Income tax refund-YES!

Doing taxes this year was no walk in the park-that’s for sure! This year, instead of getting back anything-we were going to owe almost $500! This is the first time ever we were going to owe! You know, we are so broke right now-this is NOT what we needed. But instead of flipping out, I got a little brave. See, last year was the first year my husband became a subcontractor and stopped getting W-2′s. He works from home, uses his own car and has business expenses. I was terrified last year to claim any of it because everyone drills in your mind that if you claim this stuff or a home office-this is a red flag for the IRS. I definitely don’t want IRS problems-I have enough right now.

This year-we really need the money and by needing the money, I did it. I claimed it all. Hey, I have receipts-why not see what I can get?

I claimed what I could and lucky for us-we got prompted that our situation changed and we now qualify for the rest of our stimulus money. Yeah, the money we got screwed out of last year that I was furious about. So we are getting $528 that we didn’t get last year…a total refund just over $3800. Yay!

We need this money-boy do we need this money! It should be direct depositing next Friday. I can catch up the car payments and not be behind on it! That is the only thing we are behind on.

I was a little worried claiming a home office and everything but you know what??? No more. I have receipts for what I claimed and if I get audited I will deal with it. I don’t think it is right for us working class/middle class people. We are stuck in the middle. We don’t make enough to live comfortably but to the IRS we make too much to qualify for anything. It is not right. They have it all backwards!

We are honest people and when I put in my earnings alone, we were getting back almost $4k. As soon as I put my husbands little bit in-we got hammered and owed money all because he works for himself and has to pay self-employment tax. We don’t qualify for EIC or any of that good stuff. Middle class here is a joke-it really is.

I could complain about the IRS and all the problems that are wrong with our economy but we all know it. I am just happy to be getting what I am and glad changing my deductions this year didn’t come back to haunt me. I actually was still ahead until hubby’s #’s went in.

A worry I had was getting a “decent” refund and having the Bankruptcy Trustee take it but after the car payments get caught up and bills get paid the 1st of the month-there wont be much left anyway. Hubby has had little work and the refund will be keeping us afloat. I am working overtime again so we should be OK. Hubby is sending out resumes left and right so we will just have to see what happens.