The Glade 4.0

I am not in trouble or anything, I am doing well with getting back a nice PHAT refund this year, which is my problem. I under stand that I am essentially giving an interest free loan to the government, and I want to rectify that.

I file Single 3 throughout the year, and then on my taxes each year, I claim my daughter and myself.

Last year I got about 1500 back from Uncle Sam. This year, because I changed schools and incurred a significantly higher educational expense; $800 a semester for3 classes Community College, up to $2k+ a semester for 3 classes at UNLV (eep... I cannot fathom taking 12 credits at a time...) I am receiving significantly more back from the Fed.

I need to find where my magic "break even" number is. And I do not feel that just taking random people at their word is the way to go. And I also do not want to try increasing my withholdings on my paychecks without first receiving some form of advice on the subject.

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

People make a lot of noise about giving the government a "free" loan and while it is true is it really worth it to do what you are talking about? You have your time spent finding and visiting a tax professional (whether an attorney, planner etc.) plus the cost of their time which depending on who you go to can vary. For those costs what do you get out of it? Lets say you get 1200 back from taxes and you manage to to change it to 0 (using these numbers for simplicity). Will you do something with that money to earn something? If you put it in a money market account at current rates you might have anywhere from 7 - 14 dollars at the end of the year.

That is assuming of course that you actually put 100 a month into the account (or a lump sum either way) really will you do that? Or you put it into an investment account where you may get more or you might lose it all. If you can be regimented enough to actually put the money away each year and invest it wisely then go ahead. If not then it can be a nice little check for you at the end of the year to do something with.

Its up to you of course, I have to make quarterly payments every year to the IRS so I would actually be happy to either break even or get a little something back. As long as it isn't a very large amount you get back, I wouldn't bother with it myself. YMMV

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I met this six-year-old child, with this blank, pale, emotionless face and, the blackest eyes... the devil's eyes. I spent eight years trying to reach him, and then another seven trying to keep him locked up because I realized what was living behind that boy's eyes was purely and simply... evil

I don't know that you need to consult a tax attorney, or even an accountant. Why don't you play around with the IRS Withholding Calculator a bit?

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Start claiming more dependants. I claim sixteen, then file with two.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

There are lots of utilities online for calculating withholding. It's really not that complicated.

I'd give it a shot before you fork over your refund to an attorney.

Yeah, I botched mine again, but it's due mostly to poor communication between my wife and I.

I wanted my wife to have more take-home in her paycheck, so I explained to her that I was paying the bulk of the taxes since she had a high number of deductions. Well, we never finished the conversation and she adjusted hers down to zero, since mine were zero, and she thought that was fair....

So all year we had zero deductions claimed for witholdings, have a child, and paid $25k in mortgage interest....

We are going to get a TON of money back.