South Carolina Ping 
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Posted on 02/25/2017 4:52:28 PM PST by TaxPayer2000
When Christina Knaack received a $5,600 tax refund, she didn't head to the mall or book a trip to the Caribbean. The South Carolina-based single mom of two kids used it to pay her rent … for the entire year.
"Instead of buying my kids the latest Jordans or fancy electronics I paid my rent for the YEAR," Knaack writes on Facebook. "I'm a single mom and I do it all by myself on a minimum wage job. I know that a roof over my kids head is what's important."
Since Knaack uploaded the picture of her rent receipt on Feb. 22, the post has gone viral and racked up more than 320,000 Facebook "reactions."
"You see too many posts now saying, 'Oh I got my kid the latest Jordans.' Or, "Look, my 7-year-old has an iPhone 7,'" Knaack says on FOX Carolina. "People lose sight of what's important."
Now that Knaack's rent is covered, "I don't have to worry about my kids saying, 'Mommy, I need this,' and I can't get it because I'm still trying to debate if I can pay my light bill or if I can pay my rent," she tells FOX.
Plus, she now has an extra $450 a month (the cost of her rent), which she plans to spend on fun activities with her kids.
If you're one of the millions expecting a tax refund this year, consider using it to improve your financial situation, whether that means chipping away at your rent or mortgage like Knaack, funding your retirement accounts or investing in your career.
Majority of our elected persons in D.C. are getting refunds....record tax collections for the last 3-4 years....whose money is it anyway?
I receive my pension and Social Security, and pay almost $8,000 in federal taxes each year. I have no credits, claim only myself, and the standard deduction. I got back $644 this year.
You'd think that after paying her $5400 a year, I'd at least get to see the kids every other week.
Would you be happier if she got housing monies?
If she’s only paying $450/mo, she probably already is.
She might get an earned income tax credit. Regardless, if you have ever been really impoverished, it’s the outgo, not the income and possible to exist on very little. I proposed to my wife at a chinese restaurant - maybe the “Hungry Wok.” They had tablecloths - fancy.
How about saving for a home of your own?
South Carolina Ping
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Chances are that she filed as Head of Household and had little or no withholding. She probably claimed the Earned Income Tax and Additional Child Tax Credits, both of which are refundable tax credits. (The Earned Income Tax Credit was instituted by POTUS R Regan.)
This is all perfectly legal under current law and IRS code. If so, and unlike many, she used the credit appropriately, in the way the credit was meant to be used.
WTG! Mom!!
“Why would a minimum wage earning, single mom be over withheld by $5400?”
She wouldn’t. She gets extra money from EITC and single, head of household credits, etc. So, not only does she get back everything she paid in federal taxes, she gets a bonus, as well. If she made minimum wage she would have earned around $18,000 per year working full time. If she had $5,600 taken out in federal income taxes during that year she would be getting taxed at 30%. No way in hell did she claim 0 exemptions on her withholding.
Wow. I don’t know everything but I do get paid to prepare tax returns, and it isn’t obvious to me how she got so much.
OTOH, when I have $5k to spare I can buy a whole house, a very solid, clean house in a good neighborhood. Or put a deposit on a fsbo.
Some people prefer to rent. *shrug*
Anyway her landlord now has a good opportunity...
These tax credits (welfare, not refunds) are crucial to the survival of illegals with fraudulent ID. They were meant for poor Americans like this lady.
Bingo. We paid her rent, not she.
She wasn't over-withheld nor was that a refund. She received your and my tax dollars via the EITC - Earned Income Tax Credit which is nothing more than wealth redistribution via the tax code.
Even that name's a misnomer .. she did nothing to EARN it!
Earned Income Tax Credit. Another form of welfare. They get back way more than they paid in.
At lead she did something useful with it. Most blow it.
And she didn’t even drop me a thank you note.
Earned income and head of household.
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