For those of us in the US, our federal (and in some cases) state income tax returns are coming due fairly soon. How are you doing your taxes this year? Share your stories, problems, issues, questions, rants, diatribes or whatever...
For my part, I've run into more issues and problems with my taxes this year than I can suffer through with a grin. I'm starting to get a bit irritated by the whole process. The first issue for me was a mistake that I made by not changing my withholding at work. My wife had quit her job to stay home with our infant son. So we've got 1 income instead of 2, and a new dependent to claim. But I was dumb and didn't immediately revise my withholding. The end result is I paid WAY too much taxes all through the year. Yeah, I'll be getting a large refund, but I'd much rather have had that money to use/invest all through the year.
Part 2 of my problems have to do with my switch from doing my taxes myself on paper forms to using a tax software program myself. The switch was honestly just a bit of laziness on my part as I dislike writing everything out and physically mailing the package in to the IRS. I thought it would be simpler to do everything on the computer and e-file. Everything was fine (I thought) until I got to the e-file. It turns out that the SSA has the name of my son incorrectly attached to his SSN... the returns got booted out by the IRS computers with an error message. I spent 2 days visiting government office and waiting in lines to get the proper forms to get the problem fixed. They tell me that the system uploads overnight and should be corrected in the system by the next day. I wait a week to be sure that everything is squared away with the change. I re-file online and, what do you know, rejected again, for the same reason.
Starting to get a bit grumpy now about the whole process, I hunker down and prepare to get packages together to send via standard mail to the respective state and federal departments of revenue. At least the computer program has generated nice, neatly typed out forms for me to submit via mail. So, I'm reviewing these forms again and I notice something odd... the program has itemized my deductions for the state return, but used a MUCH lower standard deduction on the federal form. WTF! The program I used, TaxACT, is supposed to help me find deductions and keep me from making errors. Not make errors on the forms that I have to find by hand. GRRRRRR. Now I'm feeling really grumpy. The difference between itemizing and not itemizing for the federal form might make a difference in tax liability of $1000 or so. Not a small amount. Insult to injury at this point, the tax program is installed on my home computer and I'm at work right now. So I'm unable to address this issue right now and find out why the program would have that discrepancy between the two forms.
Sorry for the rant everyone. But it has helped me some to get it off my chest. If you've read mine, I'll read yours.
