Tax Time

You know, usually I really look forward to tax time. Even though we changed our withholdings a few years ago to pay less out in taxes throughout the year, meaning a smaller refund, we've always gotten a decent refund anyway.

I've been stressing this year, though.

Remember when I wrote here and here about my job situation? Well there was another aspect of that which I apparently didn't write about at the time. When they put me on consultant status, meaning I was no longer an "employee," they put me on a 1099 instead of a W-2, meaning they were no longer withholding taxes from my pay, beginning in October. Thank goodness that I only had three months of this, or else I would have REALLY been screwed.

I've been doing our taxes myself for years now. One year, I let H&R Block do our taxes. We ended up having to pay. Not a huge amount, but back then it seemed like a LOT. But with what we had to pay on top of what we had to pay H&R Block, we weren't at all happy! In retrospect, the outcome wasn't all the fault of the tax preparer. P's employer had him withholding at Married and 4. This was before kids...what were we claiming? The dogs and cats? Whatever. But the tax preparer didn't really go out of her way to help us make sure we were getting the deductions we were eligible for. So after that, I started doing our taxes myself. A couple of times I went to the tax center on post since it was free. But since our returns have always been pretty simple - usually done on the EZ form, there was really no reason I couldn't do them myself.

So I sat down to do our taxes this year, but everything was different. I used a couple of different programs and I was coming out having to pay taxes. And I mean REALLY PAY! So I figured I'd wait until closer to the deadline until I finished and submitted them. I never do that! This is the first year for as long as I can remember that I haven't had our taxes done and gotten our refund by mid-February. Usually I get everything done as soon as the W-2's are posted electronically.

We had an appointment with our financial advisor early last month, and part of the annual review is asking about tax returns. I told him what my numbers were, and he suggested that we get professional tax assistance this year. He also mentioned that things were going to start to get more complicated since we bought a house. So he gave me the business card of a lady he recommended. H&R Block. Hmmmmm.

I finally called her late last week and had an appointment with her Monday evening. She was awesome! She helped me realize how many deductions we were able to take, especially since I was considered self-employed for the last three months of the year. She took us from having to pay out the rear to getting a refund. I cringed a bit when I saw the fee, but I figured that with the money I'm saving in the long run, the fee is more than worth it.

So I'm feeling much better about the taxes now.