Monday, March 27, 2006

Taxes...

It's almost that time of year again, and since this is a light month, I thought it would be wise to get those darn tax forms out of the way. This was the thinking a few hours ago, when I started the process. The thinking now, after much hair tearing, teeth gnashing, and strings of uncontrollable expletives, is WHO THE HECK WRITES THESE TAX CODES??

how much of this can one take:

24. enter your standard deduction (see margin for choices)
25. Subtract line 24 from line 22. If line 24 is more than line 22 enter -0-
26. If line 22 is over $109,475 or you provided housing to a person displaced by hurricane katrina, see page 33. otherwise, multiply $3200 by the total number of exemptions claimed on line 6d


I was doing fine until about halfway through when it became clear that to answer one question one needed to turn to three different places and that this question was just one in a series seemingly unending pain.

There has to be an easier way. How come there's no federal offered e-filing? Actually, there is a e-file link (as well as a free file for those who qualify) on the IRS webpage, which would have made all this much less painful. HOWEVER, those who use this service should take care to read the privacy policy of the 3rd party private company that you'll be going through to complete the e-file... I believe it was HR Block's site that stated that it's policy was to share your information with other parties - a vile act apparently termed "crossmarketing." It's against the law for tax preparers to sell your tax info - unless you unknowingly agree to it by clicking the "I've read your extremely wordly and legal document and agree."

If you find this hard to believe, read the policies for yourself, or check this out: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/03/09/BUGEAHKOC034.DTL

2 Comments:

Blogger Aisling said...

Hello Belinda,

Am glad you enjoy reading. May all good things come to you too!

:)

10:16 PM  
Blogger Keagirl said...

Thank god for good CPAs...
I just do not want to deal with this on my own. Hours of pain, suffering, frustration, computer quirks, stomach ulcers and general anxiety with TurboTax vs. one minute to hand in all your stuff to your CPA. My taxes were done back in Feb, and I already received my federal refund electronically.
I *heart* my CPA.

8:58 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home