Taxes

[FEJ]

Done..
:D

[Gemini Cricket]

Me, too! Efile the other day. Bang zoom, done.
Tax return check in 5 days and counting...
:)

[Matterhorn Fan]

You're lucky I don't negative mojo you two.

I meant to do that this weekend, but didn't. And now I'm sick. I talked to Flippyshark on the phone earlier and couldn't get out words like "invoke." I certainly don't trust myself to even be able to get my address right on a tax form. *sigh*

[BarTopDancer]

Done too.

[Betty]

Done and got my return already.

[Baileykat]

Done! This past Monday!

Return should be in the bank this week!!! Whoo hoo!

[Mousey Girl]

Grrrr... This is something I should have done last week, being off all week. I guess I will start going through papers tonight to find everything.

[CoasterMatt]

I hate one of my employers - we still don't have our W-2s

grrrrr....

[Not Afraid]

Just so you know why I'm smirking........

My SIL and BIL would tell the existing children not to bother them in the bedroom because they were "doing taxes". It's become quite a euphamism in our household.

[blueerica]

"There are only two things in life that are inevitable: death and taxes" --

I forget who said that... Does anyone know,, because it's the first thing I thought of with this thread, but I'm stuck on who knows it.

[FEJ]

Benjamin Franklin

[Prudence]

Mailed my taxes on the 25th of Jan -- because that's the day we got our W2s.

Did I mention that I *like* to do my taxes? I like the puzzle. TurboTax is for wimps.

[Matterhorn Fan]

I am a wimp.

A wimp whose lame dinosaur of a computer will most likely not be able to run TurboTax. (Not that I won't at least look into it . . . )

[HTHBellcaptain]

My Taxes are all done. Trust me, I have no reason to lie to you. Honestly, they're done. I dare you to prove otherwise.

[Claire]

I used to like to do our taxes. Now I HATE it.

Thanks to all those groovy federal tax cuts and credits, the state's economy has tanked....raised taxes, maxed out budgets, eaten up surpluses, canceled programs and passed the buck to local/county programs to find funding.

Ah, so now we have a county income tax that eats my federal return, PLUS we will end up owing the state. Yeah, lots of incentive to get my taxes done again this year. :mad: I think I'll wait til April again.

I love this administration. :rolleyes:

[Matterhorn Fan]

My Taxes are all done. Trust me, I have no reason to lie to you. Honestly, they're done. I dare you to prove otherwise.
Methinks he doth protest too much.

[belleh5]

I already got both my refund checks from State & fed.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

No refund for us. My withholding was not much at all, and we owe a bunch. :(

[Baileykat]

Oooo! Ouch CP!

That happened to us one year...they had forgotten to take enough withholding from our Bonus checks we were getting every month...let's just say it was nice that the IRS let's you do payment plans!

[lindyhop]

Well, I looked at all the paperwork today. That's about a month earlier than usual.
And you'd think that since I'm an accountant I'd be on top of this stuff. You would be wrong.

[€uroMeinke]

Done - almost. Currently making copies before I place it in the mail tomorrow. We've got cash coming this time. I know the goal is to get to zero, but it's always nice to know there's a check with your name on it coming soon.

[Not Afraid]

Yes, I signed something in my groggy state. And, this is exciting, we're going to get a new water heater, washer and dryer!!!! Whoop whoop!

[Ghoulish Delight]

April 15th approaches!

As CP alluded to earlier, my initial run through back in February showed us owing, and owing a lot, so I'm happily putting writing that check off until the bitter end.

So I finally took Saturday to finalize things. I figured it'd be quick and easy since I'd already penciled everything in, just needed to double check the work and sign. Hah!

Mistake 1: Wrong form. Can't use the EZ because I've got dividend income. Dang, off to the IRS and franchise tax board websites to download the 1040A and the 540A.

Mistake 2: Turns out I made a really careless math error and overstated our wages by $10K on the 1040! Sweet, that meant $1000 less to pay than I thought. We still owed, but a lot less.

Annoyance 1: Because our witholding was so out of whack this year (CP's was really low, and me only working half a year screwed things up), we owed quite a bit...enough that we have to pay an underpayment penalty. Grrr. Well, that meant a frenzy of paperwork as I double checked that we did have to pay it, and began to estimate how much. In the middle of estimating how much, I notice that because my wages changed through the year, I may be eligible to have it waived. Okay, that's ANOTHER form...and it's really complex. Grrr. I'm spending half an hour plus running around trying to fill these forms out. Finally I say, screw it, I won't have it waived, I'll pay it and be done with it. So I run through the estimate...it's $15 :rolleyes: If I had know that...

Mistake 3: Okay, so I get it done, get them signed, and bring it all to work today to get it mailed. I give it ONE more scan...and realize that on the Federal form I managed to look at the wrong column in the tax table!!! :mad: I've never made this many mistakes doing my taxes, geeeeez. So now, that's another $500 less, AND it means we don't have to pay the underpayment penalty.

Oh well, at least I caught the mistakes and they meant paying LESS. Much better than finding mistakes and learning you have to pay MORE. But there was about an hour of wasted effort and frustration as I pointlessly dealt with estimating and attempting to waive the penalty.

[SusieP.]

I can't believe that Friday is tax day already. We ended up breaking even this year. We owe one and get a refund from the other, so that, plus paying the tax guy, it comes out a wash.

It's better than owing, that's my motto. I'm just crossing my fingers that the refund gets here in time to cover the payment!

[Eliza Hodgkins 1812]

Oh. Right. Taxes. I should, um, phone those in.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Oh well, at least I caught the mistakes and they meant paying LESS. Well, find more mistakes!!! :p

[wendybeth]

Well, find more mistakes!!! :p

Or an accountant?;)

I'm lucky- my sis is an accountant. I am so sad when it comes to tax crap, but she is really awesome. She sucks when it comes to doing hair, so it all evens out.:D

[Ghoulish Delight]

The thing is, our taxes are freakin' simple. 1040A, standard deduction, no credits other than witholding. I just made a series of dumb careless mistakes that I don't usually make.

[Prudence]

Just wait until you're homeowners. Deducting the mortgage interest rocks! That alone made the whole homebuyer paperwork (and with a VA loan, there's even MORE paperwork) experience worth it.

I should hire myself out to do taxes. I'm not an accountant, but I think it's fun. I like to go over each and every blank and read the instructions.

[scaeagles]

I use HR Block Tax Cut software. Takes me about an hour to do it, and I don't have to worry about mistakes looking the tax table as GD did (understandable), and it asks me about every possible deduction. Only costs about $20 for the software after rebates, and I find it well worth it.

Anyway, I've been done for a while. Getting a larger refund than I like, so I djusted my withholding to not give so much to the government up front. WHy give an interest free loan?

[scaeagles]

Thanks to all those groovy federal tax cuts and credits, the state's economy has tanked....

Now, I wouldn't blame the feds for that. AZ is doing just fine, and we have the same federal government as Oregon. I don't know much about the government of Oregon, but perhaps they have some internal policies making life more difficult than it has to be?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Now, I wouldn't blame the feds for that. AZ is doing just fine, and we have the same federal government as Oregon. I don't know much about the government of Oregon, but perhaps they have some internal policies making life more difficult than it has to be?Among other things, Oregon has no sales tax, so the state has less revenue generating power, so they are a lot more dependant on Federal funding.

[scaeagles]

Among other things, Oregon has no sales tax, so the state has less revenue generating power, so they are a lot more dependant on Federal funding.

Really? That's an interesting policy. I think they screw themselves with that, personally, because then they generate virtually no income from tourists, unless they have some sort of bed and board tax.

[Mousey Girl]

I finally had ours done... Same ol' thing. We get $$$ back from federal but have to pay $$ to the state. We still come out ahead, but I would prefer not having to pay the state anything extra. I was finally able to change my state withholdings this year so that should help with the taxes next year. I think part of the thing with the state the last 3 years is that we make too much to be able to get the credit for The Boy.

[sleepyjeff]

Really? That's an interesting policy. I think they screw themselves with that, personally, because then they generate virtually no income from tourists, unless they have some sort of bed and board tax.

Actually we do have a hotel tax. They manage to tax us and fee us every other way imagineable(including a business tax based on gross receipts...in other words, a hidden sales tax) so when all is said and done we are actually one of the most taxed States in the Nation. People are leaving this State in droves(which is why Vancouver(aka Vantucky) is one of the fastest growing Cities in America) due to high taxes.

.....but at least we don't have to pump our own gas :D

[Brigitte]

We finally did ours today, getting enough back combined to pay for most of our vacation this summer. Much better than wondering...`

[scaeagles]

They manage to tax us and fee us every other way imagineable(including a business tax based on gross receipts...in other words, a hidden sales tax)

I always think it so funny when someone says we need to tax corporations more to take the burden off the little guy.....businesses don't pay taxes! The consumer does in the form of higher prices.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Phew!

I think I did exactly what GD did. I had a very sizeable panic attack after thinking that I owed a LOT.

Except that I'd forgotten to subtract the adjustment from my total income. I owe $17 to Uncle Sam. Annoying to, for the first time, have to pay out. But the math error totally took the sting out of that. "17? That's better than 1700!"

Kind of like the Steel Magnolias trick. "Aw, don't cry, I don't have a tumor. I'm only gay!"

[Ghoulish Delight]

I always think it so funny when someone says we need to tax corporations more to take the burden off the little guy.....businesses don't pay taxes! The consumer does in the form of higher prices.Simple economics shows that, due to supply and demand, when a tax is levied, prices are not raised in proportion to the tax. The supplier absorbs a percentage of the tax, the more inelastic the demand, the lower that percentage. So a product like gasoline, which is very inelastic (as in, people will buy it, even if the price increases significantly), nearly all tax is passed on to consumers. While more expendable products, the demand would drop too much if the price is raised, so the supplier takes on more of the tax. This is why taxing the supply side can generate the same amount of revenue with a proportionately smaller affect on overall prices.