death & taxes
Ah, yes, it’s that time of year again—time to start working on the dreaded taxes. :green21
So I thought I’d give you a bit of insight into how I get my taxes ready to take to Mr. Tax Man :green3 :
Day 1 – Find receipts. Pile them all together wherever I think I’ll be working. (Hey, it’s something! :green2 )
Day 2 – Go through all receipts to make sure they’re for the proper year. Weed out any for the current year (i.e. next year’s taxes) or that I may have missed from last year. (Take a break. Consider what needs to be done next. :green14 )
Day 3 – Sort receipts into piles for each different category/expense. (Whew. That was a lot for one day. Let’s stop now. :green8 )
Day 4 – Find calculator. Dust it off, since I probably haven’t used it since this time last year. Find paper clips, banker’s clasps, stapler, a pencil, a pen, scrap paper… Begin—slowly—to tally piles of receipts. Add totals to the Giant Overview page I’ll deliver to Mr. Tax Man. (So many numbers. My eyes are crossing & my finger is sore from punching buttons on the calculator. That’s enough for now. :green22 )
Day 5 – Add up more receipts. Add totals to Overview page. (Rest for a minute…preferably with a slice of pizza or some form of chocolate. Drinking will come later.)
Day 6 – Repeat Day 5. :green29
Day 7 – Repeat Days 5 & 6. :green29
Day 8 – I should be done by now, but there are always stragglers. Or things I’ve forgotten until the last minute. Sometimes these last minute items pop into my head while I’m sleeping & I sit bolt upright in bed, then have to get out to make a note so I won’t forget in the morning.
Day 9 – Review overview sheet one more time. Or maybe two more times. Three? Call Mr. Tax Guy, let him know I’m ready & set up an appointment. Continue to wrack my brain, just in case, until I actually go to see him.
Day 10 (or whatever day I sit down with Mr. Tax Man) – The usual. He says, “Did you have a good year?” I make a rude snorting noise & answer various questions while playing with his rescue kitty, Smudge, who’s just adorable & makes the trip moderately less hellish! He—Mr. Tax Man, not Smudge :green28 —looks over everything, gives me the thumbs-up, & tells me he’ll call when everything’s ready. I go home & sit down with that post-taxes drink I’ve been craving since mid-December. :green26
Currently, I’m on about Day 5, which means I’ve got a loooong way to go. :green21
Comments
4 Comments • Comments Feed
Kathleen O says:
I send everything to my tax guy and then he calls me with all kinda of questions. :green8
On March 11, 2014 at 1:05 pm
Heidi says:
I totally wish I could do that, but poor Mr. Tax Man would never be able to make heads or tails of my receipts. He’d also probably charge me about 50xs as much just to try… :green21
On March 11, 2014 at 4:15 pm
Ruth says:
:green4 I do my own taxes and e-filed them Sunday. Don’t have a lot of expenses, so they are not hard to do. Good luck when you take them to Mr. Tax Man. :green15
On March 11, 2014 at 8:24 pm
Heidi says:
I know my tax guy e-files when he can, but I have to admit…that makes me nervous. Not sure why, except perhaps that I’ve had way too many attachments & messages go missing. So I’m thinking that if that happens with the IRS, I am totally screwed! :green22
On March 11, 2014 at 9:44 pm