I’ve had it pretty easy up until this point I guess. I’ve done my own taxes for for at least 5 or 6 years now with TurboTax, and it’s really been a breeze. I’m all for software that makes it easy to do things, and TurboTax has really been great for me. This year is a little different though. This is the first year that I’m doing taxes as a married man, homeowner, child provider, and self-employed income receiver. There’s no doubt that one year can make a load of difference. Anyway, I managed to get my taxes done in February despite all those new things, and I thought it went rather smooth. That was until I got a notice from my employer that they needed to send out new W-2 forms since there was an error in how some of our benefits were declared. Great, so now I have to do my first amended return as well.
Part of my problem is that I’m too quick to try and get it done. I want to get it out of the way so fast that I ended up filing before I got the notice that there were changes. Had I waited, I wouldn’t have to go through all this a second time. A little patience can really pay off when it comes to taxes, especially when I’ve had such big changes in my financial situation over the past year. Since we closed on our house at the end of May we only got about half a year of mortgage interest to deduct, so we’re not seeing the big benefit from that yet. We were right on the borderline of having the itemized deductions outweigh the standard one. Next year should be much better in that aspect. It can be a pain trying to round up all the information for child care expenses, but it’s really worth it. Our son went to 3 different daycares last year (with all the moving), but making sure we claimed all of that was big. Same holds true for my education expenses from my graduate program. Although, I’m a little disappointed because I feel like the tax breaks aren’t what they used to be there at least for my situation.
Doing an amended return is definitely something that I will try to avoid in the future. TurboTax makes it fairly easy, but just the fact that you have physically mail it in if you received an overage (mine is $8!) is a hassle. I’m just a person that loves to use the wonders of technology and I e-file every single year. Having to mail in an amended return is just something that I loathe. The last time I was asked to mail something in with my personal information on it, I didn’t take it very well. I feel a little more secure now that I have a credit monitoring solution, but it’s still something I avoid at all costs.
I’m finally done now, and I’m pretty happy. I’m thinking next year might be a little less complicated, so we’ll see how it goes. At the very least it should be the same and I should be better prepared for it. The bad part is, even when I’m done with my own taxes I still have to help out others in my family with theirs! I do like to help out, but the bigger and more complicated it gets the less I feel like helping others with their taxes too. Maybe I’ll make this the last year I get involved in that as well. The one thing I lack in my life is time, but that seems to be the one thing everybody wants. At least with my taxes done, it’s one less thing to worry about for another year.
How did you all do with your taxes this year?
