What equipment are you buying with tax return?

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biohaz7331

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Just wondering what everyone will be doing with their return in regards to brewing? I am considering getting a beer gun and bottle capper as well as a few little things.
 
I will be buying nothing with my tax refund as I should not be getting one. If everything goes as planned, I should owe $1 in taxes. I hate giving the government an interest free loan of my money by overpaying my taxes throughout the year.
 
Years of practice. My wife is technically self employed, but earns a fixed salary. We have to make a quarterly tax payment so I basically know my tax liability every 3 months. That does make it easier to estimate and not over pay.
 
Eventually some sort of fermentation control is on the agenda, but I don't know of that will be a fridge/freezer or some sort of larger chamber. That probably won't happen until later in the spring/summer as right now it is easy to ferment in my basement and cold crash in the garage here in the Chicago area.
 
Oh nice I can't wait till I can finally do some sort of fridge ferm chamber. I currently use a cool brewing fermentation chamber that has been working quite well. I was fermenting at 58 and no on lagering at around 48-50 using only frozen two liters!
 
Trying to make the jump to all-grain.

Got a 44qt kettle, BIAB bag, mash paddle, and grain mill.
 
Thinking of investing in a pH meter. Just seems much easier than the strips I've been using, and more accurate.
 
Zeroing out my CC debt and then buying the stuff for a Son Of Fermentation Chamber for my place, and for a wooden brew stand for the AG setup my friend and I are setting up at his. Not sure which I'm the most excited for.
 
Used a little of my return to buy a decoction ladle, yeast aeration system, stir plate, and bigger kettle. Thinking of also investing in some wine equipment.
 
Awesome good to hear everyone's new plans. On the cc debt I will also be paying off my cards before buying my new equipment.
 
I have to pay 1k. I don't know how I screwed up my estimates that bad. But did buy a full all grain setup and grain mill with hubby's Christmas bonus!
 
Tax return????!?!? How can that happen? Oh, yeah, i'm in Canada and you guys are in the US....

If I would get a tax return I would definitely buy another CO2 tank , 2 more faucets and all the needed hardware.

Cheers !
 
Made a deal with the wife prior to deployment that I would sell my equipment, in return I got to buy all new stuff with the tax return. I have over $1000 worth of stuff in my Northern Brewer shopping cart waiting for the money to hit. Here's my list.

Refractometer
Temp Control
25 Gallon brewpot
burner
Stir plate
5000ml flask
Barley crusher(15 Lb hopper)
digital scale
o2 system
therminator plate chiller
 
I have to pay in around $430 this year. Better than last years $800. But I did donate a LOT of stuff this year including nearly a whole household worth of appliances.

But even if I did get a return, I don't think I would buy beer stuff. I have just about everything I want, except maybe a bigger mashtun. I was thinking my next major purchase will be a welder. But then, I could use it to put together a single tier or something. Would that then qualify as brew related?
 
I will be buying nothing with my tax refund as I should not be getting one. If everything goes as planned, I should owe $1 in taxes. I hate giving the government an interest free loan of my money by overpaying my taxes throughout the year.

that's what everyone should do.....why give them "$1000" interest free and get it back in April?
 
Doh that sucks. It is kind of nice to get money back but at the same time I would rather not have it taken out to begin with.
 
Working on a refi on the house, and may need to bring some cash to closing. I cant complain as it us going to knock 12 years off the term with only a slight change in payment.

If not, I am going to buy the rest if the equipment for my brew stand.
 
I'm using my return to pay off some of the credit card I used to buy my wife's new wedding ring.
 
Getting no tax return...per se. My wife's income is non-taxed and I maxed out my withholdings to plan to pay for some of her taxes that would be owed. We had also been socking away money in savings with the expectation of it going to cover taxes

Turns out there was a misunderstanding between our tax person and myself. We had $8,600 set back expecting to have to pay that and ended up actually only owing $2,600!!!! Now that's a hell of a mistake that makes you happy in the end :)

I will owe the government a fee since we owe so much, but it's only about $20, and we're now adjusted for this year.

This extra money is going to savings for our new house in the future and some current home improvements.

Kind of makes finding $1 in your pocket not as cool though :(
 
Zeroing out my CC debt and then buying the stuff for a Son Of Fermentation Chamber for my place, and for a wooden brew stand for the AG setup my friend and I are setting up at his. Not sure which I'm the most excited for.

If you're gonna build a foamboard ferm chamber, I highly recommend building a "38DD Mother of Fermentation" chamber. Google that term for instructions.

It shouldnt be much more than building the "son" chamber, and will hold 2 fermenters. I have one, and used a controller from coolerguys. I forget their site (may be coolerguys.com) but they specialize in cooling A/V equipment. The temp controller has plugs already mounted to it, and they have connectors that plug into 12v PC fans. Makes wiring a snap.

One piece of advice though, use an outer container to hold your frozen ice container. I use little shoebox-sized plastic totes/tubs. One day, after repeated freezing/thawing, the bottom of one cracked. I did not realize this because I put it in the chamber frozen. When I got home from work, it had leaked ALL over the floor, ruining the laminate flooring under my 38dd chamber. .

Awesome good to hear everyone's new plans. On the cc debt I will also be paying off my cards before buying my new equipment.

Had quite a bit of CC debt to pay off myself. Thats the reason i didn't get as much brewstuff as I wanted.

Feels great knowing it's gone, but I'm just wondering how long it will take before I slowly start acquiring it again ;)

that's what everyone should do.....why give them "$1000" interest free and get it back in April?

For some people who absolutely cannot save money (myself included) due to lack of restraint, this is actually not a bad idea.

My accountant guy who did my taxes said I was getting back too much, but if I'm not able to save on my own, this is a perfectly viable way to do it.

Also he said since the interest rates are crap anyways, I'm not losing any real money by giving Uncle Sam this "interest-free loan." I got back a LOT this year (say between 6 and 7 grand), and he said it would have only made me about 70 dollars in interest.

I'm fine with that, knowing that I would have blown every penny of that money.
 
Thinking about a fermentation chamber. Last summer was really hot in the north east and I had some pretty funky esters.
 
I will be buying nothing with my tax refund as I should not be getting one. If everything goes as planned, I should owe $1 in taxes. I hate giving the government an interest free loan of my money by overpaying my taxes throughout the year.

I really need to optimize my withholdings like this as well. I had a much larger refund than I was expecting, and I could do much more with the extra money every month than it does to receive a windfall once a year.

Hopefully I can get it nailed down.
 
I'm getting a new Fox CTD Boost Valve shock for my Yeti 575. The remainder of the loot will go to pay off my only credit card. After that debt is paid off, I only have another 2 grand to go on my Tacoma and about $115K to go before the bank lets me have my house free and clear.
 
The only reason I get a tax return is because if my mortgage interest payments deduction.

We are using it to buy a new mattress and bed frame for our room! When you are married you don't get to use your tax return for toys or beer stuff.
 
I'm not 100% convinced we are getting a check back from the government this year. We may end up owing a few thousand. I need to get an appointment with my tax guy soon and get working on that.
 
Ha ha I am engaged so I get to spend a little on brewing and toys :) I kind of like the return system because it gives you a little chunk sometimes. I agree with what was said that I would probably spend the money if I had it throughout the year.
 
We will probably be buying crayolas for the Department of Education. We certainly won't be getting a refund.

JW
 
might just get myself a chugger pump, ball valve set up so I can do recirculating BIAB mashes and whirlpool. yeah, sounding better as I type it...
 
Well, I made a very significant interest free loan to the feds and state of Kalifornia. I plan to get a grain crusher and SWMBO has plans for the other 7K.
Time for a new tax man!
 
I'm thinking about a pump but I also like how it looks in my savings account right now....

There certainly is something about having that extra little caseh in your account that greets you every time you log in :D
 
I ended up with a HUGE refund this year and have subsequently adjusted my W4 to bring my deductions down for this year...BUT with the money, was able to pay off SWMBO's car and pay off one of two credit cards....looking at debt free in about 10 months now.

I used my bonus check from work to get my brewing stuff

36 Qt. Bayou Classic pot
2x 55# bags of Maris Otter
1x 50# bag of 2-row
15 packs of different dry yeasts
2 pounds of hops
a couple pounds here and there of specialty grains
updated HBT membership

I should be good to go for about a year
 
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