How much will we get back on taxes?

Question

My husband is the only one that works he is 22 and I am 20 and we have a 3 year old son. He made 17,227 and federal was 1400. He is filing married filing jointly. In 205 he made about the same and claimed me and my son all year so we got back 4,000 and the lady at h&r block said that if he wouldent have claimed us that he would have gotten back 8,000 but i dont think so? What do u think since he dident claim us at all now? Thanks

I did the calculater on h&r block website and it said 4.911 but im thinking that has to be wrong?

yes he will be claiming us as dependents

Answer 1

What the H&R Block lady was saying was not that you'd have paid less taxes if he hadn't claimed you through the year. You'd have paid the same total. She was saying that if all year for is paychecks he had a lot more taken out that he didn't have to, he'd have gotten more back. Well, DUH!!!! That's a pretty silly thing to say - sounds like she was suggesting that you give Uncle Sam an even bigger loan than you already were. I hope that's not what you are saying that he did. Sure, you'd get more back in your return, but would have had less all year which doesn't make a lot of sense.

Anyway, there are two kinds of "claiming". An employer has you fill out a form called a W-4, which determines how much is withheld for federal income taxes out of each paycheck. If you claim fewer allowances than you actually have, then they take out too much. This doesn't change your total taxes for the year, but if you have too much taken out, you get it back as a refund. The more you have taken out that you don't have to, the bigger refund you get - but that just means that you haven't had your own money through the year, and you're getting it back at the end - not a real good deal.

The other "claiming" is on your actual return. There, you want to "claim" every dependent that you legally can. Otherwise you'd pay more than you should have.

At $17,227, filing a joint return with you and also claiming your son as a dependent, you wouldn't owe any tax, so you'd get the $1400 back that he had withheld. You'd also get an earned income credit of $2681, so your refund should be $4081, plus a telephone tax credit of $50. Recheck the numbers you listed here and what you put into the H&R calculator - something isn't quite tracking. I ran it with the numbers you gave and don't match your results. You would put in 1 for dependent, your son - you and your husband's exemptions are already covered in the filing status of married filing joint.

By the way, you can save some money. You can have your taxes done at a VITA or TCE site at no charge. Most sites will efile your return, and do both federal and state. See irs.gov for more information on the program and how to find a site near you.

Answer 2

Umm..no, if he files alone he will NOT get that much back. In fact if he files alone and he doesn't have a big amount of deductions that would override his standard deduction he would actually have to PAY IN money because they should have withheld more than what they did in taxes. It's best that he claims you 2 as dependents.

Answer 3

The lady was right. And you should get about that much this year.