Our paperwork seems to be growing exponentially each year.
Plug this info in here, these numbers in there.
Text husband for clarification.
Call husband for clarification.
Oh. my. gawd...what do you mean, we owe THAT much? We haven't owed the IRS in YEARS, if ever!
Adding up all the medical expenses and charitable donations. Maybe, just maybe, we can itemize....this....year....nope. (insert expletive)
Call college girl for educational expense form. Leave message. She calls back, says she's at work, she'll text a picture of it.
(Waiting on text, trying to take a nap to reduce stress, can't fall asleep.)
Text arrives, picture is blurry, like a bad tattoo. Can't read a thing on it. Text her back, delete picture. Back to the computer.
Maybe if I fill this in...wait...I have no idea what "basis" is...help menu isn't helping...maybe Googling it will make it clearer...nope, still confused.
(Leaves computer to do laundry, since dirty clothes are low on the stress-meter. A bit of chocolate needs to be had before heading back to the screen.)
Giving up on the confusing bit. Don't think it really applies to us, doesn't seem to put a dent in what we owe, anyway.
This is really depressing. Oh, yay, hubby is home so I can tell him the bill so far, see if he can figure out the confusing part. Now we're both depressed. Forget dining out tonight, let's just go through a drive-through.
(Isn't it just moronic, abusing my body with grease and soda and onion rings when stress hits?)
Wait, finally got college girl's form. Start plugging in those numbers...YES! Bill has gone from REALLY depressing to only SOMEWHAT depressing.
Still ticked about not getting a refund. Aaarrrrggghhhh.
Sometimes paying an accountant is worth it - they seem to always find deductions we can't find or know about or understand:)
ReplyDeleteOh, that thought went through my head several times yesterday! We may do just that!
DeleteIt is an agonizing process! You captured it beautifully through your writing. Loved the varied sentence lengths to convey your feelings throughout.
ReplyDelete(As much as tax time is agony, the refunds are ecstasy.)
And we usually experience that ecstasy...except for this year. Last child aging out of child tax credit was one part. Sigh.....
DeleteEeek! We owed a couple years in a row; and it was disheartening! I couldn't help but smile when you were resorting to laundry, chocolate, and onion rings. I'll remember that if we owe this year. We haven't done ours yet!!!
ReplyDeleteNice to know someone else has been in this situation! Good luck this year; hope you are on the receiving end, and not the paying one.
DeleteSince we gave our tax preparation to a pro. we have much less worries and she notifies us if we need to add to our RRSPs to save money. Loved your slice.
ReplyDeleteHoping this year's situation was singular...though I would love to hand it off to a professional!
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