I look forward to preparing my taxes each year. Maybe I’m in the wrong line of business.

Part of my excitement about finishing my taxes is that no matter how much planning we do, our complex tax code makes it nearly impossible to know with certainty whether we’ll be owing some dough or expecting a refund. In recent years, we’ve pretty much broken even. But this year, I worry that we might be sending a somewhat large sum to Uncle Sam.

Typically, my taxes are completed by mid-January. I wrote yesterday that I wouldn’t be able to file until February:

Because yet another band-aid solution regarding the AMT wasn’t signed into law until late in December, the IRS needs extra time to revise a handful of tax forms. Wouldn’t you know one of those is the Child and dependent expenses form for 1040A filers. Rats. The other forms deal with education credits, energy credits and mortgage interest. Check out the release.That means no tax filing until after Feb. 11.

Silly ol’ Kara was drinking too much egg nog. The 1040A is a simplified 1040 that I don’t even qualify to use anymore. Whoops. What was that I was saying about complexity and income tax?

But I still wish our leaders in Washington DC would solve this issue once and for all.

Where do you stand on the tax refund: Is receiving one stupid or splendid? I’m sure you’ve heard folks on their soapboxes waxing on about how people who get refunds are idiots because they’ve essentially loaned their hard earned money to the government interest free for a year. Then there are those who argue that without that method of forced savings they’d have less in the bank, or too little to pay debts.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 6:35 pm and is filed under taxes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.