Well, my tax refund is $1,000 more than last year...

[Septua]

I can't help but wonder how many kids missed a meal as a result of my personal monetary gain.

[TheProle]

1. You should take it to a food bank

[Septua]

7. I plan to do that...

[bigtree]

2. I'm sure they'll manage to scrape up the pennies they gave me in that bill

...and put them in their pocket, anyway.

[Rebl2]

3. This year

is the first time in 41 years of marriage that we actually got money back from the federal government. You know what it went to help pay for? It helped to pay for my biologic drug I take that cost me $1965.44. The amount we got back didn’t cover it all though.

[Septua]

8. I fully understand your position.

And didn't Trump say he was going to reduce drug prices? My Wife and I are fortunate in not having some outrageously priced drugs.

[Rebl2]

14. Well I

guess not the biologic drug I take. Every other prescription I take has been under 20 dollars so far.

[EdmondDantes_]

4. Didn't change anything for me. I still owed.

[surfered]

5. If you're 65 or older it probably due..

..to that Big Beautiful Bill which gave seniors added an extra $6,000 each to the Standard Deduction.

[Septua]

9. It is.

My Wife and I are > 65.

[Johnny2X2X]

6. Stop loaning your government money

The whole tax refund idea is just wrong headed. An interest free loan to the government is bad business. Adjust your withholding to get close to zero refund, you can put that money to better use throughout the year.

[Septua]

10. I leave it as is...

..otherwise I'd probably blow it. When I get a refund, I stick it in a savings account.

[Johnny2X2X]

12. I leave myself a little buffer

But I do math, and have an auto transfer to my savings each paycheck, which then transfers to a HYSA once a month. So I am earning compound interest year round instead of the government using my money interest free. It's an extra $250+ a year for me.

But I realize some people have trouble saving because unforeseen bills pop up so this is not a valid option for many living paycheck to paycheck.

[BannonsLiver]

11. You overpaid on your withholding so fortunately, none.

[gladium et scutum]

13. My modus operandi

is to adjust my withholdings so that at the end of the tax year I owe them less than $100 or they owe me less than $100.

[Omaha Steve]

15. Ours was about $1,000 more too

[Raftergirl]

16. Ours was $89. Tbs, our income was up about $60k as H started collecting his SS and mine went up to half of his.

But, according to H, we paid a lot more taxes this year than last.


We got a tad more back from the state.

[PCB66]

17. My wife and I are on a fixed retirement income

Except for modest COLA increases we have about the same income each year.

This year we paid $1800 less in Federal Income taxes than last year.

A good portion of the increase coming from the $12K (joint) reduction in taxable SS income.

We give a proportional amount of income to our church as a charity donation. The church has a significant community food bank mission.

I suspect that the increased money we paid going to the church contributed more to feeding the indigent than the proportional amount would be going to taxes.