Ah, Tax Day

I don't mind Tax Day too much.  There's no avoiding it, my taxes have gotten more complicated over the years, and I procrastinate more, but tax software is SO much better than figuring out everything myself.

It used to be that it was so simple:
A.  How much did you earn last year.
B.  How much do you have left.
C.  Send B.

Ok, old joke, but it used to seem like that.

NOW, I get to fuss with deductions, donations, inheritances, death benefits, explanatory statements, foreign taxes, health benefit forms, energy-efficiency credits, etc.  Only God and H&R Block know what else.  There was probably a trans-fat tax in there somewhere.

Seriously, I just buy the software, answer all the questions, stare at the forms that print out, and hope for the best.  I hope I never get audited.  I try to be scrupulously honest, but sometimes I haven't the slightest idea what the forms are asking for!  The worst is looking at a document sent by some company saying "copy sent to the IRS" and trying to figure out where to enter it in the software.  For example, it took me 15 minutes to figure out that my share of Dad's  Civil Service "Death Benefit" was considered "income".  That is a sad of a way to get "income"!

But it beats the non-software way.  This year it only took 4 hours.  Mostly because I had so much leftover Dad stuff to donate, which lead me to donate a lot of MY unneeded stuff, both of which included new and used items.  The IRS does NOT like mixed categories of donations!

But, for better or worse, its done and the forms mailed...  Next year will be a lot easier; no leftover Dad stuff, no unused "my" stuff, no inherited stuff to declare.

One really cool thing I discovered is that Maryland excludes $29,000 of income when you turn 65!  THAT saved more than a few dollars in taxes...

And then there was the filing options.  I could pay the extra I owed to the Feds by credit card if I filed electronically, but there was an unspecified "convenience fee" to H&R Block for that.  Which apparently I couldn't learn until I went through giving them a lot of information first.  And I had a refund coming from MD, which I could get in a week electronically, but my bank has this weird thing where what is normally the routing number on your check ISN'T and I was worried about getting it wrong. 

So there I was putting everything in envelopes the old-fashioned way and wondering if I put enough stamps on the envelopes for the 6 pages of paper in them.  And I LAUGHED out loud (at myself)!  I was paying X $1000 in taxes in worried about an extra 42 cent stamp.

So I slapped on 2 extra stamps on each envelope and put them in the mailbox... 

DONE!