Remember Chris M and Tanya?

[AKguy 1]

Congrats Chris!

Took ya long enough.

[sea-monkey 13]

The refund will pay for a nice vacation, new appliance or more clothes for the wife, and who knows, you might get part of it too. :rofl:

Who says Tanya has to know about this refund

[1HappyGuy 45]

Who says Tanya has to know about this refund

She will have to sign the back of the check unless it is electronically deposited into a JOINT account.

[slim 1,514]

Joint account can be a "my account."

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I'm not an expert on taxes or anything. I just fiddled with my 2009 taxes. I logged back in and changed my filing from single/no dependents to married/joint to see what my taxes would be like.

Of course she will have 0 income for the year so you have 2 people on your filing. Instead of owing money like I do each year, I would net $4-5k. Thats why I say to get her over here and marry. But the amount back varies with income. I think a new immigrant would qualify, hopefully someone else can chime in.

You can even go to turbotax now and input your 2009 numbers, just use a different name an SS to get an idea.

A change of status will reduce your taxes and result in a much larger return IF you have been paying at the "sinlge rate" all year and then file "married" If you claim married and all your deductions on your W-4 form, it will make little difference that you are married but they will deduct less from your paycheck.

The BIG payoff is when you have minor children and even BIGGER when one or more are college students.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Slim is also saying that having your taxes taken out as a single person but filing as married creates a nice tax refund. And considering that the banks aren't paying any interest anyway, why not let the government hold your money. The refund will pay for a nice vacation, new appliance or more clothes for the wife, and who knows, you might get part of it too. :rofl:

I am against loaning the government money. I would prefer to owe a couple hundred every year. Better that they loan ME money interest free. However since we can claim the "hope credit" for two college students it is something we get every year (at least through 2011) It has been enough each year to pay for our summer vacations to Ukraine, Sergey's round trip to come home for the summer and his "campus fee" (room and board) at least until now.

[slim 1,514]

I don't let the govt. hold my money. I pay the least amount possible, even to the point of owing them at the end of the year. They want their taxes? I figure the burden is on them to let me know how much I owe them, not on me to pay and then they "square up" at the end of the year.

As for getting a good refund when you get married - I got married Dec. 14th and paid the whole year up until that point as a single dude. "Surprise, Uncle, I'm married now." I never thought about it and actually was going to postpone getting married for another month or so when my ex-stepmom (always the money-grubber) reminded me we ought to get married before the new year to take advantage of the situation. Like all things money related (except for that whole divorce thing) she was right.

[LvivLovers 39]

I've never ever gotten a refund on taxes. Hell...I don't even make estimated tax payments since any penalties are usually much less than what I can make through investing the money...it's like an automatic cheap loan from the govt. each year.

[Tnic 5]

Well, CONGRATS to Chris and Tanya!

I use Priceline most of the time. They're usually a little under the other guys like Expedia and such. I booked through OneTravel this time becasue of the posted crazy low prices, only to find out they didn't include the taxes and fees so it was only about $30 less than Pline after it was all said and done.