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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>This Year’s Taxes...
AnythingsPossible 06:02 AM 04-14-2012
I was expecting to have to pay between $200 and $300 this year, because last year we paid in $240, and this year we made more. I did have more deductions, but was still surprised to see a refund growing as I worked through the taxes. It isn't huge, a little over $600, I was thrilled it wasn't in the red.
I use Turbo Tax and have for the past two years. Was anyone else surprised by their taxes this year? I haven't printed them out and gone over them yet, so I suppose I may find an error some where, but for now I am relieved. Maybe Karma is finally paying me back for the turning in the $120 in cash I found at the store last weekend!!
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momofboys 06:45 AM 04-14-2012
Yay on the refund~ And good for you for turning in the $$ you found! What will you be doing with the $600?

We always get a refund but then we have 3 kids of our own, my DH doesn't make a huge salary - it's fine but we are def. very lower middle-class, I only do childcare part-time so despite the fact that DH always makes adjustments to his withholdings we still always get a HUGE refund. Not complaining, I would just rather we get more $$$ throughout the year.
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MyAngels 07:19 AM 04-14-2012
I know the self-employment tax rate was down last year, so that probably contributed a bit to your lower tax bill.

@momofboys, you can adjust your husband's withholding to get more money through the year and a smaller refund at the end if you want. The IRS has a publication that walks you through figuring out your withholding that helps.
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momofboys 09:01 AM 04-14-2012
Originally Posted by MyAngels:
I know the self-employment tax rate was down last year, so that probably contributed a bit to your lower tax bill.

@momofboys, you can adjust your husband's withholding to get more money through the year and a smaller refund at the end if you want. The IRS has a publication that walks you through figuring out your withholding that helps.
He does adjust it every year & I thought he was taking the max deductions based on our family size (5 of us) - can you take a higher deduction than your family size? I will check it out though - thank you!
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MyAngels 09:24 AM 04-14-2012
Yes, you can adjust based on credits and things like that, too. This is the publication that's supposed to help you figure it all out:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p919.pdf
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momofboys 12:17 PM 04-14-2012
Originally Posted by MyAngels:
Yes, you can adjust based on credits and things like that, too. This is the publication that's supposed to help you figure it all out:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p919.pdf
Thank you!
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AnythingsPossible 05:27 PM 04-14-2012
Originally Posted by momofboys:
Yay on the refund~ And good for you for turning in the $$ you found! What will you be doing with the $600?

We always get a refund but then we have 3 kids of our own, my DH doesn't make a huge salary - it's fine but we are def. very lower middle-class, I only do childcare part-time so despite the fact that DH always makes adjustments to his withholdings we still always get a HUGE refund. Not complaining, I would just rather we get more $$$ throughout the year.
Honestly we probably won't do much with the $600 other then save it incase the IRS says oops, we'ld like our money back please!
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heyhun77 06:11 AM 04-15-2012
Do you have children of your own? If so, are you paying them on paper for tax purposes for the things they do around the house that help your daycare? You can claim a lot without them having to file their own taxes or even pay taxes and you don't have to actually pay them the money since you are providing food, shelter, toys, activity fees, ect in exchange for their "work". That is one of the only ways to get my net income down each year since I don't spend nearly as much as what comes in. In the end after all the deductions I pay self employment taxes on about $2000 and I have had a full daycare of 8-10 paying clients each year.

Also, we used to use Turbo Tax to do our taxes and if you don't know all of the things to add to the schedule C that aren't typical home office deductions you may be missing a lot of deductions that could bring your income down to much lower which means less tax liability. We ended up having the accountant do her free review of our past 3 years taxes the first year we used her and she amended our taxes (cost us about $300 for 3 years of ammeneded filings) and we got back another $2000 or so. We were missing A LOT of deductions that the program didn't ask us for.
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Michael 12:29 PM 04-15-2012
Ack, just found out I owe another $7000 by Tuesday. Plus pay my accountant $600.
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Blackcat31 02:48 PM 04-15-2012
Originally Posted by Michael:
Ack, just found out I owe another $7000 by Tuesday. Plus pay my accountant $600.
bleh...we pay in this year (and every other one) too but at least I feel better now knowing I don't owe as much as you do!
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AnythingsPossible 03:22 PM 04-15-2012
Originally Posted by heyhun77:
Do you have children of your own? If so, are you paying them on paper for tax purposes for the things they do around the house that help your daycare? You can claim a lot without them having to file their own taxes or even pay taxes and you don't have to actually pay them the money since you are providing food, shelter, toys, activity fees, ect in exchange for their "work". That is one of the only ways to get my net income down each year since I don't spend nearly as much as what comes in. In the end after all the deductions I pay self employment taxes on about $2000 and I have had a full daycare of 8-10 paying clients each year.

Also, we used to use Turbo Tax to do our taxes and if you don't know all of the things to add to the schedule C that aren't typical home office deductions you may be missing a lot of deductions that could bring your income down to much lower which means less tax liability. We ended up having the accountant do her free review of our past 3 years taxes the first year we used her and she amended our taxes (cost us about $300 for 3 years of ammeneded filings) and we got back another $2000 or so. We were missing A LOT of deductions that the program didn't ask us for.
I did pay my son this year, though it was in the form of a band trip. He went on a trip last year, and wanted to go again this year but I told him he was going to have to work off the trip. So it came out to a little over $1900 through the course of the year.
I don't like to deduct my income down to nothing. As long as I don't owe, or atleast don't owe to much I am happy! When we wanted to buy a house, my income really hurt us because of the deductions and I don't want that to happen again.
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WImom 05:15 PM 04-15-2012
great advice about using your kids. My kids help all the time. I had to pay 2400 this year and profited about 20,000 so that would really help for next year. It was a shock though since last year I had a refund but less clients too
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Crystal 12:08 PM 04-16-2012
I am paying $4200
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Blackcat31 01:24 PM 04-16-2012
Originally Posted by Crystal:
I am paying $4200
Ugh, that is tough!

I dread this time of the year! The IRS officially owns me.
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Oneluckymom 01:48 PM 04-16-2012
We thought we would owe taxes this year about $2,000. But we actually got a refund of about $1200. I also took a loss (this was my first year as DCP) which I was totally prepared for. So, we were left with $600.00 after paying H&R Block.

We will definitely be doing turbo tax next year!!!
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