TAXES FILED

Maybe now I can relax a little. I finished filing my federal and state tax returns last night. We'll be getting a nice refund so I wanted to get that out of the way as quickly as possible. Unfortunately every year some piece of documentation doesn't arrive until January 31st so the earliest I could possibly file with my maximum refund is in February.

I used an online service called TaxACT.com. It is a web 2.0 application for Federal and State taxes. I was fairly impressed with the useability of the site, however I was miffed that there was an additional bank fee that wasn't presented up-front. It basically doubled the cost of using their service. I sent them a nastygram about their marketing but I e-filed with them anyway. It definitely saved me time over doing everything by hand like I have in previous years.

Even last year I used a friend's copy of TurboTax to do all the calculations, then I double-checked everything against the IRS paperwork. I guess I don't trust software that tries to simplify things, because simplifying means leaving out details, and leaving out details can cost me money!

Anyway... I wish you all lots of fun with your taxes this year and hope you get money back. And if you see me in early April, ask if I've filed my local and SD taxes yet (I'll pay on those, so I'll let the money sit in the bank for a while longer).

~~~Back to work on a chilly Saturday morning :-)