Taxes – Done

We just electronically filed our state and federal income tax. Can I run out to the mailbox yet?

Actually, we completed the process on February 4th. TurboTax.com , where we’ve done our taxes online for the past few years, was nice enough to wait until we were totally finished to tell us they were missing two Connecticut forms.

I could complain to them, but there’s greater satisfaction telling you. I’ll also get more sympathy from you.

Adding insult to injury, they wouldn’t let us file the Federal form until they had the Connecticut forms complete. Of course one had nothing to do with the other.

An email to them questioning that move was answered with a request to call them. Their web page then informed me of higher than normal call volume and wait time. I should have called, just so I could hear how important my call was.

Every year I adjust my withholding to guarantee we’ll get a refund. I know it’s foolish. I am giving my money to the government interest free. Getting that one lump sum check, illusory as it is, is worthwhile. It was when I was 16 and working at Sears. It still is today.

Our printout of forms came to 20 pages. This is crazy. Does our financial life really rate 20 pages? And we are ‘simple’ filers. The whole process is crazy.

You’ll be glad to know, as an employee with a good income, I pay a higher percentage of my income than nearly everyone else! When you want to think of the sap who’s getting hit by the system, please think of me.

When I had an agent, bringing us over the exclusion for employee related business expenses, we took deductions for postage stamps and telephone calls! Now, our only real deduction is this house, which becomes less and less deductible as we pay off more and more of the mortgage.

I’m not complaining about that – believe me. We can actually see it being paid off within a few years. That’s an eventuality I never even considered.

Doing our own taxes gives us a little feel for the system. TurboTax asks about so many possible deductions, it’s mind boggling. Who qualifies for this stuff?

Did I marry a child care provider while out of the country in a tax free swap? Let me check.

I am all for simplifying the tax code. Call me suspicious that any exclusion or option in the tax code was put in place to benefit one party at the expense of everyone else (aka – me). It’s not the taxes that are unfair. It’s the ways to get out of them!

Our refund will not be direct deposited, but will come in the form of a check so we may ogle at it. I might as well get some satisfaction from the process.

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