When do you do your taxes?

BillChin · Post by **BillChin** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 11:01 am

After much procrastinating, I filled out the forms. I let them percolate for a day before looking them over again, and making the copies.

When do you prepare your taxes?

straycat82 · Post by **straycat82** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 11:09 am

As soon as possible... I already received my refund about three weeks ago.

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:18 pm

Because investment property has been one of our ventures over the years, (though they're all on the market now...!,) and because our taxes are otherwise confusing, I don't do 'em. I took my organized-as-neatly-as-possible stack of stuff to the accountant last week, and am waiting for the bad news.

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 12:30 pm

Yeah, as soon as I get my W-2. I absolutely hate that period of time when I am preparing all the stuff. All my self-loathing for both disorganization and procrastination and poor investing comes to rule for about a 10-day period. Resolutions are made, and of course broken for the rest of the year. I probably have gotten both refunds by now, I haven't checked.

I don't mind actually paying taxes. I do mind the arcane tax code.

missy · Post by **missy** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:34 pm

well - I haven't done mine yet.......

chas · Post by **chas** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 2:35 pm

Depends on whether we owe or are getting a refund.

straycat82 · Post by **straycat82** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 3:18 pm

chas wrote:Depends on whether we owe or are getting a refund.

Indeed. I forgot to mention before that, while I've received my refund from Federal, I've not yet mailed what I owe to state. Priorities!

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 3:19 pm

When do I do my taxes? I do them when I can't put them off any longer.

Charlene · Post by **Charlene** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 3:34 pm

Back when I was single I used to do my taxes as soon as I got my W-2.

My husband is self-employed, so he has lots more forms to fill out for the business. He takes inventory in January by dictating the worth of his books into a tape recorder, then spends the next couple of months adding up the numbers in between customers, the Super Bowl, the basketball playoffs, etc. Finally, when it gets really close to the deadline, he will get online and do the taxes. It drives me crazy! I want to get it done and over with as soon as possible, instead of not buying anything or not paying down the credit cards for 4 months because I don't know if we'll have to pay extra or not. I've told him this, he doesn't seem to care. So every year I fret.

With luck we will have withholding figured correctly and won't have to pay and won't get a lot back either. Getting money back just means that you let the government use your money without paying you interest for the whole year.

A flat tax would be nice, IMHO.

Paul Reid · Post by **Paul Reid** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 4:31 pm

There is no "All freakin'year!" button. The Gov't of Canada Customes & Revenue Agency does not make life easy. I have to pay corporate tax personal tax Goods and Services tax and Provincial sales tax on a regular basis. I have another psuedo tax - my accountant to whom I pay about 5k or more a year.

djm · Post by **djm** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 4:56 pm

Only those who have it can lose it, and I keep losing and losing and ......

djm

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:28 pm

After my accountant calls to remind me . . . so she doesn't have to stay up all night on my account again . . .

djm · Post by **djm** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:41 pm

But she's an accountant. That's her job. Explain it to her (I dare you

).

djm

mutepointe · Post by **mutepointe** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 7:54 pm

when the taxes were simpler, i did them for my wife as a valentine's day present. now they've gotten complicated and we have to wait for all the paperwork to come in and we do them as a team now and getting both of us in "tax mood" with all the right paperwork and with all the current knowledge of tax changes during the year. well, we promised we're going to do them this weekend. that'll give us time to do some quick financial manuevering if we have to.

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 8:10 pm

I use to do ours. Then when we took over the farming I started taking them to an accountant, but I understood what was on the finished forms. In fact I left one accountant because when I went over them, as usual before filing, he'd left off all the tobacco stuff and I ended up spending most of April 15 on the phone with him and finally re-did them myself.

When we added the vineyard and winery to the farm and regular jobs it just went way beyond my abilities. I hope this is the last year that I have to pay an accountant. Now that most of that stuff is gone and accounted for maybe next year I can go back to doing ours myself again. Simplify, simplify.

I wish we'd go to the "fair tax".

One thing I would caution all to do is if you mail your's in, certify them with a return recipt. That way you have a hard copy of proof of mailing and their recipt. This once came in handy with one of our girl's taxes. The IRS first said they did not get the filing. I had my "green card"-return recipt in my hand and gave them the date and the name of the person who signed for it.
You would not believe how many I pick up on the route that don't even have a return address on the envelope. Some folks are just too trusting.

Chiff and Fipple Forums

When do you do your taxes?

When do you prepare your taxes (or have them done)?

When do you do your taxes?