Just did all the guzintas. What a PITA.
As a math nerd, I actually enjoy doing the taxes each year. Got mine done last week. Let me check my bank account quick to see if I got any refunds yet… nope, not yet. But should see both state and fed refunds by end of next week. Bada boom!
CPAs are truly wonderful people. Well not necessarily as people always, but you know what I mean. This time of year I truly appreciate them and, given the alternatives, don’t find their fees so awful. Glad there are nerds out there who enjoy this.
My Mom (A CPA) did my taxes when I was younger because she really enjoyed it, but my taxes were also a lot simpler when I was younger. Back when you’re making 10$ an hour and single and you just click yes for the earn income credit and that’s it.
Now that I’m married with a 401k, HSA, lots of charitable donations and a much higher salary (not complaining mind you) things get more difficult. My wife has been working on them and she doesn’t seem to mind doing it, she manages most of our household finances anyway.
What really sucks is every year getting a small (50-100$) refund, basically breaking even, and then last year get slammed out of the blue with a 2000+ bill for no apparent reason, and then this year looks like a small refund again. I know stuff changes but damn that was unexpected.
My wife has her own business so I have to do the Schedules C and SE for that, also add up all the charity stuff… yep, I know how complicated it gets. Not a real big deal.
Last year I got $3000 back from the feds, and this year got it down to $1900. Some people say that’s bad, since I’m giving an interest-free loan to the government all year long. But me, I love getting my nice surprise every February, it helps pay for vacations or springtime projects. All the more incentive to getting the taxes done ASAP every year, and makes it even more fun. I had to pay in just once in my life and hated it.
I guess I have it made. The great recession forced me into early retirement and my taxable income is so low that I haven’t had to file for seven years.
I’m in construction and find myself having to travel to get work. In years past, we could always count on a nice golden egg around the end of February with all my travel expenses written off. However, now that the new tax laws have kicked in, I’m kind of holding my breath since we can no longer deduct these expenses. And, yes, we also LOVE our CPA also! 
Just did all the guzintas again for this yr. Guess what: doing taxes still sux!
Still fun for me here. Got mine done and submitted last week. Should get my $2800 back within a couple weeks. ;D
Yup! We got screwed. The new tax laws hurt our annual return big time. Now I’m retired and anticipating another beating. It is nice to know, however, that my hard earned tax dollars are helping the rich! At least someone is benefiting! >:(
I always did my own taxes and it wasn’t much trouble, until that is I bought a business and a commercial building and created an LLC and an S-corp. At that point I turned it over to a CPA and I would never even consider doing them myself again, even with the latest greatest tax software, waaaay too many things the software can’t warn you about that a good CPA will. The S-corp is currently dormant but I still need the accountant to keep me oit of trouble. Even without significant tax law changes, year to year tax liabilities can be fickle, a couple years after buying the business one year I received a refund of about $16K, the next year I wrote Uncle Sugar a check for about the same amount, in addition to what had already been deducted. The curious thing for me was that be my reckoning the business and I made less money the latter year than it did the previous one. Go figure.
We meet with our tax guy next Tuesday. I’m not looking forward it. The tax break we got from new law cost me $4,000 to the Fed. At least I got about half that back from state but under the old law I usually saw a wash on the totals (pay the Feds, get the same amount back from the State so $0). Not anymore.
edited post for politics
Met with my guy this AM. Figured Friday the 13th was as good a day as any to do taxes…