Refund? Re-FUN!

Taxes are done, and I get a refund this year. Usually I pay, which is ok, but it’s fun to get some money back, too. The best scenario would be if the taxes taken out of our pay throughout the year were exactly what I owed Uncle Sam at the end of the year.

You’d think that with computers and all, this wouldn’t be so difficult. But I guess not, because there are so many variables that affect taxes, like mortgages, kids, medical costs, retirement plans. But still.

Anyway, as I’ve mentioned before, I always do my taxes myself. I use the old pen, paper, and calculator method. It’s really not that hard, so I don’t know why more people don’t do it themselves. I guess our tax situation is not very complicated, though. But you know, it is pretty easy to just follow the instructions.

Here is why I decided many years ago to be my own tax preparer:

The first year I was married I wanted to be a responsible married person, so I decided to make an appointment with a local accountant when tax season rolled around.

Back then we didn’t make much money and lived in an apartment. This tax situation absolutely screamed for a 1040EZ form. But still. I had been brainwashed that only a “professional” was capable of preparing our taxes.

So we show up for our appointment. And guess what? It turned out that the person “helping” us wasn’t even the accountant. Nope. It was someone who had taken one of those 2 week tax preparation courses. Of course, since our return was so simple, there was no point in the lofty accountant actually wasting his time on us.

But the realllllll kicker was this. The person we had our appointment with was a girl I had gone to grammar school with. Actually, she was a year younger, in my sister’s class. And let’s just put it this way - she wasn’t exactly an “A” student. And also, she was mean. Well, she was mean back then, but actually she turned out to be nice as a grown-up tax-preparer lady.

Ugh! So now we were paying a few hundred bucks for the top-notch accountant, when we were actually getting palmed off on the second string! And not to mention, she now knew a lot of private info about us that I would NEVER under normal circumstances want her to know.

I should have walked out. But I was younger and wimpier then.

But after that I decided to do them myself. Over the years, things have gotten a bit more complicated, but still not that bad. One year I was even audited. And what’s worse, the IRS said I owed them a lot more money, plus penalties. Yikes. But since I had good records, and not to mention, right on my side, I was able to stage a pretty good defense of my tax return. I sent it off and waited. Not that I was worried or anything. What, me worry? Ok. Maybe I was a teensy-weensy bit anxious. Mostly because the IRS is scary.

Boy, you haven’t lived until you’ve been audited by the IRS.

Three months later I got a letter from the IRS saying that yes, I was right, and it turned out they actually owed me an additional $30.00. Case closed. I win ha ha ha.

So that just goes to show you: if you’re honest, have a reasonably firm grasp of basic math, and a decent reading comprehension level, the world is your oyster. If not, prepare to shell out to the “professionals”.

P.S. Shout-out to Nana Liz. Yay! I made meat-loaf in my Little Red Toaster Oven the other night, and it was yum.