Smaller Refund...what gives?

Question

I had 2 jobs in 2006. The first job I worked at for 49 weeks and my current job I worked 3 weeks. I am claiming 1 on my W4 for both jobs. After entering my first W2 (58k gross), all the tax programs I used say I should get 500 back. After entering my second W2 (4k gross) the programs say I get a 100 refund. I'm still in the same tax bracket (under 75k) and 15% of my check went into Federal taxes. Any ideas what may cause my refund to drop so much?

Answer 1

Interesting question. . It depends on your current tax bracket and how much was withheld on each W-2.

If you're under $75,000 - any additional income (assuming single filing status) would be taxed at 25% (1st $7,000 or so taxed at 10%, next $23,000 or so is taxed at 15% and next ~ $35,000 taxed at 25%. .

So when you added $4,000 of additional income to your tax return, your tax went up $1,000 (25% of 4000).

Now we look at your withholding on your second W-2.... was it $1,000. I doubt it. Sounds like it was $600. That's why your refund went down by $400.

When your new company started deducting your withholding, the withholding calculations assumed you'd only have the company's money on your tax return and not another W-2. So it's usually not in sync with "your additional" income. Make sense? Hope the info helped!

Answer 2

When you entered the first W2, an income of $58K may put you in one tax bracket, but your actual tax is actually blended. The first several thousand is taxed at the lowest rate, the next several thousand at the next tax rate, and so on, so your tax due from the 58K is lower than the highest rate you are taxed at (called a blended rate.) Tax withheld from your check is based on tables or formulas that use the blended rate. When you entered the second W2, there was no blend because you were already at the higher rate. Since the withholding was based on a blend, it caused your refund to be lowered. Hope this makes some sense.

Answer 3

For your first job that you enter, the first $8450 doesn't get taxed at all, then the next $7550 gets taxed at 10% before you reach getting taxed at 15%. Then for the second job you add into the tax program, the first dollar is taxed at 15% if that's your bracket. These numbers are for someone filing single - if you are filing a joint return there would be even higher differences.

If 15% of your pay on the second job was truly withheld for federal income taxes, adding it wouldn't make a difference in your refund. Check that out - divide the numbers and see what % was really withheld, it's almost certainly less than 15%.

Answer 4

When you only enter wages from the first W-2, the tax bracket doesn't change, but the tax you're seeing on there is only for those wages. But when you enter the wages from the second W-2, the dollar amount of taxable income is increased by that amount... since the standard deduction and personal exemption has already been deducted on the wages entered the first time. Therefore, the difference comes in as a direct result of having entered purely taxable income.

It's a matter of interpreting what the software is telling you about the amounts entered, and not any change in actual taxes withheld or paid.

I think of it as a baby crying... we know something isn't going the way we want it to, but we have to decipher just exactly what the baby is trying to tell us.

Answer 5

This also happens when someone works 2 jobs. Usually the second job doesn't withhold enough and it shrinks the refund.

Answer 6

Judy, as usual, is right. If you are single with 62k gross, you are in the 25% bracket, unless you are itemizing or have large adjustments to income (IRA, tuition, ...). 15% is not enough to cover that.

Answer 7

you know i have no idea. maybe the gov raised taxes on us or something. i was wondering the same thing since i only made 11k last year, they with held over 800 and i only got 300 back. it just seems kinda weird.

Answer 8

cause uncle sam is a mofo