Well, let’s start off with the good news — a nice check back from the Feds, an even nicer one back from the State. Hoody-frickin-hoo.<\/p>\n
For the third year I used TurboTax, and I continue to be amazed by how easy it makes the whole process — except when the vagueries of tax law force it to direct you to an IRS Publication, in which case you’re screwed. Still, this is great stuff. <\/p>\n
Once upon a time, I did all my taxes by hand. Then, when Margie and I were first married, we used a tax accountant, since (a) merging our finances was a bit complex, and (b) we needed to keep things separate enough to avoid any confusion in various, ah, spousal support matters. Once that was resolved, TurboTax and away!<\/p>\n
TTax does a nice job of walking you through things. It asks good questions. And every year it adds various conveniences to the tax experience, not least of which is being able to electronically pull in information from your previous tax filing and remind you of stuff you may have forgotten. Well worth the bucks, IMO (which, as tax preparation costs, are deductable …).<\/p>\n
I know that the ideal in tax prep is to come to 0$ owed in either direction. Certainly owing a bunch of money is a bummer (and has happened to me on a couple of occasions, though not for a decade or more). And I know that being owed a big chunk o’ change from Uncle Sam is a Bad Thing, since it represents an interest free loan of that money.<\/p>\n
But y’know … there’s something really exciting about seeing that Uncle Sam is going to send you a big check (or the electronic direct deposit equivalent). Ditto for … uh, whoever the anthropomorphic representation of the State of Colorado is.<\/p>\n
TTax keeps a running refund\/owed figure at the top right corner of the screen. Thing is, it’s kind of meaningless when you’re initially entering data. But it’s a bit like a “score board” — you root for each deduction, boo each added taxable income item. You start out owing huge sums of money (as you identify income), and then slowly but surely hack it back as you note deductions.<\/p>\n
Getting a big deduction for charitible contributions is not a moral reason to make such contributions, by the way. But it sure is icing on the cake.<\/p>\n
One resolution I came to during this process: We need to seriously revamp our record-keeping. I’ve gotten extremely lax about keeping up our checkbooks, we have bags and boxes and cabinets full of stuff that need going through, etc. I wasn’t even as diligent as I have been in the past about putting aside all tax-related docs.<\/p>\n
Sounds like a good weekend project.<\/p>\n
But not this <\/i>weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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Some of the infamous \"tax cuts for the rich\" benefited the Hill\/Kleerup household, others...","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11082,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/04\/13\/taxing.html","url_meta":{"origin":1875,"position":1},"title":"Taxing","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Apr-07 8:23pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Finally popped in the TurboTax disc, pulled out the stacks of papers and receipts and \"Save - Important Tax Info Inside\" bills, and tackled taxes for TY2006. Final score:\u00a0 \u00a0I...","rel":"","context":"In "Personal"","block_context":{"text":"Personal","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32925,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/27\/theres-always-someone-out-to-make-a-buck.html","url_meta":{"origin":1875,"position":2},"title":"There's always someone out to make a buck","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 27-Mar-13 1:21am","format":false,"excerpt":"I make use of TurboTax, and probably still would even if the IRS were providing me with my reported income information (which information they already have.) \u00a0But Intuit is acting here, not on behalf of poor, benighted taxpayers who might be swayed into thinking that a pre-filled form from the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11049,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/04\/18\/waiting_to_the_last_momen.html","url_meta":{"origin":1875,"position":3},"title":"Waiting to the last moment","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Apr-07 3:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I have, on occasion, done my taxes on the 15th, but it's always sweating bullets because, well, heck, who wants to worry that TurboTax's site will be impossible to access...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130398,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/04\/10\/the-tax-man-cometh-and-bringeth-me-back-my-money.html","url_meta":{"origin":1875,"position":4},"title":"The Tax Man Cometh (and Bringeth Me Back My Money)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 10-Apr-16 7:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Tidy refunds from both the feds and the state this year mean continued solvency, huzzah! Many thanks to both TurboTax (for the tax prep) and my Mother-in-Law (for helping us organize so many charitable contributions of Stuff). \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Star%2BTrek%2BChekov%2Bdancing.gifimgmax%3D660.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20769,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/04\/17\/modern-tax-time.html","url_meta":{"origin":1875,"position":5},"title":"Modern tax time","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 17-Apr-11 8:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I can remember my dad doing the taxes. Now, Dad was a banker. He knew what was what when it came to finances, and money, and accounting, and tabulation, and record-keeping. And I can remember long weekends (and more), the dining room table covered with neat stacks of paper, colorful\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/taxes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/taxes.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/taxes.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}