Comments on: Adusting Your Paycheck Tax Withholding To Keep More Money In Your Bank Account

By: Jade

Jade — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 01:48:52 +0000

I claim single and none, with an extra $20 taken out of each check. (I get paid twice a month.) My employer insists that I am not entitled to the complete federal stimulus refund b/c I have the extra money taken out. Based on my salary, I should get $400 for the entire year, but so far each check has only been an increase of $1.86. It’s almost as though the extra money is being taken out of my base slaary and then again out of the stimulus. I know of others who work elsewhere and claim the same as I with the extra taken out, and they received around $10 stimulus for a weekly check. How can I get the payroll dept to undertsand my position? Any advice?

By: Don't Mess With Taxes

Don't Mess With Taxes — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 23:38:22 +0000

Tax Carnival #52: Time’s almost up!…

Can you believe tax-filing season is almost over? What’s that saying? Time flies when you’re having fun. OK, so maybe filing taxes isn’t everyone’s (anyone’s) definition of fun … except for a few of us die-hard tax geeks. But I do hope that you…

By: Weekly Round Up: Decompressing for the Weekend

Weekly Round Up: Decompressing for the Weekend — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:33:40 +0000

[...] Adusting Your Paycheck Tax Withholding To Keep More Money In Your Bank Account [...]

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:23:17 +0000

Thank you so much for posting this! My husband and I will owe on our taxes this year because it looks like they didn't withhold enough from his taxes each pay period, so we're bummed. But, when you described it as an "interest free loan" to the government, I do feel a little better now. Good to know that we can make these small changes to our tax forms during the year to effect the final outcome each April-- that's the power of small for you! Kates last blog post..Stains the World Famous Cupcake Dog

By: Angie

Angie — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:02:51 +0000

I know that on PF blogs it is tantamount to sacrilage to admit that I enjoy getting a large refund, but the fact is, I do! DH and I find it challenging to save small amounts of money. I know what we should do, and we are diligent in most areas of our financial lives (no debt but mortgage, almost maxed on the 401k…), but if we changed our withholdings we would likely spend the extra money on more expensive date nights, more junk for the kids or fritter it away on something else. Getting back a big return is what has helped us truly pad our savings account. I know in my head that this is an interest free loan to the government, but if you figure that I would be earning 3% interest on $200 per month, I am willing to pay a $39 stupid tax to ensure that I am not foolish with the $2400 we’d get back. That’s my two cents anyways.

PS – first time I’ve stumbled on your blog – can’t wait to read more!

By: Phi

Phi — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:39:34 +0000

Our return this year was about $6k; more than ever before. It was due to a combination of things so we thought it was time to take the dollars up front as of February. I changed my witholding from 1 to 6 (my wife doesn’t work) and love getting the extra $175/month more. Plus, we’ve left ourselves enough cushion so that we’ll probably get a reasonable return next year. Don’t mind lending a little to the gov’t but would be horrified to end of paying anything around April 15th. And this way we get a small treat around tax time!

By: Travis @ CMM

Travis @ CMM — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:42:11 +0000

I changed my withholding to 2 last year, and my wife claimed 0. Well this year we got back a whopping $3 refund. I’m happy we didn’t give the government a loan like you described, and I was pleased because we put that money towards paying off debt. But its hard to be happy around this time of year when you hear everyone else getting thousand dollar refunds.