I'm a little out of touch, because I always file paper forms at the last minute, and almost always owe them money.
When do people start seeing their refund checks?
I'm getting ready to start cleaning out a lot of stuff around here, and don't want to try while people are recovering from Christmas.
If I remember correctly my W2 normally shows up the last week of January and I have my return filed and cash back by the second week of February
^
Sounds about right. I do all my tax stuff online.
Pseudosport wrote: If I remember correctly my W2 normally shows up the last week of January and I have my return filed and cash back by the second week of February
I use TurboTax, E-file and direct deposit. My refund is usually spent... er, pays the bills, by the second week of Feb.
get my W-2 last wk of Jan... don't get all my 1099's 'till sometime in late Feb or early Mar.... check usually by mid April
I will E-file it etc. but I try to have it all set up so I don't actually get a refund nor owe something.
I will file as soon as I get my W-2 at the end of Jan. and will see my refund about 2 weeks later. But seeing as our congress has taking it sweet time deciding who will pay what in taxes it threw the IRS off. Now they say I wouldn't be able to file until mid to late Feb. 
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-23/irs-delays-filing-season-by-a-month-for-taxpayers-with-itemized-deductions.html
If you get a refund that is more than a few dollars you are doing something wrong. Why give Uncle Sam an interest free loan?
Never? ...or..."Hope in one hand, E36 M3 in the other...."
scottgib wrote: If you get a refund that is more than a few dollars you are doing something wrong. Why give Uncle Sam an interest free loan?
Not necessarily true. a lot of deduction and tax credits hit randomly in peoples lives triggering a refund.
What is this refund you speak of?
I always make a point of owing Revenue Canada money at the end of the year. Its a meaningless, futile, and ultimately more expensive way of dealing with the theives in Ottawa, but I find it personally satisfying to be late with my taxes.
In reply to Ranger50:
It's never for a good financial reason. Have a child, get a good refund. Buy a new house, pay mostly interest the first year, expect a refund. Lots of medical expenses during the year, expect a big refund. In most cases, you've spent a lot of money to get the "refund".
business owner = I owe them money
Luckily I pay quarterly and this is my slow season (I'm a landscaper)
refund.... I haven't seen a refund since '91...as a matter of fact, those stimulus checks everyone got, well I didn't get mine and I had 4 dependants at the time, they just credited what I owed them instead.
Boy, was that a hard one to explain to my wife, why all her friends got this extra check to spend from the gubment and we didn't get one. She was getting ready to call Oprah or Channel 5 to see if they could find out why we didn't get a check...
Hoping to break even.
Wife made WAY more this year than she did last year. Pretty sure that'll eliminate the possibility of a refund.
In reply to SVreX:
I just hope I get it. Considering everything that has happened and not happened in the past two years, I wouldn't be surprised if they decided they were going to keep it to fund research into how the Bohemian Tode Frog contributes to global warming.
sachilles wrote: In reply to Ranger50: It's never for a good financial reason. Have a child, get a good refund. Buy a new house, pay mostly interest the first year, expect a refund. Lots of medical expenses during the year, expect a big refund. In most cases, you've spent a lot of money to get the "refund".
Not always true. I play in a band and all the tax stuff is in my name. There are a couple places that we play that do everything by the books, so I will end up with a few 1099's at the end of the year. Everything we spend on musical equipment can be claimed, and since we're all gear junkies, we'd probably be buying this stuff anyway. So since we technically operate at a loss every year, it ends up that I get an extra couple hundred bucks when I do my taxes. Which is barely worth it, because I hate having to keep track of all the receipts, but no one else will do it. They don't mind that I get an extra couple hundred, because they hate trying to keep track of that crap even worse than I do. Not that we didn't spend the money to get the refund, but it's money we probably would have spent anyway.
I thought the government giving you money was an urban legend. It has never happened to me, but according to Snopes.com it is real. Good luck!
We never got a refund until the economy got so bad and my expenses exceeded my income for a few years. The loss has allowed my wife to get back most of the money that she pays in at her job. I prefer the world where I make more than I spend and end up owing the IRS.
scottgib wrote: If you get a refund that is more than a few dollars you are doing something wrong. Why give Uncle Sam an interest free loan?
Because if I put the extra $20-30 in each of 26 paychecks per year, I'll piss away that money on a magazine and 6 pack of good beer or something of an equally trivial nature.
I got married this year, but since she is self-employed, we will still file separately (no kids, claim 0).
I don't mind giving the gubmint an interest-free loan all year because I look at it like getting a little bonus at the end of the year. That I can spend on whatever I choose (I typically get back $1600-2000 the last 5 years).
2009, the money bought the S52 and some swap parts for the bronze E30. 2010, the money bought the SSR Type C RS and RT-615s for my old 318is. 2011, I'll probably use it to pay off some debt, although I'd really like to buy some wheels/suspension/Cobb tuner for the Speed3.
Or may use it to add insulation/energy effiecient windows to the house.
RealMiniDriver wrote:Pseudosport wrote: If I remember correctly my W2 normally shows up the last week of January and I have my return filed and cash back by the second week of FebruaryI use TurboTax, E-file and direct deposit. My refund is usually spent... er, pays the bills, by the second week of Feb.
this
Fed should be quick; Ct state, we will be "talking" a couple of times over their past screw ups and how they and I will come to agreement--they told me a couple of moths ago they overpaid me in 2006, pleasee repay with interest and penalty. This after I told them they sent me too much $$, and they insisted it was correct.
I saved all the letters
last year i filed an extension and was almost late on that! last year was a special case, due to living and working out of state, claiming a loss on a business in a third state, selling the house and moving, etc. typically i have all the info i need by end of feb and submit by mid-mar. direct-deposit is usually received a couple weeks later. i usually get about $1200 total refunded.
last year, i did it all on paper. all three states were OK, but i got a letter from IRS telling me i did something wrong with the child tax credit and they sent me a larger refund than i expected.
in 2010, i'm expecting to owe several hundred, as we didn't pay mortgage interest for 10 months
z31maniac wrote:scottgib wrote: If you get a refund that is more than a few dollars you are doing something wrong. Why give Uncle Sam an interest free loan?Because if I put the extra $20-30 in each of 26 paychecks per year, I'll piss away that money on a magazine and 6 pack of good beer or something of an equally trivial nature. I got married this year, but since she is self-employed, we will still file separately (no kids, claim 0). I don't mind giving the gubmint an interest-free loan all year because I look at it like getting a little bonus at the end of the year. That I can spend on whatever I choose (I typically get back $1600-2000 the last 5 years). 2009, the money bought the S52 and some swap parts for the bronze E30. 2010, the money bought the SSR Type C RS and RT-615s for my old 318is. 2011, I'll probably use it to pay off some debt, although I'd really like to buy some wheels/suspension/Cobb tuner for the Speed3. Or may use it to add insulation/energy effiecient windows to the house.
Open a separate savings account and drop a certain number in that account every payday instead. All you have to do is lie to yourself enough to believe you can't withdraw that cash. It helps to have it in a different bank from your day to day one, and then set up the ATM card so you can only deposit, but have to go through a teller to withdraw.
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