I did my taxes, and maybe I shouldn't be complaining, but I'm supposed to get a lot of money back in my refund this year. I used turbo tax online and have never had a bad experience with them... or have had this much of a stellar refund either.
I double checked everything and I know that everything was done correctly, but due to the amount of the refund, I still feel unsettled. Not that the money isn't a good thing, I'm just nervous I messed something up on a very idiot proof guide ;)
Does anyone have any tax refund horror stories?! Good stories?! Please share :)
I didn't realize they changed the tax laws, that's got to be it. I qualified, or my kids qualified, for a lot of low-income credits this year. Yep, I'm broke ;) I have this huge sense of relief if I do get this all back, because I really have $5.76 in savings right now :(
Thanks for the links JL... turbo tax says I have a very low risk of being audited, and of course they check for mistakes. Fingers crossed! It really is pretty idiot proof, so if I still managed to screw up the simple form, then I need to go to the funny farm! LOL
I'm just glad to know that I'm not the only one who's waited until this week to finish her taxes. :-)
I remember seeing a story about HUGE refunds due to the change in the adoption credits (or whatever they're calling it this year)! Seems this is the only year they are putting that adoption credit money out as refunds instead of rolling it over as was done in the past.
I got alot back too, this year....I know I pay almost double into my taxes (of what they originally take out) because I got tired of owing money, and this is they first year I got any of the money back.
Don't worry. I have noticed that even when I do my own taxes, the government always redoes them for me.
Put it into savings, pay off a bill or two....be blessed by it!
My only horror story is that one year H&R Block double filed my taxes. Long story short and a migraine to match, it took 6 months to straighten it out. I will never use them again. It's cheaper to do my own...or, lol, be related to an accountant's secretary.
-E. M
I guess my question to you would be why do you think you got such a big refund this year? And don't say, 'because that's what turbo tax says." ;-)
There ought to be a reason for the refund... So look at last year's and compare it to this year's. Did you make less money? Did you change your W4 so that more $ was withheld in 2010? Did you have more losses or expenses to your property or assets? Did you change your filing status in a way that lowered your taxes? Everyone thinks taxes are difficult to understand--no, the basics aren't. Figure out why your taxes changed between 2009 and 2010, and then you'll be able to feel confident about what you are filing.
No, I don't have any tax horror stories. However, I had a coworker who forgot to put a stamp on his tax return when he mailed it (or not enough postage). It came back to him after April 15th... He was so stressed out. I told him, "Don't open it. Just call the IRS and ask what to do, since it was postmarked with a date within the deadline." he said the IRS employee who answered his call was very nice....
You need to double check your W-4 at work to see how much they are withholding. You should not get a refund or if you do it should only be 50.00 or so. If you get a refund all that is, is you gave the Government a no interest loan for the year when you could have been using your own money.
Edit: Just went back and read your what happened. You are one of the ones that gets a large refund even though you did not pay in a large amount. I am about to go and pick up my taxes and write the IRS a check for $10,000.00 because we are self-employed and pay double the tax a regular employee would. So, I get to pay a ton in and you get a ton back. And believe me we have very little in savings too because it all goes to pay tax! SO UNFAIR!!
Kind of a funny tax story...
Before I met my husband he had a very flakey girlfriend (totally objective opinion here) who didn't have a local checking account (grad student). She did some transcripting work for a professor and asked my husband if the check could be made out to him so that she could cash it. Okay. Done.
5 years later... he gets a letter from the IRS about "unclaimed income" and back-taxes (with interest) that he owed on it. It took our accountant 3 days to figure it out! Needless to say neither of us were thrilled with the answer, but paid the fine anyway.
Lesson learned on our part!
I'll bet you do them earlier next year! LOL
The tax laws change every year, and there are some nice rebates for people now based on income and number of dependents, along with expenses you may have had for education and other things. I received quite a large refund this year, too.
Well, if you did a simple form then you should be ok. A lot of people are getting a lot more back this year than they have in the past because of changes to the tax laws.
You should check out this story:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/01/adoption-parents...
My ex SIL is very low income with all the state aide she can get. She paid in less than 2K for federal/state taxes and got back over 7K. Because credits are different than exemptions/breaks, she got back her 2 grand PLUS another 5 grand. It's legal and possible.
On the other hand, we paid in over 30K and got back 6K. Apparently, for my husband's job, the tax witholdings are maxed out so we can't even get that extra 500.00 put back into his paycheck.
So confusing and frusterating! I hate tax time.
we use turbo tax every year and have never had a problem. We're getting a good refund too!
ya i just spent abeautiful weekend doing mine too because i thought i was going to have to pay. turns out i'm getting a refund! woohoo. i do think the tax laws may make a difference. did you get another set of eyes on it? sometimes you look at it so many times silly mistakes don't stand out. or at least sleep on it and look at it the next day.
I used to use turbo tax until i read something about the sharing of my information. I switched to taxcut which is now h&r. never had problems with either.
don't forget to save some!
When I question my "little" tax refund, I went to H & R Blocks web site and tax slayer to redo my taxes to see if I made any errors. Nope, Turbo Tax was right on...
l
We had the same thing. But we expected a bigger return this year because it's the first time with a baby. I use turbo tax too, and so far haven't had any issues with them.
The only horror story is my fiance's. He filed with H&R Block, and they double reported his income. So he got a big return... but had to pay 1/2 of it back after he got audited 3 years later, when we were expecting our baby... not the best time to go into debt. When we asked H&R about it, they showed us exactly where they went wrong, and admitted that it was 100% their fault. When we asked about their '100% gurantee' we were told that you had to pay extra for it... But we did get them to refund the money they charged to prepare the taxes in the first place. We will NEVER use H&R Block again.
Maybe you changed a tax bracket or something...
Can't help much other than to ask/warn you to be careful of a possible penalty for overpaying during the year???
the same thing happened to me this year! and then because of the extra earned income they have pulled it for auditing! now they have pulled it and it's taking an extra 4-6wks to get it back.
We use H&R Block for several reasons but in 2009 we made too much and had to pay $12k to federal and state. I came home and redid it on Turbo Tax, the numbers varied by a few dollars but we still owed $12k.
This year we made way less and paid more into taxes. I have been scared to do our taxes in fear we would still owe so I did Turbo Tax and we will be getting about $3500 back, what a relief. I now have an appointment with H&R Block to make sure they are done right. We have a rental and this is the first year we can claim the loss as well as the last 2 years of losses. No room for mistakes so this year I will pay H&R to make sure all our i's are dotted and t's are crossed. =)
Enjoy your refund.
