complete my 2006 taxes

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?

...of the larger “do my taxes” goal (which encompasses, to my great embarrassment and considerable distress, multiple years).

My current thinking is that filing at least the most recent year’s return – still a fairly onerous task if I do it “right” – will serve a dual purpose:

1. It will accomplish part of the larger task.
2. It will serve as a demonstration of good faith for the tax department, showing that it is my intention to file all missing returns and pay whatever I owe.

Minimally, I could at least investigate the possiblity of filing a “nil” return, which I could update as soon as I’m able. That would at least prevent my having to pay penalties (beyond whatever has accumulated already) for 2006.

I will consult an accountant about this question during the coming week, while I’m off work and can make the call in privacy.

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…

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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…

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.