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I Love That Big Tax Refund
A Disclaimer of Sorts: No matter whether you file your own
taxes or have a tax professional prepare and submit your taxes,
You The Taxpayer are responsible for the completeness and
accuracy of the return. Any questions, comments, extra taxes
or penalities will be directed to you. Please consider any and
all tax advice with this in mind, including this article. I
will give you all of the resources you need to check this out
for yourself at the end of the article.
No, this is not another article with a little know tax break
the IRS is trying to hide. This is a very legitimate way to
put extra income in your paycheck.
Many people can't wait to file their tax return in anticipation
of having all that money to spend at one time. Where else can
the average person be forced to save. In most cases this is
the only way they can save.
If the federal government were in banking they would probably
be in violation of the law. They receive funds from citizens
and are not required to pay any interest on that money. This
may sound like I'm down on the government, but I am not, not
for that anyway. This is because the IRS has a way for you to
get that money in your paycheck throughout the year.
Starting with the 1998 tax year , anyone that owes taxes and
has children is eligible to deduct up to$400 for 1998 and $500
after the 1998 tax year, for each child. Folks this comes
right off of any taxes you owe. This is known as The Child
Tax Credit. It is probably the biggest cut in taxes the
average citizen has had in years. Just a note: You can only
deduct this if you owe taxes and you can only deduct up to the
amount of taxes you owe. Example: If you owe $200 then you
can only claim $200. Also, this does not apply to
self-employment and certain other taxes.
Since The Child Tax Credit became law, tax refunds have
skyrocketed. The reason for this is that most people that
have federal income tax withheld from their paychecks have
not changed their W4 form (Employee's Withholding Allowance
Certificate) with their employer.
Did you know that in certain instances you can claim 9
exemptions for a family of 5? Yes, this is legit. Here is
how it breaks down directly from the W4 personal allowance
worksheet:
A. Enter "1" for yourself if no one else can claim you as a
dependent - 1
B. Enter "1" if you are married, have only one job, and your
spouse does not work - 1
C. Enter "1" for your spouse - 1
D. Enter number of dependents (other than your spouse or
yourself) - 3
E. (Does not apply to this example) - N/A
F. (Does not apply to this example) - N/A
G. Child Tax Credit:
If your total income will be between $23,000 and $63,000 if
married, enter
"1" for each child - 3
H. Add lines A through G - 9
The above is simply an example and each individual taxpayer
should review the form carefully. To check this out for
yourself, you need to visit the IRS homepage at
http://www.irs.ustreas.gov. Then go to the bottom of the page
and click on forms & pubs. In the menu click on forms and
instructions. That page will have a list of IRS forms. Scroll
down until you find Form W4 Employees Withholding Allowance.
You will need to have the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these
forms. This is easily downloaded at:
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html
How much could this mean to a family? Let's take the example
of a couple with three kids making $500 per week and only
claiming two exemptions. The Federal Withholding from your
paycheck would be about $40 per week. If that family were to
claim 9 exemptions, there would be no federal withholding.
Therefore, just by filling out a new W4, you just gave yourself
an 8% pay raise. That is over $2000 more take home pay per
year. If you qualify for the Earned Income Credit you may
still receive a refund. By the way, you can also receive the
Earned Income Credit in your paycheck, but I'll save that for
another article.
I can hear a lot of you now. "This guy must be nuts, I'm not
giving up that tax refund for him or anyone else. I work hard
all year and this is the only time I have a lot of money to
spend all at once." I'm sure that most of you won't give up
that big tax refund just because you read this article.
However, you will come away with the knowledge that this is
an option, if you qualify, and a few ideas of how you can you
could use that extra money.
There are several things that you could do with that extra
money. Let's look at a few of them.
1. If you need extra money just to buy the essentials, take it
and use it.
2. Put the money in a savings account
3. If you have a 401k, increase the amount of your contribution
4. If you have investments, put more money into them
5. My favorite is to use that money to start a Christmas Club
at your bank. By doing this you not only earn interest on your
money, but you will have the money when you really need it, just
before Christmas. This could also help cut down on using credit
cards to buy Christmas. That alone could save you a lot of
money.
About the Author
Terry Rigg is the author of Living Within Your Means - The Easy
Way http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/ebookadpage.html and editor
of The FREE Budget Stretcher Newsletter and Budget Stretcher
web site http://www.homemoneyhelp.com. He has 25 years of
experience counseling individuals and families concerning their
personal finances.
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