Filing for tax/ tax refund question.?

Question

Ok, please forgive me for asking but I am very tax ignorant and I'm trying to avoid going to H & R Block.

I am trying to file my own taxes online, but it doesn't seem to add up.

#1. I am a part-time night college student.
#2. I have 1 child.
#3. I am Head of Household.
#4. I paid $150 a week in child care. ($7800.00 year)
#5. Income was $73,000.
#6. I live in New York City.
#7. Paid over $17,000 in taxes.

Now, I am sure that the correct taxes have been taken out of my checks, but I did it online and it said my tax return would be $9524.00.

I asked my sister (Laurelin) and she has told me that I must of did something wrong to get that amount, but I can't find anything wrong, or is it just that my refund will just be that amount, and or possibly too much taxes were taken out?

Answer 1

Most of the online tax programs are pretty accurate. Just don't use turbo tax, they get your numbers wrong sometimes.

I like this one because it donates part of your fee to charity. And you can see how much you are getting back before you pay the fee.
http://www.internet-taxprep.com/wichitasouth
or
http://www.internet-taxprep.com/hopeworldwide

Answer 2

Doesn't sound far off. I get around $58,850 for taxable income. Your tax before credits would be a little over $10000. But then you get the child credit of $1000, taking it down to about $9000, and also a child care credit of probably $600 and also probably an education credit subtracted from the $9000.

Contrary to what someone else said, if the child lives with you and you're providing more than half the cost of keeping up the home, you can file as head of household.

Why in the world do you have so much tax taken out?

Answer 3

Here are the numbers I came up with and the assumptions that I have used.

1. Taxable wages of $73,000
2. Filing as head of household
3. Your child qualifies for the child tax credit
4. Your day care expenses is used to determine the child and dependent care credit
5. Due to your income level, you do not qualify for the earned income credit
6. You have no other deductions other than NY state and NYC taxes that would apply towards itemized deductions, so your optimal filing would be to claim the standard deduction.
7. I did not consider any education credits.

Your federal tax liability - $8,470
Your total NYS and NYC tax liability - $5,752

You mentioned that you paid over $17,000 in taxes, but did not provide a breakdown between what was paid for federal and what was paid for NY state and NYC. You can compare the numbers I calculated above to what was withheld and reported on Form W-2 to see how much you will be getting back as refunds for federal and state.

Your child care expenses is over the limit for credit. With one child, you can only claim $3,000 of expenses towards the credit. Because of your income level, the credit is 20% of the expenses, so that gives you a child care credit of $600. You also got a child tax credit of $1,000. These credits are taken into account in the federal tax number above. Since the tax numbers I calculated does not consider education credits, you can further reduce your federal tax liability by claiming the education credits (either the Hope Credit or the Lifetime Learning Credit), or it may be optimal for you to take the deduction for tuition (this is newly added for tax years 2006 and 2007), which allows you to deduct up to the first $4,000 of tuition. The tuition deduction was added late, after the 1040 form was finalized. In order to claim it, you must file Form 1040 (cannot claim it on Form 1040A), and you enter the tuition amounts on Form 1040, line 35. This line is labeled "Domestic Production Activities Deduction" and you enter a "T" to the left of the line to signify that you are claiming the tuition deduction.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Answer 4

I filed on 2/5 and accepted on 2/5.. Still no dd and we are still not able to order my transcripts I have not seen anyone else from different websites that have filed after feb 4 th get a dd yet. It seems that peeps from jan 30 thru feb 4 who filed got dd this week anywhere from feb 12 or 13.. I spoke to an actual IRS rep yesterday on the phone and he said everything was perfect with my return he saw no issues and that I just need to give them time to finish up! But honestly this is frustrating maybe we will all get a dd today on wmr site for the 14 or 15 or 16th... Keeping my fingers crossed good luck everyone

Answer 5

You probably have too much tax coming out. Is you employer taking out taxes under the assumption you have a child dependant. Are you claiming the dependant on your W4 form - this form is the employees withholding allwance. Check with your personell department.

Answer 6

NO H&R BLOCK!!!! THEY ARE TOO EXPENSIVE!!! Go go www.taxact.com and file for free. You can even e-file FOR FREE.
If you do not want to file through them, you can just enter your information and see what the numbers come out.

You CAN deduct your tuition. Use your day care expenses for the child tax credit.

Answer 7

judy is 100% correct about the head of houshold status. Same situaton here, im unmarried with a child and I have always claimed head of household because I and only i support him.

Answer 8

Sorry, but if I were you I'd go to H & R block. I'm the same way so I always use them, and they are open late. I love that! Pluss, they won't screw things up, and you can pay the 20 extra if you get audited, they help you.

Answer 9

You're not a head of household, if it's just you and your child. That is your problem. Also, you can't deduct for child care expenses, only claim EIC for your child and you can't deduct for college tuition, either.