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Why is my tax refund so big???

March 5th, 2011 at 02:09 pm

Umm, this is wierd.

I did my own taxes this year, as usual. I calculated a $1100 federal tax refund and filed it electronically. I think the program would have caugt it if i made some sort of mathematical error.

Much to my surprise, I found it had been deposited to my checking account in the amount of $1,900, about $800 more than I thought it would be.

I hope the IRS will send me something in the mail to clarify what this is about??

In other news,I'm having my mother and sister over today for lunch, in honor of mom's birthday. I wanted to keep it simple, real simple, so here's the menu:

Fresh greens with grilled salmon chunks. (My sister's bringing the salad.)

TJ's red pepper soup with a bit of chicken stock added to stretch it to feed 3 people (it's a quart) and grilled shrimp and scallions mixed in. (Should I grill the scallions or use them fresh as a garnish?)

For dessert, a chocolate mousse cake from Trader Joe's.

5 Responses to “Why is my tax refund so big???”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1299338907

    Did you claim the making work pay credit? The credit for retirement, if you qualify? Just a thought that those could have added to your refund. I think you will get something in the mail, I did one time when I made an error.

  2. patientsaver Says:
    1299339597

    I did claim the $400 making work pay credit, but i'm unsure what the credit for retirement is for?

  3. creditcardfree Says:
    1299339865

    There is a retirement savers credit that if you earn less than a certain amount you can claim a credit for a portion of what you contributed to retirement savings.

    Here's the irs
    Text is link and Link is http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=107686,00.html
    link.

  4. MonkeyMama Says:
    1299344073

    Interesting.

    I've NEVER heard of this happening either. It must have been like a math error or something.

    A weird IRS year, for sure.

    My first thought was making work pay, too, since it is $800 (for married filers I suppose). I'd suppose you qualify for the retirement credit. That could explain it (lower income - putting money into IRAs - there is a credit). That said - I don't think that explains $800.

    The IRS may send you a clarification, but it will take quite a few weeks - they are extremely backlogged. I would be cautious and not get too attached to that money. Could simply be an error on their part. I'll hope that it was just a missed credit!

  5. Dido Says:
    1301192773

    If you're single the Making Work Pay credit is only $400 max (as you correctly note that you claimed), so that wouldn't explain $800. I'd second MonkeyMama's recommendation not to get too attached to the money...the IRS WILL sometimes make corrections in your favor but those don't generally come around until the summer when they start sending around their letters, usually in June.

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