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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]Getting a refund is just about the stupidest thing you could do finanically[/b]. Better to get the money through the year and save it if you're not spending it.

We don't have enough information really to answer your question (i.e. do you have a mortgage). But junior is worth one personal exemption and one child credit for you. If your marginal rate is 25% (you'd have to be closer to that $100,000 than not), that makes junior worth roughly $2,000 in actual tax savings. If you pay for day care, you can get an additionl child care credit on top of that.

But say it's just the $2,000. That's $167 more per month you could bring home in your taxes. I'm not exactly sure who that works out in terms of exempts to claim, but it's probably one or two more.

Here's a good formula (if you claim the standard deduction -- if you have a mortgage and itemize it's a different calculation):

http://taxes.about.com/od/paymentoptions/qt/Adjust-Tax-Withholding.htm

Again, strive to NOT have a refund. That's just stupid.[/quote]

IMO this advice is way over the top (dare I say "stupid").  Sure back when interest rates were 5-10% it made sense to try and keep your refund down so you could earn interest on it, but these days no one is paying any interest on shortterm savings so it's really just a matter of personal preference.  If you are the kind of person who will manage to actually save that extra $30 a week you might get with an extra exemption and you want to get that money each pay check then go ahead and try and cut it close, but a lot of people are not as disciplined and are actually better off with a little extra savings taken out each paycheck, which comes back in April (and then can be used for an i-bond if you want).

Plus with two working spouses it can be hard to get the withholding right.  I would just do what you are doing-- works for you.[/quote]

IMO, your opinion is idiotic. There's a lot more here than interest rates.

First of all, there's the issue of liquidity. You can achieve the same accumulation by telling your bank to siphon off the extra $166 (or whatever) into a savings account every month. Yeah, you may not get 6% interest, but if you have a car repair six months into the year you can tap the money that has been accumulated rather than put it on a cc (assuming there' s no other savings, which for many people who see tax refunds as a windfall there are not).

Which leads me to my other point: A lot of times people yearn for a refund to pay down their consumer debt. They don't have enough money during the month so run up CC cards. And CCs are definitely NOT charging 0% interest, even on the teaser programs.[/quote]

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