Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Cocktails and taxes

We put off our taxes until last weekend so we told each other we'd tackle them Friday night.

And then we got cocky. We weren't just going to do our taxes, we were going to enjoy them! And we weren't going to buy TurboTax, we are smart enough to do our taxes by hand!*  I made dinner and mixed up a couple cocktails and put on Sam's Town (it's our household power album) and we pulled out all our various documents.

Guess what? There isn't anything that makes taxes enjoyable. And I'd recommend not mixing them with cocktails because I spent 20 frantic minutes thinking we owed $3000 and while it was a definite buzz kill, it wasn't a literal enough buzz kill because the two of us together couldn't figure out where we'd gone wrong.

We figured it out eventually, printed everything and (thank god) decided to review it on Sunday before mailing. At which point we found two more major errors. I'm 99% sure that our final calculations were correct.

Note for next year - buckle down and do them in late March, celebrate with drinks afterwards. And possibly purchase TurboTax, if only to avoid the strange worksheet calculations.

I'm planning to post this week but I've been avoiding my computer. We'll see how it goes.


* My justification was that I did my taxes by hand for years but I had conveniently forgotten that it was back when I used the easy form and had no information to fill in. You can definitely do your taxes by hand but it takes a lot more concentration.

24 comments:

  1. Haha! Love this, love your blog!!! On the plus side, cocktails were had. And that's always a positive. Keep 'em coming!

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  2. oh god... that's what we did (minus the drinking, which would have actually been a fantastic idea. maybe). and even worse, I started a business this year, so I was up until 3 am on Monday morning sorting receipts and logging mileage. (and we still didn't finish - had to file an extension. it was - and still is - awful.)

    NEVER AGAIN.

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    1. The business stuff kills me. I will recommend Outright, which you can get for free on a limited basis (they only recently went to a pay model, so I had it for free prior). I don't use the tax tools, but they're amazing for tracking expenses and sales, especially if you do a lot of business online and use Paypal. I don't know what I would do without it. You still have to do a lot of the work yourself, but just having an easy way to categorize the expenses makes it a million times easier.

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  3. i wish i could say i've been inspired to DIY the taxes myself one of these years, but i've paid someone to do our (comparatively simple) joint filing for each of the last several seasons, and it continues to be money well spent: i can handle the soul-sucking paperwork required to, say, refinance our apartment, but i am happy to fork over a couple of hundred bucks to not have to kill brain cells for the IRS. i know it's extravagant, but i don't get massages and i don't see a therapist. each of us must relax in her own way.

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    1. I paid someone last year and felt so ripped off and bitter that it ended up un-relaxing me. In retrospect, I realize I probably didn't choose the right accountant. The guy basically did TurboTax while I sat in his office and dictated my tax information to him and then he charged me $200. NEVER AGAIN! (Unless we get more complicated, in which case I vow to do more research on accountants)

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  4. We just use the web-based version of TurboTax and it works well for us! The fee is pretty insignificant considering its ease of use. By the way, we're using your financial plan as a model for ours. Thanks for the fiscal inspiration :)

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    1. Thanks, Emily! I've never tried the web based version but I might go that route next year. It's still crazy to me that you don't have to go to Costco and buy the CD anymore!

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  5. Omg!! That's hilarious!!!

    We used an accountant recommended by our friends. She told us we could take the Hope Tax credit for some classes the husband took... Yeah, I found out not so much. You have to be enrolled in a degree program at least halftime. I had to file our 1040X on Monday.

    And... since we got our refund like, a month ago, it was already spent... so now we owe the IRS like $2600.

    Next year I'm just doing Turbo Tax. That always worked so well for us before!!

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    1. Oh my god, that's horrifying! I'm so sorry - I would be going nuts. A not so great accountant is worse than no help at all!

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  6. God bless you for doing them by hand! We use TurboTax and we absolutely love it. Really simple, and really quick!

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    1. Yeah, I think we're going back to it next year!

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  7. Thank you gods of the government for Tax Act and for the vodka we consume after thy taxes are finished.

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    1. Have never heard of Tax Act and now two of you have commented about it! I clearly need to try it.

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  8. I have been filling online via Tax Act for at least 5 years now. So much cheaper than hiring someone, and for $18 I get peace of mind it went through and that it's correct. Sometimes I double check also using the web-based Turbo Tax (you don't have to pay the web based versions until you file).

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    1. Will be looking into Tax Act! (And really, really, really wish I'd known that I could double check using the web based Turbo Tax - that would have saved us some angst. Thank you!)

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  9. lol oh man i am so grateful for my cpa and tax preparer... with all the crazy biz forms we have, i could never do them on my own!

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    1. I can't even imagine, Angel! My business was so tiny that the taxes were dead simple and I still hated pulling it all together. A good CPA has to be a must for a business like yours!

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  10. Ugh. I feel you - it's not a pleasant task no matter how you approach it, but it definitely feels good to get it over with. I have been using H&R block's online program for the last few years, it costs $40 or $60 but everything is automatic and self checking and it's worth every penny!!

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  11. Love the cocktail part!
    www.rsrue.blogspot.com

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  12. I am agree with you, Lauren. The paperwork could be fun going over with, but IRS had me scratching my head so I would rather have my trusted accountant handle it or I'll get bald doing it myself. >.<

    Bobbi Burtch

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  13. You mean there is not a program called "cocktails and taxes?"
    Miss popping in here and so happy to see you are still at it, creating laughter and a life by hand.
    pve

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  14. ok, after reading this i'm going to do my taxes with cocktails next year, but in March so I have time to redo them before sending them in.

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  15. "You can definitely do your taxes by hand but it takes a lot more concentration." -- I'm sure the cocktails did nothing to help with focus. Haha! Jokes and procrastination aside, you're a better person than most people I know, including me. It's either software or accountants on my end.

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