTW, I used Turbo tax in the past.. But I rather have someone else thats in that field do it and knows what to do to get it done right.. All those online programs are a conspiracy... lol

But is a no brainer.

[mike's02ls1]

Sorry man.. I bet you are getting ass rapped with your own money..

H&R block sucks.. if you think you are getting all you think you should..

You should try and use the companie I use in the future..

You may be surprised.
Whats the company you use?? Oh it sucks not having a back account... Its also a pain in the ass to find a bank to cash the checks.... Damn me.... I do have a Walmart money card that I have my paycheck direct deposited, wonder if I can use that? Sorry for the ramble...

[quickdodge®]

Sorry man.. I bet you are getting ass rapped with your own money..

H&R block sucks.. if you think you are getting all you think you should..

You should try and use the companie I use in the future..

You may be surprised.

Maybe I am. But I'm getting back more each year doing this than I ever did going to see people. This year? Just shy of $5,000. Later, QD.

[jasonturbo]

Some of you might find this amusing... I live in Canada and my folks live in GA

I made 163XXX$ last year and between federal and procincial taxes, unemployment insurance, and Canadian pension plan contributions (All the above are mandatory and come off your paycheque before you get it)... I was taxed 51XXX$

Fed tax is 27% and provincial tax rate is 10%... I'm only 24 years old and the GOV is stealing all my money. :(

I expect to get 1500-4000$ back at most.

[drpepper14]

i'm getting back $9,191 this year

[JennB]

So why would you want to get such a large refund? I have never understood. Why wouldn't you want that money on your paycheck all through the year? Why not get it and put it into a savings account and earn a nice bit of interest instead of letting the government hold onto it for free? I'm not being mean or anything, just asking an honest question. It's up to everyone what they do with their own money but I think a lot of people don't quite get how the tax system works and think they HAVE to have a certain amount taken out of their paychecks and then they HAVE to wait until the end of the year to get it back. If that's what you like to do then fine, but it has never made much sense to me personally.

I pay a TON of tax and I do an estimate at the beginning of each year so I can get my withholdings almost dead on and get the largest paycheck possible. I want my money, I don't want the government holding onto any more of it than they have to. I get punished enough for working my ass off and not having kids or many other deductions, I'll be damned if I let them hold onto thousands more of my dollars. But that's just me, I'm an accountant and I want full control of my money at all times.

[quickdodge®]

Why wouldn't you want that money on your paycheck all through the year?

I already do that. I have my dependents maxed out on my W2. I get as much back on my weekly check as I can. And I still get a decent return each year. I'm completely satisfied with my set up right now. Later, QD.

[cactusEG]

turbotax ftmfw!!!!

Aint that the troof brotha ! ! ! I'll be only putting my self as a dependent...

[hondalover00]

h&r sucks ass! My homeboy from work got me back 7600 and i dont even have any dependents and i only worked at my job for 7 months. I got back more then my girls dad with one dependent, mom and her bro and his wife with two dependents and they all went through h&r.

oops this is -sdoublec- didnt know i was on my supervisors name

[JennB]

h&r sucks ass! My homeboy from work got me back 7600 and i dont even have any dependents and i only worked at my job for 7 months. I got back more then my girls dad with one dependent, mom and her bro and his wife with two dependents and they all went through h&r.


Once again, you cannot compare your refund to someone else's, it's completely pointless. Someone can get back $20 and pay less than you overall and someone can get back $5,000 a pay ten times what you pay overall.

If you overpaid by $7,600, you really need to adjust your W-4.

[drpepper14]

I'm getting back such a large return because I qualified for the first time home buyers credit, got married last year, and had to travel for 2 of my jobs on a regular basis...

Otherwise, I want my money in my high interest savings account and in my IRA instead of sitting in uncle sam's pocket all year.

[JennB]

Oh, sweet. That first time homebuyers credit is an awesome program. Good for you.

[redrumracer]

woohoo im getting an awesome 270 buck
only made 3k last year.

[§treet_§peed]

im getting almost 1600 bucks back. that'll go in my savings til i get my new car in april. i would of got back well over 4k if i would of claimed my friends daughter. No i wouldn't of been lying since i do help pay her bills, by them food, medicine, etc. but she was afraid of getting in trouble even tho she has every receipt on everything i paid for.