Entry tags:
Taxes are done
Taxes are done, later than I'd hoped. Much later than they should have been, given that it turned out I had a big refund due. I hate letting the State and federal gov't use my money for free.
Midnight last night I'd managed to get a clean report from TurboTax. I decided to tackle the paper vs. return crosscheck at lunch today, and promptly found I'd skipped inputting a big 1099-INT. The expected refund amounts dropped some, but stayed significant. Then I found that not all the fiddly bits of info needed for the "Foreign Tax Credit" form were showing up on the forms, and that set off a long struggle with TurboTax. Find the approximate place where the data should go in. Answer the same questions you'd answered before (and which TT doesn't retain the answer to). Discover that the missing piece of info should have come from the broker's statement, but didn't get input when I used the automatic import. Got all that straightened out, and then TT found another error (a missing 'explanatory note') before it was happy again.
I filed the federal return online--it's "free", which I assume really means TT is incorporating the fee they could charge in the price of the software. The State return was going to cost $19.95 (discounted from $29.95 or so), and I refused to pay to help Georgia out with its data input. I figured I could easily go home after work, find an envelope, and get the return to a Post Office having extended hours.
This plan did work, barely. I left the office well after 7, got home just before 8. Had to print an envelope, as Georgia only gave me ones for estimated tax payments. Then printed another envelope, with the right address. Discovered that the Briarcliff P.O. wasn't having extended hours, so drove rapidly to downtown Decatur to join the crowd. I just missed the guy who had been taking returns by the drop boxes, as he was headed in for the night. A clerk was working the line in the lobby, though, hand-canceling returns for those of us who didn't want proof of mailing. Got home about 9:20 from all that.
Midnight last night I'd managed to get a clean report from TurboTax. I decided to tackle the paper vs. return crosscheck at lunch today, and promptly found I'd skipped inputting a big 1099-INT. The expected refund amounts dropped some, but stayed significant. Then I found that not all the fiddly bits of info needed for the "Foreign Tax Credit" form were showing up on the forms, and that set off a long struggle with TurboTax. Find the approximate place where the data should go in. Answer the same questions you'd answered before (and which TT doesn't retain the answer to). Discover that the missing piece of info should have come from the broker's statement, but didn't get input when I used the automatic import. Got all that straightened out, and then TT found another error (a missing 'explanatory note') before it was happy again.
I filed the federal return online--it's "free", which I assume really means TT is incorporating the fee they could charge in the price of the software. The State return was going to cost $19.95 (discounted from $29.95 or so), and I refused to pay to help Georgia out with its data input. I figured I could easily go home after work, find an envelope, and get the return to a Post Office having extended hours.
This plan did work, barely. I left the office well after 7, got home just before 8. Had to print an envelope, as Georgia only gave me ones for estimated tax payments. Then printed another envelope, with the right address. Discovered that the Briarcliff P.O. wasn't having extended hours, so drove rapidly to downtown Decatur to join the crowd. I just missed the guy who had been taking returns by the drop boxes, as he was headed in for the night. A clerk was working the line in the lobby, though, hand-canceling returns for those of us who didn't want proof of mailing. Got home about 9:20 from all that.