It’s tax time! YAY!

So, it’s tax time here in the US. Unfortunately, having never had to submit any kind of tax… erm… stuff before, I hadn’t given it much thought and actually had pretty much forgotten about it, even with my wife’s constant reminders that I need to call Keith (her dad’s accountant) and make an appointment to get this all sorted.

Now, US taxes are not to be trifled with, by any means and are certainly not for the faint of heart, I’ll tell you what! (hmmm… distinct local influences starting to shine through)  Jennifer started out yesterday by creating an account for us on a handy little online tax tool called TurboTax.com. Developed by Intuit, Inc., TurboTax.com really simplifies the process of filing taxes. It’s essentially a great big online wizard that asks what seems like an unending stream of questions. At the end of this long stream of questions (seriously, there are well over 100 questions to answer!) they automatically calculate any rebates and refunds you qualify for at both the federal and state level (yes, we have to pay taxes to more than one “government”), as well as telling you how much you owe, again, at state and federal level.

So after it’s all said and done, it turns out we qualify for a reasonable amount of money from the government at the federal level, and we owe a fairly small amount at the state level.  All in all, I’m quite impressed with TurboTax.com. I think if I had to do my taxes on my own, I suspect I would still be doing them for at least a month.  Today, we have to mail off (I know right!) something like 35 pages of tax forms to the appropriate recipients.

I’ve decided that I will be opening a special “Tax” account at the bank soon and make a conscious effort to put money aside for taxes.  I want to be able to send off my taxes quarterly and know that it’s all covered. The thought of possibly owing the government large sums of money is not something I want to be dealing with this time next year.


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