I had filed my refund back in Feb, but in March I got another 1099-MISC that I didn't know was coming (long, lame story). Already got my refund so had to file an amended return and ended up paying back most of it. Anyway, how much did you end up paying in Federal Taxes this year?

I ended up paying ~$16,000 which sucks. As you may know I got laid off in Dec 2008 and in 2009 I did a bunch of contracting work, which is considered self-employment, which means I get taxed extra for "self-employment tax," which is a nightmare. Had I not had that, and all my income was on W-2, I would have only had to pay ~$10,000. Ugh.

****, I was careful with the options but not careful enough -- if you paid 0, choose the first option, not the second option. The second option should read 1 - 1000. Sorry about that. Also, the whole thing should read LAST YEAR -- 2009. Blargh, something is wrong in my head.

I qualified for the EITC, so I got a nice check from the feds.

I've not once had to pay the feds. That's what I get for working ****ty jobs amirite?

They paid me!

Who the hell had to pay over 15k?

Obama.

Brian did.

Um yeah and I explained why, too.

How in the hell do you people not pay taxes. I made less than $8000 last year working for a state agency and I paid somewhere between $300-$400 or something like that. And I'm getting less than $50 or something back. I'm a student! Come on! Even if my parents claim me as a dependent (i don't remember what we ended up doing) then that still doesn't help ME out.

Many people actually get confused with the refund and not paying taxes. I got back more than was withheld so I paid less than zero. I haven't actually paid any income tax for calendar years 2003-2009. Stupid system we have.

BobTheMasher, starting for the 2009 tax year, there's a new (or extended) tax credit for students. I got over $2000 from the federal government for going to school when my parents didn't claim me as dependent.

Just for going to school? So if I wasn't claimed as a dependent I'd have just gotten like...all my money back plus $2000? Is that only if you were a full-time student for all of 2009? I'm assuming my parents got the credit instead since they claimed me.

I'm getting a bit under $12,000 back from the fed. Hooray, homebuyers credit!

After my refund I'll end up having paid about $3700. I didn't get my job until about this time last year. Next year's taxes are going to be a bit worse.

No, they'll reimburse you up to $2,500 of tuition. If your parents filed correctly they likely would have gotten it.

ok i'm confused... is this how much you paid throughout the year or how much you owed after filing

if it's the first thing -1 to the 0 or less and +1 to the **** if i know and i'm too lazy to check

if it's the second thing i owed a negative number

i paid $50

Good god I hate you all. Apparently Brian and I funded all your tax refunds. Including the 1,200 dollars I had to pay after doing my taxes I paid a total of 12,400 dollars in taxes last year.

This is the amount of money you pay, net, after all is said and done. So if you pay in %1000 throughout the year and you get a %100 refund, you actually paid $900 in taxes. Does that make sense?

yeah I think people are getting confused about what you actually mean.

I got a refund of about $2800 and paid 3228.10, so I guess I paid about 430. Yay for untaxed combat area income.

Oh, okay then. $553.

Is that just you or you and your wife?

We're getting about $1900 back. Have no idea what I actually paid. This was the latest we've EVER filed. The last several years we would have already received our refund by now. We filed yesterday.

What really chaps me is the stimulus money from last year. I would have received more money back on my refund, but we (we being "all of us") had to pay that back in our taxes. Hell of a stimulus.

Both of us.

Was something like $12k. I forget exactly, filed way back in January.

Paid $14,800ish, owed $14,000ish, was returned $800ish.

I got 740 bucks back from the government

One hundred billion dollars.

Oh, oops, wait, no.

IT'S OVER TWO THOUSAND AND OOOOOOOOOOONEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Oops I misread the question. >_> I paid ~$150 (state), but got back $1500 for Federal.

The question isn't how much you got back or paid at the end of the year. It's about how much you ended up actually paying. It has nothing really to do with your refund amount. If you look at your tax documents, you should have a line that says something like TOTAL TAX. This is the amount you ended up paying. If you are getting a refund, it's because you paid more throughout the year than your TOTAL TAX so they have to return it to you.

We were refunded $2841.

Then you seriously fail at doing taxes.

That's stupid. The question should be amount owed - refund.

I owed like 70 dollars, but got back 800.

The question is quite clear and illustrates how deviously effective our withholding system has been at dumbing down the tax payers.

That's stupid. If you got 800 back, you didn't really owe $70.

Total tax = how much you are supposed to pay for the year, but you can't know what that is for sure til the year is over. The amount they take out each paycheck is just an estimate. If it turns out you withheld more than you needed to, you get the extra back.

Hey, I got a question. When you buy a game at the store that costs $60 and pay cash (there's a novel concept) $100, how much did you pay for the game? Do you answer, "nothing. They paid me $40 to take it!"?

I don't care how much you got for a refund, that has nothing to do with your tax liability, and in reality, it hides how much you are actually paying -- look at all the confusion in this thread. I ask a simple question, "how much federal tax did you pay for 2009?" and people can't stop talking about their refunds or how much they owed at the end of the year -- clearly this tax system sucks. I'm curious because looking at the amount of tax you actually had to pay for 2009 gives some indication of the amount of money you make or at least what sort of income bracket you fall into. I'm curious specifically about massassi -- we used to be full up with kids who didn't pay taxes, then later with kids in college, and more recently, kids who have graduated and have work or are unemployed. The poll is anonymous but clearly it's also meaningless because most people don't understand the tax system.

This is probably why Bush went with mailing checks out to everyone -- they get money from the government, they are happy. Obama did it the other way, lowering the amount they took from your paycheck, but a few bucks a week goes almost completely unnoticed (esp. for hourly workers as opposed to salaried). Obama said we should be thanking him, but clearly people (at least here) equate the amount of money they pay or receive at the end of the year with their real tax liability (which it is not).

It's funny, you'd expect it to be the other way around - the "conservative" cutting tax rates over all, and the "liberal" giving everyone a handout...

I'm a student who made less than $1000 at a temporary job, so not much this past year.