I overnighted my completed taxes to the IRS in Sacramento, CA (used to be Ogden, UT) this past Friday. The Oct. 15 deadline was this past Monday. So, I didn’t need to overnight but I felt the need to for peace of mind and to my damn refund in process.

This was one of my worst tax bottlenecks of all time. It all revolved around a missing K1 that nobody was willing to produce. In the end, I filed without the K1 and that’s that.

How hard would it be to have a 15% flat tax rate? 5 years ago

I’m getting a whopping $20 back from Federal and DC took a good chunk of my money on top of the taxes I paid throughout the year. I guess I should estimate my taxes for this year… 6 years ago

Well, after stewing about it yesterday, I decided not to try to come up with any more itemized deductions and just pay the damn taxes. I could’ve easily come up with more deductions, but the work involved in calculating them would not have been as easy. For example, I could have deducted mileage for my volunteering with the ambulance. To calculate it, I would have needed to go back and count the number of ambulance calls I went on in 2006 as a volunteer. Then I would have multiplied that number by the number of miles round trip from either my office or my apartment depending on the day and time of the calls. That would have saved me a bit more money, but the time wasn’t worth the investment. If I get audited though, I’ll be sure to do that and a few other things that I could’ve done but decided it wasn’t worth my effort.

Because I had to pay this year I’ve already filed a new W-4 with two out of three of my employers to withhold more federal taxes from me. I also need to figure out if I need to make estimated payments this year to avoid penalties next year.

Anyway, I dropped off my forms and check at the post office this afternoon and had them manually postmark it to ensure no problems with that. Maybe if the money was being used for something that I believed in then I’d feel better about it. 6 years ago

Well, since I avoided it completely yesterday I got back to work on them today. I decided to check out TurboTax online since they keep advertising it on tv. They let you use them for free up until the time you have to fill out the return, and they actually clued me in on a few things I hadn’t caught on my own including an overpayment that I can get credit for (and will need to check to see if I took advantage of last year). Just doing this online version has saved me 25% of what I had calculated I was going to owe. I’ve got a bit more fine tuning to do though. I haven’t decided if I’m going to pay for TurboTax to produce the forms or if I’m going to write them by hand, but I’m glad I checked them out.

I plan to finish the forms tomorrow and mail them on Tuesday along with my check. 6 years ago

I was able to whip out my local and state taxes. They are pretty simple because they are flat rate based on income, and there’s no deductions. I basically just have to add it up and then multiply. For local, I continued my trend of adding a few more pennies to my carry-over for each year. They won’t send me a refund until it’s over $5 or I’m no longer a resident of this area. For Pennsylvania, I’m getting back half what I got back last year ($20) and that’s because I have my one employer hold out an extra amount for the state each paycheck to cover my interest and dividend taxes.

I did a first pass at Federal and am stunned by what I came up with. I’m not sure I filled out form 6251 right though, so I’m going to have to redo it. For the first time ever I’m actually considering going to an accountant and having them look at it. I really have to wonder what the government is thinking when they create these forms and instructions. Do they really think that the common man will be able to fill these out on their own? At least I didn’t sell any stock this year so I don’t need to fill out a Schedule D. 6 years ago

Okay, so I’ve been procrastinating about this. I just don’t want to know what the damage is going to be this year since I received some big bonuses and that severance package last year. I’ve got all the forms and they’ve been sitting there waiting for me to open and compile. I just haven’t done it yet.

I just know I’m going to have to pay this year, and I don’t want to know how bad it is going to be.

On the positive side though, I had a credit last year on my local taxes that I carried over so that should help. 6 years ago

You know that Pixie’s song “Gouge away”. Ugh. 6 years ago

that is the question. Damn worth doing in terms of getting this complete (still not sure if paying that much in taxes is worth it?). E-filing today and then I just have to wait for the Feds and the Minnesota State Treasury to hand back a chunk change as we were slightly over withheld this year. At least I don’t have to write a check… 6 years ago

I opted for e-file using TaxACT Deluxe, which set me back a little less than Turbo Tax, but still did most of the work for me. I am getting a little refund thanks to taking Continuing Ed. classes that apply to my field (sadly my Japanese classes don’t apply). I will have to consider the tax implications if I stop though. 6 years ago

Who invented these damn things? I’m creating a personal challenge to not only collect my final 1099 but to create 1099s for Jason and Chuq. Ah—the sweet smell of taxes. 6 years ago

Documents delivered so at least the “heavy lifting” part of the job is done for me. Cross fingers that we net a refund. 6 years ago

...as part of my great accounting sweep of ‘06! They even have me set to get my refund about the time the rest of you get your act together.

[Of course, my taxes are needlessly complicated by the sheer number of 1099s I get and the handful of business taxes and forms I have to get out. I might as well get it all out of the way when I have downtime, ‘cause it’ll suck mightily otherwise.] 6 years ago

I am gathering up the documents for the accountant now. I need to get this done by Friday (March 9) or it will just drag on. Thanks to the Robot Savant (Mr. Spils) for posting such a timely goal to get me off my butt. 6 years ago

Weird. Anyhow, this year I hired a new tax accountant who I really like. I was at a bigger firm, that got even bigger and then raised their rates. Last year was it for them. The new fella works by himself and teaches tax classes at Seattle U and U of Washington. He’s very interesting and interviews his potential clients before he accepts them. We had a great chat together at his office a few months back and I made the cut.

I shipped off 95% of my tax documentation this morning. Now I’m waiting for the final 1099s and stuff that seem to never come in. 6 years ago