Spending the tax refund - questions

[NewPage]

Whenever we get the refund (prior to filing), we plan to spend it on:

1. Quarterly federal tax payment (Husband is self-employed)
2. Quarterly state tax payment
3. Orthodontia for our son (he has teeth growing sideways, not down; we have been waiting it out hoping that it would self-correct like one side did, but it has not, and it's been over the 6 months they suggested waiting)
4. Possibly paying utilities - can you "pay ahead" a month or two? Or can you only pay what is current? For instance, our garbage bill is $25/month -- can we pay say 3 or 4 months' worth, or just one?

[OhioFiler]

Your plan is safe.

[NewPage]

Thank you --

Is it okay then to pay ahead? I've got a horrendous insurance premium of $440/month for just myself. It'd be nice if I could pay say 3 months of that, so I don't have to worry about it for a few.

[tcreegan]

horrendous insurance premium of $440/month for just myself. ...good grief!! I will stop complaining about mine right now....

Since the tax payments are quarterly, I think paying ahead a quarter would be OK. We did on a couple bills, but they were small like the garbage.

Need someone paying the big bucks utilities from the Northeast to chime in....anyone pay ahead a couple grand?

Tom in Colo

[keepsmiling]

Hey Tom
Wanna feel REALLY good? Our insurance went up to 1400/mo for the two of us.
No dental or vision.
As to utilities for the self employed, I believe another self employed poster from the NE told me he prepaid his no prob. I would like to think (hope/pray)that when your income vacillates and you may not actually be able to expect anything, that prepaying utilities and mortgage would be acceptable.

[shark66]

Wanna feel REALLY good? Our insurance went up to 1400/mo for the two of us.
No dental or vision.

Gotta love New Jersey...OMG...

The best of luck to you, with insurance premiums like that you need to hit the lottery...

[keepsmiling]

Yeah, or go uninsured, as we have done since September.
I posted recently about starting college just so we could get reasonable health ins. Worth looking into if anyone is in a similar position.

[NewPage]

To get student insurance or ??

[keepsmiling]

Yes, to get health insurance at greatly reduced group rates- seems to be my only option here in the land of high prices. Can't get it thru AARP. chamber of commerce, or any of the other groups other states offer.

[enuffznuff]

Just look into it carefully, my student insurance covers virtually NOTHING. LOL

[tobee43]

Gotta love New Jersey...OMG...

The best of luck to you, with insurance premiums like that you need to hit the lottery...

exactly why we left!!!!! and never looked back...the cost of everything was terrible. i know my daughter to cover her husband and their two kids it cost them over 2k...so they couldn't do it...who can?? they moved out of state also and now everything is fine with the healthcare! TG!!!

oh...to the OP...we were advised to use EVER dime of our refund and it was quite large that year since we donated a ton of things to local and state charities...(we of course were becoming homeless in nj...but we could at least get a tax deduction for giving everything away to legit places!)...so the trustee didn't even ask what we did with it...not one word.

[NewPage]

Another question here --

My husband has yearly business expenses that come due in Jan/Feb. We have been holding off on paying them until tax refunds arrive. One is $540 the other is $414. Would those be okay to pay from the refunds you think? So far we have only paid my health insurance, we are sitting on the rest until the other refund arrives, then we'll pay the quarterly tax payments and my son's orthodontia.

If it's not okay to pay the business expenses, we can juggle to pay that out of the account now and then do things like make the house payment from the refund, to make it "legit" -- if anyone believes the business expenses would raise an eyebrow.

[newbie2]

You should be fine on paying those business expenses. Just save the receipts. (Also don't forget to include those yearly expenses in your filing)