I entered two W2's + a 1099-G and my refund was 1132.46. Then i entered a 3rd and it dropped to 720 then the last one had me at a whopping 400.00
Can i withhold the last two W2's and file them next year to keep my initial 1132.46?
Coffee Drinker
Your tax liability is based on your total income for the year. So it doesn't matter what order you enter them into the software, it all works out the same.
No, you cannot just omit 2 of your forms to get a bigger refund. If you do that, the IRS will catch the discrepancy later in the year and notice that the income you reported doesn't match the total income on your W-2 forms. They will then recompute your tax return and send you a bill demanding repayment of the extra $732.46 PLUS some hefty penalties and interest charges.
The reason your refund started high and went down is because the income from the first ones went against the standard deduction and lower tax brackets. As you enter more income, it overflows into higher and higher tax brackets due to the progressive tax structure. Its a common complaint about tax software programs but the software companies don't care - they do that on purpose because they want you to get excited about your refund and keep going so that you'll actually get to the completion part where many people pay for the cost of the software or purchase the extras like audit protection (which is worthless by the way).
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If it finds something not entered, you get a bill for the additional tax owed plus interest and penalties. You can't just wait for next year. Everything has to be filed in he year it's for. And that initial 1132.46 was only real if the things you already had entered were your ONLY income for the year. It doesn't matter which you enter first but you need to enter all of them including the 1099 G which probably had no income tax withheld meaning your refund went down because there was more income reported
Shay
It doesn't matter what order you enter them in. It all adds up to the same income compared to the same tax withholdings when all the totals are entered.
You MUST report all income earned IN the year it was earned in. You can't selectively decide what income to report.
The more money you make, the more taxes they take. It was never a refund until you enter the final amounts. When using those tax websites, you should ignore that "refund" amount in the corner of the screen until you have finished entering everything you have.
Judy
no. The :refund" amount doesn't mean anything until everything is entered, since your tax is calculate on your TOTAL income and it doesn't know that until all is entered. NO you can't just skip filing some of them. The IRS gets copies of all of them, and their computers match everything up. If it finds something not entered, you get a bill for the additional tax owed plus interest and penalties. You can't just wait for next year. Everything has to be filed in he year it's for. And that initial 1132.46 was only real if the things you already had entered were your ONLY income for the year.
StephenWeinstein
It does not matter which you enter first, but you must enter all of them. This is not optional.
You cannot withhold any of them. If you do, then you will get caught, and will have to give back any money that you got by withholding it, plus interest, plus penalties, and that's if you can convince them that it was an accident. If they think you did it on purpose, then they can send you to prison.