Wednesday, March 29, 2006

It's That Time of the Year



I know I'm a procrastinator, so I just now figured out our taxes. Last year, we expected a huge refund and were very excited, but ended up owing a large amount thanks to an error on Geoff's employer's part. So this year with everything fixed, we held our breath while filling out the blanks of Turbo Tax -- well worth the $20 and tax deductible for the next year!! Thankfully everything worked out as we expected.

Taxes can really fire people up. Think about it: we get them taken out of our paychecks, then we use what's left over to pay bills, clothes, etc., and get taxed on them also. Well, there are some states that are taxless, but unfortunately, we don't live in one. I can't believe how much our phone company taxes us! Then, if you make a little money off interest, which is taxed. It's hard to believe our government has a deficit. Oh well, we just have to do it, I guess. Even Jesus acknowledged that we should pay our government due what is due. It doesn't make it any easier though.

There's my ranting & raving for the day.

5 comments:

Jenny said...

Pam, I love that comic strip. We've filled out MOST of our tax forms, and after all that headache, boy do I wish we'd gotten TurboTax. Maybe next year...

pamela s said...

I highly recommend it even though you've already started. It figured out 2 different ways for us to submit and showed us the best one (ie. higher refund/lower payment), even though we could have still chosen the other way. Plus, it filled in all of our info. from when we used it last year. It also caught an error when I thought we were done. If I hadn't fixed it, it would have tied everything up forever.

Heather said...

WOW!! You must have been sitting at our dinner table tonight! Stuff like this makes my blood boil. Our state voted on a bill to raise the tax rate to over 8%! Can you believe that? How crazy! Then last night, I was looking over our phone/internet bill...the tax on the phone part was $10.67! Can you say INSANE!?!?!?!

Don't even get me started on the whole thing about GAS PRICES!!! I think I better stop before I blow up about it any more.

I will say that TURBO TAX is a good way to go. We have done ours online for the past two years. I was even able to do it this year with Kevin being self-employed. It is a great way to go.

pamela s said...

I know what you mean, Heather. When first married I called about different phone packages. Since I live 2000 miles away from my family, I knew we needed long distance & such. I chose one that I thought we could handle in our budget, but when the bill came it was $15-20 more! All taxes & fees. Ticks me off. :)

Unknown said...

Good thing you ladies don't live in New Zealand. Taxes eat up almost 40% of your income. :) My sis lives there so I get to hear about it all the time. Are any of you getting a refund this year? We are excited about the money we get back now that we have Chloe!