TurboTax is the shit. It found me $4k in refunds that I never would have found. I know $4k is not a big refund, but I am 22 and fresh out of college at my first real job. This wonderful tax software also got me $1k back in California state refund. I love this box and have given it rough love several times last night and once this morning before I left for work! Note: papercut + phallus =

 

What refunds did you take that you didn't know you had?

 

Fantastic! I'm going to the store right now.

 

Yeah, really. As a recent college grad, you probably don't own a house and probably don't have significant deductions; did you not know to take the standard deduction? Did you pay a HUGE amount of student loan interest? Or did you qualify for an Earned Income Credit or some such thing?

 

Yeah just wondering also. I am a homeowner, paying college loan and have 2 kids and i only got 3446$. You must be paying high intrest on your college loan.

 

Well, the other possibility is that if he didn't work a full year (maybe started work in June or July after graduating in May?) he wouldn't have a particularly high income and get most of his withholdings back. I'm just confused as to why TurboTax found that when his manually prepared 1040/1040EZ didn't; he seemed to suggest TurboTax found some stuff that he didn't, so either he had an error, or there's something weird going on.

 

This is Canadian, but working full time last year with no student loans, just a car finance, no home ownership, a few charitable donations, no dependents, I received a refund of over $5K. Not too shabby!

 

I'm not an expert or even halfway knowledgeable about taxes, but this doesn't seem right.

I would genuinely like to know what turbo tax found. Like someone else stated either you're married and got a EIC put everything you had in a TSA or I really don't know...

I don't do deductions like donations or sales tax or work realated expenses because they aren't over my standard deduction...

 

Not sure how the Canadian system works, but in the US you generally wouldn't deduct charitable giving in your situation (you can only count that if you itemize, which means you don't take the standard deduction, and with no home ownership or kids you wouldn't be itemizing as the standard deduction is higher.) Sounds like you need to reevaluate your withholdings.

 

Actually, I think $4k is a huge refund. Most likely you were paying very high interest in your student loans. I'm only getting $1500, but I think that is due to my income. I still think that is good enough though.