Saturday, March 01, 2008

can we all just agree that doing taxes is the suck?

i've been trying for a couple hours now, and i have to have it done by monday. first i couldn't find a form that i needed, so i spent a lot of time trying to figure out some other way to get that information, then i found the form, but then i realized i couldn't use the 1040ez, so i printed the 1040a, and then as soon as that was done printing, i realized i couldn't use that either, so i printed the 1040, and at that point my printer ran out of ink. i have 25% of a 1040, but i don't think that will be enough. so then i decided that i should stop being such a grumpy retro tax-filer-on-paper and check out the free e-file option, but i can't find one that is actually secure (or at least one that doesn't have an unsettling red slash through the padlock icon.)

and i still don't have all my 1099s, and i just talked to someone who was saying that i might want to consider itemizing work-related deductions for my 1099s since that's cooler than paying 30%, which definitely sounds like something i should consider, but dang dude argh. i really understand why people pay tax preparers. also, thanks, the federal government, for making this so complicated.

update: still cranky! i found an online tax service that didn't sketch me out too much and that had a secure connection, and used that until...it turned out that i really do need those 1099s to be able to finish it.

so then i ended up going to radio shack where i had to fend off the most aggressive saleperson i've seen in person recently...seriously, i don't want to buy the color cartridge too. yes, i know which one it needs. no, i don't want it. no. really. i don't. yes, i am running out of color ink too. no, i'm not buying the color cartridge today. (or anything else from here, ever.)

i printed the 1040 and then spent a few hours trying to figure out how to fill it out. i think i did it wrong. i hope i did it wrong, because if i did it right, i paid a lot of money and still owe a lot more.

but the point of doing it now was so that i could submit my fafsa in time. and fafsas can be corrected, so i put in my estimate and found another reason to hope that i'd miscalculated my taxes when i learned that i'm not eligible for the pell grant, which i had been hoping for.

but now i'm done with that part of things, anyway, and i'll get to the re-done taxes soon. hopefully with mamacita on my side.

2 comments:

that anonymous guy said...

the deadline is 3/3? I thought it was in April? They're just gonna take all my money anyways, so I haven't been all that eager to calculate it out.

did you try to efile from multiple browsers, like ie, opera, firefox, etc?

sarah said...

no, the irs and your state of residence still want your taxes postmarked by april 15. i'm working on a financial aid form, so i have to have information that i could only get from a completed tax form.

i didn't try other browsers. that is a good idea. thank you for the suggestion.