BREAKING!! Average 2011 U.S. Tax Refund = $2,913

Then I am WAY below average. Doesn't surprise me really.

I find it a little ironic when you pay the Government money all year long, and at Income Tax Time, they pay us back???? Such a Weird Thing

^Exactly!! Interest free loan.

Doesn't matter, they still blow it on eating out and big screen tvs...people act like it's free cash, when they are only getting their own money back...

We used it as our savings account for years - average refund was approx. $7,000/year when we were paying mostly interest on our mortgage. House is paid off now, so our refunds are little more than $1,000. Still - better than paying in!

Yep, you're right for the most part. The only thing that irks me is when people get back more than what they pay in.

Oh, in the form of child credits? Yeah, there should be something done about that, it's one thing to be low income and getting back all you paid in, but to get more back than you put in is taking away from the rest of us.

^That is dead on Brief. Everyone I know blows their refund thinking it is free money.

I haven't gotten a refund in years because every year I have to pay for everybody elses' kids. They're your responsibility, not mine!

my goal is to come out at the end of the year owing or receiving back as close to $0 as possible.

Any money you get as a refund was money YOU EARNED that they got to use all year long as an interest-free loan... but they certainly don't pay you interest when you get a refund.

Some people like the big refund check... I prefer knowing that the gov't didn't benefit off my money for free.

Stupid. Whatever refund you get is from overpaying withholding taxes. You let the government use your money interest-free. Adjust your withholding to reflect what you actually owe.

I haven't gotten a refund either. Might be because I don't pay. Fuck the government.

Actually it is worse than just "getting back what you paid in". You gave the government a 0% loan for a term of 1-365 days, depending upon when you first paid in. If you consider the opportunity cost loss of that money (what you could have earned in interest investing that money), you really lost money, in the 1% to 5% range for most people.

As a business owner, I pay in, and do so at the last possible second, so I don't end up paying that. Unfornutely if you work for someone else, there is no way around this.