Tax Return

What is the name of your state? Virginia

I have a question reagarding my current 2006 tax return. I paid about $15K in tax from work and also about $14K in interest and $1700 in real estate tax, the tax advisor i spoke with said i only get back about $4,700, I thought it should be more with all those taxes paid, i have asked a few other people and they said they received more. I am employee, and single, no kids. Any suggestions, if this is not the right forum, please direct me to the right one.

Thank You

Pay2muchtax said:

What is the name of your state? Virginia

I have a question reagarding my current 2006 tax return. I paid about $15K in tax from work and also about $14K in interest and $1700 in real estate tax, the tax advisor i spoke with said i only get back about $4,700, I thought it should be more with all those taxes paid, i have asked a few other people and they said they received more. I am employee, and single, no kids. Any suggestions, if this is not the right forum, please direct me to the right one.

Thank You

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You can't compare someone else's refund to yours. A refund depends on your income, your withholding, your deductions and credits, and your actual tax. The bottom line is that a refund is the difference between what you withheld, and the amount of tax that you owe.

If you used a professional to do your taxes, then your refund is likely to be accurate.

You could easily download the forms from www.irs.gov and (maybe or maybe not so easily) figure it out yourself. I always do that before using any other method to make sure there are no errors (that everything matches). Don't forget the special one time federal phone tax credit.

At the very least, you should download 2007 form W-4, to adjust withholding closer to your tax liability. One more exemption than you are taking now would reduce your refund to about $1300. But it would give you $3400 earlier in the tax year than loaning it to Uncle Sam interest free until tax time.

Other people may have more deductions for family, education, medical expenses, capital losses, etc. A bigger refund does not make them smarter, quite the opposite. I figure I did good "owing" $585 for 2005 and $140 for 2006 after a conglomeration of home interest, property taxes, capital gains and losses, and partial IRA to Roth IRA conversions.

Thanks for the advice guys, when it comes to charity that is cash or clothing to salvation army or other sources, how do i get the value or how does irs confirm that? ALso, if i am employed but travel for business, can i expense those miles?

Pay2muchtax said:

Thanks for the advice guys, when it comes to charity that is cash or clothing to salvation army or other sources, how do i get the value or how does irs confirm that? ALso, if i am employed but travel for business, can i expense those miles?

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For charitable donations you must have a receipt, and when its donated items rather than cash, you must also have a receipt and and itemized list of the items. The value that is generally used for donated items is fair market value, which is what you could convince someone to pay you to buy the items. (generally yard sale value).

Employee business expenses can be deducted on form 2106. However, again, you must have receipts or a mileage log, and they must be expenses for which you have NOT been reimbursed by your employer. They are also subject to a 2% of AGI limitation.

Thanks for the reply, so do i submit those receipts when i send in my tax return? and if its cash, and there is no receipts, does the IRS just take my work for it?

Pay2muchtax said:

Thanks for the reply, so do i submit those receipts when i send in my tax return? and if its cash, and there is no receipts, does the IRS just take my work for it?

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No, you don't send in the receipts with your return (you keep them available in case of audit) and NO, the IRS does NOT take your word for any cash donations without receipts. If you made a cash donation and you don't have a receipt, you don't get the deduction.