Avoiding Doing My Taxes Till Now
Ugh. I hate doing my taxes. It’s just gotten more complicated over the years since I started taking itemized deductions and deciding to run this blog as an actual business with income. At any rate, I finally started them so I can file them this this week.
Preliminary result? ~$999.00 refund.
I know many folks pooh-pooh getting a refund, but I figure for <$1000 refunds, it's not worth adjusting my witholdings for a measly extra $41.25 per paycheck. The enforced savings does me good, because we all know, I'd just go to dinner with that money in my hand. Start talking $3000 refunds at $125 per paycheck and then we'll talk.
As it is, I should have filed sooner since I could use the money to pay VA state taxes. I dread that I might owe some this year, but I haven't done them yet to find out. I'm lucky. VA has a tax filing deadline a few weeks after the Feds. That's because the VA state return is contingent upon what you report to the IRS. Yippee!
Why did I finally do it? Because I read Tired But Happy’s post about her taxes and saw that I had better file mine if I wanted it processed by April 15th to get the stimulus package. Oh well. $600 bucks slipped right out of my hands. Que sera sera. It would have gone to debt repayment anyway.
budgets are sexy wrote:
Hey Mapgirl, do you do you file them yourself then? I’ve been using an accountant for years, but thinking’ perhaps it’s worth learning myself and saving a cple dollars.
what program do you use?
Posted on 11-Apr-08 at 4:11 pm | Permalink
Andrew Stevens wrote:
Mapgirl, you’ll still get the $600. You just might (or might not) get it later than other people. Don’t worry about having lost the money. At worst, you delayed it by procrastinating. (You procrastinate, they procrastinate; it all evens out.)
Posted on 11-Apr-08 at 6:25 pm | Permalink
Sistah Ant wrote:
I used to do it first thing in February because I wanted my refund as soon as possible. Now that I’m doing the no-refund method, that has changed. I waited longer this year.
As I understand it, you’ll get your refund based on your social security number and whether you got your refund direct deposited or not… so looks like the timing has already been figured out for you.
Posted on 11-Apr-08 at 6:50 pm | Permalink