Tonight I filed my taxes thanks to finally receiving the W-2's from my summer job. I'm getting a refund of $423 Federal and $293 State. (New Mexico lets you deduct medical expenses that you can't deduct on Federal!! If I'd known that!!! I will be keeping really good track of them this year for sure!)
I thought I was getting more back, but I guess I calculated wrong before. Oh well. I qualified for the saver's credit - I contributed $200 to my ROTH in 2011, so got a credit of $100. If I'd put another $700 in my ROTH I would have gotten a $476 credit instead. I thought about it, but decided against it since my EF is so shallow right now.
I'm considering putting the whole refund in my ROTH for 2012, because that plus my $100/mo contribution would put me close to $1800 which I think would be a $900 credit next year?? Although I probably should see how much I earn for summer school, just in case I won't qualify for the credit. (I can't remember now what the upper limit was for a single person.)
I'll probably just put it in my Emergency Fund, and then in December see how my various goals are going and see how much I can siphon to the IRA.
Most of what I got back I think is due to moving expenses and the teacher expenses. For 2012 I'm going to keep my deductions at 0 and see how I come out. If I'm still getting a refund of $100 or more, then I'll consider changing it to 1. Of course as my savings grow, my interest income will also grow ... so will have to take that into consideration.
One thing that really hurt me is that my scholarship money that I received in 2011 was counted as income. I'd paid all my tuition expenses in 2010 and 2011. So the scholarship money was hardly in excess of expenses, but because it came *after* I already paid the tuition expenses it counted against me. Ugh! If I'd realized that, I wouldn't have been so quick to pay!!
2012 is going to be such a nice easy tax year. One, maybe two W-2's and interest income - nothing else.
--- I also tonight calculated what my bi-weekly paycheck is going to be for next school year when it's divided into 26 payments instead of 22. It'll be $70 less per pay period. Ergh. Starts in June.
Filed Taxes - Finally!
February 19th, 2012 at 04:53 am
February 19th, 2012 at 03:52 pm 1329666764
February 19th, 2012 at 03:59 pm 1329667151
I would have taken the bigger refund and funded a ROTH. You can always take it out if you need it, very easily. Probably too late now, but keep that in mind for next year. (ROTHs are nothing like regular IRAs when it comes to penalties for early withdrawal. You can take your contributions out any time. & you can just put it in cash if you are saving it for emergency. I have $10k in my ROTH that is strictly in cash, for emergency. I never would have put it into a retirement fund otherwise, but a ROTH is a good emergency fund. Why? If you never use it, it's tax sheltered. & that's the thing about emergency funds. You want to be prepared, but you might not even need it).
February 19th, 2012 at 04:13 pm 1329667989
February 19th, 2012 at 05:01 pm 1329670870
So my new Fed Tax Return: $771, and NM return $293.
I also checked to see what the upper limit is for the savers credit for a single person - $27k. There's no way I'll get anywhere near that (unless summer school pays *really* well ...)I think though I'll still wait til December to see how my other savings goals are coming along before deciding to put the money in my IRA or keep it in ING.