<p>I have a capital gains section to finish with 76 pages of sales transactions to enter and then I have to do a NH income tax return and a MA income tax return. I’m hoping to get the federal done within the next hour. Surprisingly it looks like a rather large refund. The number of stimulus/tax cut/you name it things in there has my effective tax rate getting cut in half. I guess we wound up in a bunch of preference categories this year.</p>
<p>The MA return is for my son. It will probably take me an hour of effort to get a $26 refund.</p>
<p>We ended up filing for an extension for the first time, but it takes hours just to do that! I have to finish up estimated taxes for this year though.</p>
<p>Just filed two returns for my parents who are in their 90’s (Federal and CT), 3 extensions for myself and wife (NY,NJ,US), two payments for first quarter estimates 2009 (US, NJ), 3 returns for my daughter (Fed,NJ and DC where she had summer job), and 2 for son.
All of the returns required accountant expertise. Even with the accountant I spent hours amassing the papers, filling out the tax info booklet, and organizing the payments and forms to be sent or efiled or faxed. And I’ll still get a big bill.
Whatever happened to tax simplification?
I guess once you have to pay 90% of income if you are in my bracket, that will make it pretty simple. :)</p>
<p>HA! Filled out the tax forms as soon as we got the W-2s and 1099s this year. Filing early for financial aid purposes…Usually, I’d be filing in April.</p>
<p>I’ve used the same acct for 25+ years. He comes to my office every year, we catch up on our kids, then we spend 30 minutes on doing taxes. Our favorite game is - “how much do you think you owe this year?” I give him a number, then he says, “Do you want to go to jail or not?” He basically tells me that I am not eligible for any deductions, and we are done. In two weeks he sends my tax returns back with detailed instruction on what to do. He even highlights where we should sign. He is getting older now, I am worried about the day he retires.</p>
<p>This year between my NY, NJ and federal, I owe nothing, yay…</p>
<p>Our acct has always said 90% of people feel okay lieing 10% of the time on their taxes, and 10% of people feel good lieing 90% of the time, which one are you. I tell him the 10%…because I live in fear I do lie…we don’t take all of our deductions that we’re eligible for in case I am ever audited!</p>
<p>H procastinates and we fight about it every year. He usually gets it done by the afternoon of the 15th, but has filed for extensions a few times. It irritates me to no end. He claims this year is “no problem” and it will be done. At least we didn’t have a household move (with relo), consulting businesses or anything else complicated this year.</p>
<p>Done last week. I feel good! Getting a bigger refund than expected. I do our taxes myself and every year from January until whenever I actually do them, the job just hangs over me like a black cloud. . .</p>
<p>The instructions get thicker and more incomprehensible every year. If the average citizen can’t do his/her taxes without buying software or hiring an accountant, there is something wrong, IMO. (My H found among his deceased fathers papers a copy of a 1940’s tax return–one page form, one page of instructions. . .what happened?)</p>
<p>I’m willing to PAY for some serious tax reform–NOW! And my taxes aren’t nearly as complex as some of yours.</p>
<p>Did them on my own for the first time in many years; I had an accountant like oldfort’s, but I decided I was paying too much for what really wasn’t so complicated ( didn’t even need software–see my other thread.) Haven’t signed and sent yet. Looks like I’m doing better than breaking even, rather than owing, for a change–nothing like a downward heading income!</p>
<p>My S says he’s going to his sister’s place for a form filling out session tonight after work (they don’t get out till 10). I’m trying to stay out of it, but I am a trifle worried he’ll hit a snag and run out of time–must not helicopter, must not heli…</p>
<p>rds248 - I have it on good authority that the IRS bases taxes on the listed number of CC posts. That would certainly explain your federal tax liability for 2008.</p>
<p>I sent off seven returns yesterday – State and Federal for a Trust and ourselves, plus Federal for three students. One underpayment, three overpayments, and three “right on the money.” (The cash I lost betting on the Patriots in last year’s Super Bowl is deductible, right? Casualty loss? The other option was under Medical for “heartache.”)</p>
<p>Good one.
For those that don’t know my post # is a server error which came up about 6 months ago.
I have written to CC about it, but they don’t seem to care, so I gave up. One of the techies on here said it’s an exponent of digital code. Just another computer glitch!
I wouldn’t like my taxes to be based on that number, but maybe my refund!</p>
<p>Remember when politicians were campaigning on a Tax simplification platform that would allow us to all do our taxes on one index card? sounds like a joke now.</p>
<p>The spouse actually caught some bugs in Turbo Tax this year. Much ranting.</p>
<p>Big refund for the adults, much of which (as usual) just gets rolled over to pay property taxes. Checks written for the kids’ returns. More ranting about Turbo Tax’s ineptness: the program forces you to manually look at the previous year’s return for the kids, write down a number, and then manually type that into this year’s return. It’s been like this for years, even with us complaining to the publisher.</p>
<p>Filled out the MA income tax for the $29. What a headache - especially since you have to fill out the healthcare form along with it. The form didn’t need much filling out - it was reading it that was annoying. Every household in MA has to fill one of those out every year? Ugghh. Must take an army of people to process all of those forms.</p>
<p>I used to do the 11:30 on the 15th thing at the regional post office. There would be a camera crew or two and a long line into the post office.</p>
<p>SlitheyTove - Kind of reminds me of taking my D to the DMV for her Learner’s Permit. Walk into a cavernous room with “service windows” along the walls, each with it’s own line. Which to choose, which to choose? Ah, there’s a window with a sign on each side that says “Learners Permits.” Twenty people ahead of us, nineteen, eighteen, … We get to the window and say we need a Learners Permit. “You’re in the wrong line.”</p>
<p>I think most people would be suprised on how much I pay for my accountant (pm me if you want to know). The fact that I don’t have to stress out between Jan and April is priceless. Every year I just get a large envelope ready, I instruct everyone in the house if they see any envelope with “tax information” on it, just drop it in the envelope. The most difficult part of this is to remember to call my acct to make my appointment.</p>
<p>I tried to use Turbo Tax this year. Three hours later, I was still nowhere.</p>
<p>SlitheyTove, that “go look up the number” thing ticks me off, too! I procrastinated this year since we have to shell out $$. I cleaned the house and emptied the cat litterboxes to postpone the unpleasant thing, but I finally did our taxes last night. I had to manually go back to our 2001 file to extract some numbers. TurboTax could definitely do better than that!</p>