YOU KNOW WHAT ERKS ME

Thursday, February 01, 2007

That time of year again!

You know I remember as a kid, my father, every year, grabbing his breifcase with the look of a mission on his face and locking himself behind closed doors for hours. I would watch in awe as he would scratch his head, chew his pencil, cuss the breifcase out, and make weird gestures and faces to thin air. It was well known to leave dad alone during this time...tax time. I used to be really scared about when I would finally have to start doing my taxes. But to tell you the truth, I have been doing them since I was 14 and have never had a problem. Granted when I was 14 I didn't have much to do except sneak into that closed room and pass the w-2s to daddy, but when 16 hit I was living with my real father and decided that I wanted the refund. So I started doing my own taxes. For the most part I always owed state. I could never see how cuz I was a full time student and didn't makes squat. But state always seemed to punish me.

So this year I sat down yesterday to pound out the numbers. When I calculated my w-2's with hubby's, I almost fell out of my chair. I couldn't believe how much we made in income. So I stare at the turbo tax and see a negative $5100 that I owe just in Federal alone. I try not to look at the upper left hand corner of the screen b/c it goes down once you start plugging in your deductions and donations. Lucky Hubby and I are generous people. With all our deductions and the extreme amounts of donations we gave last year, that -$5100 turned into a +$3500. Whew...that was a close one. It always reminds me how much I really love tax time. I always get them done right away and almost always get a little moolah back. Now...to pay that damn credit card off!

4 comments:

Southern (in)Sanity said...

See? That is perfect proof that making donations pays off. I'm glad you ended up on the plus side instead of the negative!

Nikky said...

Im a little afraid of taxes. Here I am, an accounting student, and the thought of doing MY taxes freaks me out. Normally, it would be ok, but with hubby deployed, and some income is taxable, and some is not... what a pain in the arse, I'm gonna let the professionals take it this year!
Reminds me to make an appointment tho, THANKS!!

EJL said...

I think that it was my cancer charities that did it. Are yours done yet? Being single this time of year must be a nail biter.

EJL said...

The turbo tax online Nikky has been great for me. I think that only the taxable income shows on the w-2...atleast that is what my employer said b/c I actually disputed my w-2 this year. (didn't want an audit). Turbo tax the $29.00 option is awesome. I didn't have any stocks or bonds so I didn't have to do the $39.99 option. You should try it. If it doesn't work..you don't pay until the end so if you think it's wrong or your in the negative...cancel it and go to your tax preparer. You can also have the option of talking to a tax professional online too!

Shit I should do a commercial