Deep in the Heart of Taxes

[fauxklore]

I finally finished doing my taxes. My major hold up this year was misplacing a 1099 form. Which I still have not located but I realized I could find the amount from the end of year statement from the account.

What is strange is that I think of myself as being one of those "do the taxes in early February" people. Which would have worked as that was a somewhat unbusy time (well, except for sleeping 12 hours a day to make up for Fiji and getting a bad cold and all that). But Congress was dragging their tails on fixing the Alternative Minimum Tax so I had to postpone some. And then I was busy and then I couldn't find that bloody 1099 and so on.

But what I really wanted to note was that I had to look at last year's state return to see how much money Virginia had extracted from me (as I had owed them money last year) and I discovered just when I had filed my taxes last year. It was April 9th.

Which does not exactly qualify as early February.

And by the way, buying the condo did make a significant difference in my taxes, as I will get refunds this year from both feds and state instead of owing both.

Comments

[cellio]

We strive to do our taxes early every year (as soon as the data and final software versions are available). We actually file on April 15; why give the IRS use of our money earlier than we need to?

[fauxklore]

It's possible that I did do my taxes earlier last year and just didn't send things in until the last minute since I owed money. But, somehow, I think I'd remember that. This year it was to my advantage to do them early since I am getting refunds. (And, yes, I will adjust the federal withholding to come closer next year. The state refund is under a hundred bucks, so not worth trying to tweak deductions for.)

Though, frankly, interest rates being what they are, the amount of interest I earn in a couple of months would not be worth the annoyance of having more paper clutter even if I owed.