this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2025
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yeah, it's a shit show over here. You kinda guess at how much you will need to pay in taxes, hold back that amount in your paycheck, and hope for the best. And if your life situation changes or the incoming government fucks around with the tax codes, your estimating will be off. Getting it down to a very small refund is the optional solution, but it's not always as easy as you'd think.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

And if your life situation changes or the incoming government fucks around with the tax codes, your estimating will be off.

That's kinda what quarterly estimated taxes are for. At the end of every quarter, if things aren't lining up and your estimates were too low, you can pay extra tax to bring things in line.

The estimate doesn't have to be too precise though. At long as you pay at least 90% of what you owe this year or 100% of what you owed last year (whichever is smaller), you'll be fine. Any less than that and you'll be hit with an underpayment penalty.

It's better to owe money rather than get a refund, as long as you pay enough to avoid the underpayment penalty.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

I get that it's ideal to owe, but I would rather a refund of a couple hundred dollars than owe a couple thousand. Part of the issue is inconsistent income, though. If it was just a single flat salary for the entire year that should be simple, but when you add in variable pay rates and shift differentials and shift bonuses it all gets messed up.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

I totally understand. I hate owing a lot too, but sometimes I get the estimations wrong. I've got a fixed yearly salary, but a big portion of my pay is stock (RSUs) so the tax I owe varies based on when I sell the stock.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A lot of things suck, but setting up your withholding is easy, and in 30 years of paying taxes, I've never accidentally withheld too little.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I hadn't. I've also withheld to much and got a warning letter from the IRS. It's at a point now where things have been optional for the last few years. But with the new tax changes Trump is bringing in, I expect I'll go from getting a small refund to owing a bit next year.