What Are You Doing with Your Tax Refund?

The April 17th tax deadline is fast approaching. I finally got around to filing our tax return last week. This year, thanks to our cutest little tax deduction (Little Miss PT), we’re getting a decent sized refund. I’m normally a fan of managing the with-holdings such that you don’t get too much refund. But I admit it’s nice to be getting money back.

We used our refund money to fund half of our 2009 Roth IRA contributions. Well, technically we used money from our bank account to fund the Roth IRA. But those funds will be quickly replaced by the tax refund. Did you know that if you don’t already contribute to a 401K you can increase your tax refund by contributing to a traditional IRA?

If you haven’t filed your taxes yet, you can do so with any of these reputable tax software companies:

There are lots of things you could do with you refund: save, spend, give. What do you plan to do with your refund? If you already spent the money, what did you spend it on?

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Clayton

I'm using 1/3 for vacation, 1/3 for savings, and 1/3 for some things we've been saving up for. I like getting a refund so i plan on it in advance.

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MyFinancialObjectives

What tax refund :(

Maybe next year! :)

Robert

Well, I have overpaid Quarterlies and UI and I roll them over to the next period. Good news, I haven't had to pay quarterlies this year yet. Bad news, I still have to pay personal taxes.

Joe Plemon

We are setting ours aside for vacation. My goal, however, is to be like Peter and make so much money blogging that I have to send the IRS a big fat check. :)

rebmoti

We're getting around 2K back, 1K is going right into savings, I'm making an extra payment on my snowball cc, about $300 is going into a fund for kids summer camp, and my wife is going to get new glasses. Anything left over is going toward an overdue car repair.

Drough

I used it to pay my rent

Meghan Fife

Just starting out on my own I chose to add it to my emergency fund. It wasn't much of a refund but it definitely helped me ego knowing my E-Fund was just that much bigger. =)

Kacie

I'm using my federal refund to pay what I owe in state taxes. I'll have about $12 left over. So ah... I guess I'll buy something spiffy. :)

I try to keep my refund really low.

Peter

We didn't get a refund this year. Because my blog income was higher than I expected I ended up having to pay about 4000 dollars in taxes at the end of the year, and then another 2100 or so in estimated taxes for 1st quarter 2010. It's nice that i'm making extra income, but not so fun cutting those big checks!

Jason Unger

We're using 1/3 of it to replace the money we paid our accountant to do our taxes, 1/3 straight into savings, and the other 1/3 to get a few things for around the house.

Ted

I am self employed so I pay quarterly taxes. Amazingly, we got a refund this year so I am using it to pay my next quarterly taxes. Which boosts our emergency savings. woo hoo

What Are You Doing with Your Tax Refund?

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