Clever Dude Opinion Poll: How much is your federal tax refund/payment?
We owed over $1,000 in federal income tax this year because we had quite a bit more income in 2006 than in 2005, without increasing our deductions. I mentioned this in “No Employer 401k Match – Should you still contribute?“.
Now I want to know about your taxes. Did you owe money like us, break even, or get a refund?
{democracy:3}
Remember, though, that getting a refund is like giving the government an interest-free loan.
If you’re reading this in an RSS Reader, please click through to vote in the current opinion poll. You can vote in this post or on the right sidebar.
I can’t wait to see your results!
About 2 grand
Congrats. We were expecting the $5000 we got back last year (between federal and state), but as I mentioned, our tax situation was different this year.
Ours was higher than expected this year for federal – more than $1000, but had to pay $288 to state. Grrr….why don’t states give credits like the feds? Or maybe it’s just Illinois?
I am thinking of swithing jobs to a company that as a 401k. having never had a 401k I was suprised to learn that possilble future employer only contributes 1% of the employers contributions. I was under the impression that most plans were matching. Is this competive with the maket
Please responed
Chuc Sing
Chuck, I don’t know what the average employer contribution is, but I’ve never had one that low. I would say if you’re only switching because of the 401k (i.e. the salary, hours, commute, work isn’t better), then think a little harder about it. Otherwise, if it’s just an extra perk they offer, then consider applying/accepting and take advantage of that 1%. It’s better than nothing!
About the taxes – I seem to get burned for about 40k in taxes a year, its not fair that some people get back more than they pay in income tax, because of the choices they made in life. Oh and if you really want to have fun, try dealing with the IRS when they don’t credit your quarterly payments correctly.