We owed money the last couple years. We definitely didn’t opt out of withholding, and we don’t make any income from interest. It’s as easy as just not having your paperwork done correctly. Or even when it is, as it was in our case, the default withholding is an estimate which is why most end up overpaying (hence the refunds). I ended up putting an additional $50/check for taxes so we’d at least be getting close to owing nothing. This is the first year in quite a few that we actually got some money back.
Yeah, generally you want to owe. Otherwise you are giving the gov an interest free loan. And losing out on any interest you might get on that money. This year I had some wonky job stuff go down, and they significantly over withheld on a chunk of my money. Not sure I had any say in it at all. So big refund from the feds. Oddly, as always seems to be the case, my state return was a tiny refund. High state income tax and no sales tax will do that.
You don’t “have” to. You pay for the convenience and time savings. So really it should be, “imagine the gov making taxes so complicated just so an industry to help you file them can exist”.
We owed money the last couple years. We definitely didn’t opt out of withholding, and we don’t make any income from interest. It’s as easy as just not having your paperwork done correctly. Or even when it is, as it was in our case, the default withholding is an estimate which is why most end up overpaying (hence the refunds). I ended up putting an additional $50/check for taxes so we’d at least be getting close to owing nothing. This is the first year in quite a few that we actually got some money back.
Yeah, generally you want to owe. Otherwise you are giving the gov an interest free loan. And losing out on any interest you might get on that money. This year I had some wonky job stuff go down, and they significantly over withheld on a chunk of my money. Not sure I had any say in it at all. So big refund from the feds. Oddly, as always seems to be the case, my state return was a tiny refund. High state income tax and no sales tax will do that.
Imagine needing to pay a third-party service just to file to collect the money you’re owed on an interest-free loan…
Oh wait, americans don’t have to imagine…
You don’t “have” to. You pay for the convenience and time savings. So really it should be, “imagine the gov making taxes so complicated just so an industry to help you file them can exist”.
Is that why the admin shut down the IRS free file program?