Posted on: April 15, 2009 by Matt
Happy Tax Day everyone! I hope that everyone was able to get their taxes out already or is at least able to get them in the mail today!
I have noted that I have already finished mine and am really glad that I do not have to worry about them today. Now I plan on sitting back and relaxing a little bit today and watching some news coverage on MSNBC regarding the crazy right wing tea-bagging parties.
I happen to particularly enjoy the clips from the Rachel Maddow Show coverage but I suppose that’s just my liberal point of view.
Posted on: April 13, 2009 by Matt
After I received my tax return from the state of Colorado I reapplied it to the taxes due to the state of Vermont. For the most part – I had anticipated the two states to mostly wash each other out; that my Colorado refund would be pretty much what I needed to cover Vermont.
So I mailed out my check to the state of Vermont a couple of weeks ago and was happy to be done with my taxes for the year. However over the weekend I received a pleasant surprise in the mail that made me even happier - a refund check from the state of Vermont. Somewhere along the way the state figured that I had overpaid my income tax and sent me back the difference. It was not a whole lot if you compare it to how much they did keep but any extra cash at this point is greatly appreciated.
So I am off to the bank this morning to make an unexpected deposit – a good way to lift my mood on a Monday! Let’s hope the rest of the week goes this well…
Posted on: April 2, 2009 by Matt
Wow – this week has been flying by and work has been excessively busy which leaves me very little time to write. Oh well – unless I can make writing pay the bills then I will have to keep up with the normal work day.
As of last night both my federal and state tax returns appear to have come in. As I may have noted previously my state tax return is pretty much already spoken for due to my new state of residence wanting a cut. Overall I am pretty happy though. It was kind of funny how all the timing worked out because I was just starting to get paranoid that Colorado’s return would not come in quickly enough for me to pay Vermont by the 15th.
So far I have managed to hold off on spending the federal return and have stashed the majority of it directly into savings. I am happy about getting my savings account replenished as I my emergency fund was looking really weak and will now be back up over $1,000. With the remaining bit of my federal return I am probably going to put a couple hundred or so into paying off debt and then be done with it and back to my normal budgeting.
In addition – I also have an event coming up on May 3rd when my girlfriend and I will be going to Maine for a long weekend. A friend of mine from college has asked me to be the God Father for his son and the baptism is scheduled for that weekend. Right now we have budgeted out to take a long over due long weekend trip for the baptism and we are looking forward to spending some time by the ocean.
Posted on: March 23, 2009 by Matt
I have been meaning to get my taxes done for a couple of months now and finally decided to give H&R Block a call. I called them earlier in the week and scheduled some time on Saturday to go in and have them take a look at my taxes. Normally – I have no problem filing myself but this year I moved and continued to work for a company in another state. This lead to being a resident of two different states and paying income tax in one state only. I was worried about the risk of error and figured I would give the work to a professional.
Overall – I was pleasantly surprised with the entire experience. The cost of having my taxes prepared was a bit higher than I thought it should be at $233 but the cost was offset by the increase in return due to deductions I was not aware I could claim. There was about a $400 increase in my federal return from working with H&R Block so I still ended up in a better position than I expected.
The state items on the other hand appear to be pretty close to a wash. The state of Colorado will owe me about $1,500 and the state Vermont will want just about that much back. After getting the states all taken care of I get to keep about $40 as a middle man fee.
Finally – I was able to save some time having someone else handle my taxes for me. In previous years I have spent about two or three hours to get my taxes done and reviewed. On Saturday I was at the H&R Block office for about 45 minutes. Not too bad – I could complain about the fee being so high for such a short amount of time but I prefer to look at it as investing in time for myself!
