Tax refund? we live in NY.?

Question

Last year my wife had job for 2 months(earned 4000 totally for 2005).we have two kids and she had 3 dependents including me for 2005. This year I got a job (november-2006)and income will be 3000 (1500 *2) for 2006 and wife got 2000*12=24000 for 2006.. last year we received refund of $5000 tottaly.How much we may get this year (2006) approximately.please advise/help us.

Answer 1

First, you are never your spouses dependent. If you file a joint return, you claim personal exemptions for both of you. This results in the same number of exemptions as if you were a dependent.

You list a total income of $27,000
The standard deduction for Married filing jointly is $10,300
4 personal exemptions @ $3,300 each = $13,200
Taxable income: $3,500
Tax @ 10% = $350

Without knowing how much was withheld, I can't determine your refund.

NOTE: any information you did not include in you question could change the answer. I did not account for an earned income credit or child care credit.

Answer 2

This is a difficult question to answer on a public forum without seeing your actual 2005 return. What version of the 1040 did you file? Sounds like things are improving for you financially which is good. I would suggest asking a tax professional since there are several other variable to take into account than just a change in income.

Make a copy of your 2005 return and fill it out with the new earnings amounts and any other changes that occured over the last year that may affect your taxes. This should give you a ball park figure.

Answer 3

What you'll get back depends on what you and your wife had withheld from your checks. Since you don't include that info, there's no way for anyone to answer your question, even to give you a rough estimate. But with that income, and two kids, you shouldn't owe much tax so will probably get most of the money back that was withheld. In addition, with $27000 income and two kids you should get an additional couple thousand dollars Earned Income Credit, plus possibly something from the additional child tax credit.

Good luck.