My big experiment/adventure this time of year is to enjoy doing income tax…as much as possible at least.
It’s getting easier and easier each year. The trick for me is to approach it as a puzzle to be solved. That works fine as long as I allow plenty of time so I’m not rushed, and if I neatly organize the paperwork and clear off my work space ahead of time.
Organizing the paperwork used to be the part I hated most but by now my husband and I have an efficient way of doing that. Still, when it starts coming in we do dream of using his grandmother’s solution:
In her later years she actually did that. After a few months Andy’s mother found out and was horrified that the grandmother had been tearing up checks and flushing them down the toilet because it was too much trouble going to the bank. Bills and other important papers were ignored if they escaped the same fate. Needless to say Andy’s mother handled the finances from then on.
Andy and I haven’t reached that point yet, but it is fun to dream. 🙂
What about you? How do you handle income tax/paperwork?
I want to know how stupid people do income tax. They must all be in prison by now.
I leave that job to Tom. He says it takes 6 or7 hours. Without Turbo tax, it would take a lot longer.
I love the cartoons you draw.
I’ve done our taxes for 37 years now and my own for several years before that — except the return for the year that I retired. That year, we had an accountant. There was too much money going out of my 401K and stock into other funds and accounts to take a chance on doing it myself, even with turbotax. Even then, I used turbotax to check the accountant’s result.
Karen would like for us to get the taxes done as early as we can, which used to mean early February. Unfortunately, a couple of our little investments legally hold off on sending the tax information as long as they can, which means the middle of March is the earliest we can file. Federal went in last week by e-file — we get money back. State went in yesterday by US Postal Service — we owe $45; couldn’t see paying $20 for e-file on that.
I refrained from blogging on taxes this year. I didn’t want to dwell on it too long after I finished.
I did use turbotax to see what would be left after a $60 million powerball cash option instead of taking the annuity — we could live on the leftover pretty easily…, with prudent investing, of course. 😉
.-= Mike´s last blog ..Flying low =-.
On line filing certainly helps.
Just btw. Spike Milligan (a British comedian) had two bins in his office: one marked ‘bastards’ for bills, the other marked ‘Utter Bastards’ for final demands. I wish.
.-= Evan´s last blog ..The Political and the Personal =-.
bikehikebabe,
Andy does ours first in TurboTax then we both do it by hand. we don’t completely trust TurboTax’s questions. As I’ve mentioned before, we’re a bit paranoid. 🙂
Mike,
We used to do our taxes early, but like you we don’t always get the 1099 forms in time for that. Also Vanguard advised us not to do ours early this year because there was a good chance there would be amended 1099’s and we didn’t want to have to send in corrected 1040’s.
Evan,
Again, we’re paranoid. We send ours by snail mail and have the IRS sign they they have received it. 🙂
My theory is that being scientifically minded precludes me from any hope of correctly filling in forms and doing simple arithmetic, not to mention saving and organizing receipts. Thankfully I married an accountant, so I just hand it off to her.
.-= Looney´s last blog .. =-.
When I was in corporate life, I got spoiled by the returns being prepared by company accountants who would just ask me to sign on the dotted line and fill a check or advise me that they will secure a refund in due course from the advance tax paid. I never got out of the habit and use the services of a local equivalent of your CPA, who does the same every year for a fee. The same firm does it for my son and ex daughter in law too and without fail, since my retirement, have been securing refunds for all three of us.
.-= Rummuser´s last blog ..Liberals, Conservatives/Libertarians. =-.
Hi Jean!
I married an accountant. Had I not, I’m sure I’d be redecorating some cell somewhere.
Hugs
suZen
Looney,
I was a physics major and great at manipulating equations. Thank goodness they gave plenty of partial credit because when they made us put in numbers at the end I usually did the math wrong. Unfortunately the IRS isn’t that lenient. 🙂
Rummuser,
Apparently 60% if Americans pay someone else to calculate their taxes…the federal tax code is about 70,000 pages long. My daughter pays a tax preparer…about $300 as I recall…and I’m pretty sure her taxes are easier to calculate than ours. How much do preparers charge in your area?
Since the subject of TurboTax came up I spent a couple of hours looking at it tonight. Andy and I have finished our calculations for the Feds and we agree. At first TurboTax got different numbers because in our case it’s non-trivial to figure out how to put some of our numbers in. As far as I can tell Andy put most of them in correctly but TurboTax isn’t handling them right…he’ll check that tomorrow. I figured a way around it for now and we all agree to less than $2. TurboTax rounds off to the nearest dollar which is probably the reason for that discrepancy.
We’ll do the New Mexico tax tomorrow. That’s usually fairly simple.
suZen,
Thanks for the laugh!
Ah! I don’t work anymore, not outside the home, that is. My beloved spouse has the full headache of that, bless him, while I enjoy being a ‘chattel’.
.-= gaelikaa´s last blog ..Art =-.
gaelikaa,
My husband and I are both retired. I don’t even work inside the home. 🙂
About US$60.00 per annum and a little something when the refunds are obtained!
.-= Rummuser´s last blog ..Shashi Tharoor On TED. =-.
Yeah, well, trust Looney and SuZen to be married to accountants. Or BHB to leave all the dirty work to her husband.
One short cut, highly recommended, is not to have any income at all. It’s like exiting on green at customs. Saving so much time.
U
Rummuser,
Yes, indeed, that is a bargain!
Ursula,
If it works for you, go for it! 🙂
Our taxes are complicated because my husband is self-employed. I organize all our receipts and then send them to an accountant. It’s pricey but I want to make sure it is done right. If were both employees I would probably just follow the previous year’s return to do the current year.
.-= Kelly @ Impowerage´s last blog ..Why You Should Monitor Your Heart Rate During Exercise =-.