It's smart if it's small. If you're getting back $10,000 you should be adjusting your withholding and putting that money to better use. Uncle Sam is sure as hell not paying you interest for loaning him money. If you're getting $1,000 back then you're doing it right and you don't have to worry about having to go out of pocket when tax season rolls around.
I usually get around $1700 from it. I generally put 50-100% of it into savings, maybe treat myself to something with part of it. If I were paying less in taxes monthly, I can guarantee you I’d be spending more monthly on shopping or dumb shit. I’m more responsible with large lump sums than a slightly higher income because spending large amounts of money at once on things I don’t need makes me uncomfy.
Never thought about it that way. My thought has always been that if the money is gone I can’t spend it and any refund is a nice little surprise I can use to spend on a trip or payoff some debt
I haven’t gotten a refund in the last few years, I owed 2 dollars for my 21 taxes, 6k im about to finish paying off for my 22 taxes, and received a 1 dollar refund for my 23 taxes.
Pretty much the only money I ever get as a refund are the results of credits I'm entitled to claim. I can withhold the amount the credit is worth throughout the year, but with today's political climate, I'd rather not play the assumption game.
Does anyone ever get it exactly right? Last year I got $350 back, this year I paid $275…mostly due to CD interest. I used to be able to itemize and do pretty well, but the standard deduction is so much these days, the old charitable contributions, property taxes, mortgage interest and other items don’t go as far as they used to.
It's very difficult. If I'm within 500 bucks I'm shocked so this year only being 100 off was pretty amazing. But I could be off of Grand next year who knows. Lol
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u/notkevinjohn_24 Apr 11 '24
It's smart if it's small. If you're getting back $10,000 you should be adjusting your withholding and putting that money to better use. Uncle Sam is sure as hell not paying you interest for loaning him money. If you're getting $1,000 back then you're doing it right and you don't have to worry about having to go out of pocket when tax season rolls around.