This I year I figured I’d do our taxes myself. I had the paperwork, I had the software — how hard could it be?
OK, maybe I didn’t have all the paperwork — turns out Melissa’s college tuition last year was deductable. And I didn’t think to keep our auto licensing fee papers.
No biggie — I’ve got guestimates on those, so I can always dig up the records later. Meantime, I’d at least get a clue on the size of our refund. Last year we’d had to pay up two or three hundred bucks in state and federal taxes, which to me is perfect. A refund, after all, is the repayment on an interest-free loan to the government. And 300 dollars isn’t a big enough hit to ding the grocery budget in April.
All told, 2002 was a good tax year. Well, as good as any year can be for taxes.
Last year, we made a little more money, and withholding went up to match. Only difference between 2002 and 2003 was, now we had a nice, fat mortgage deduction (I’d owned the old VodkaCondo outright).
So a $300 Amount Owed from last year should have turned into a refund big enough for a nice dinner out.
TaxCut instead tells me we need to pony up about $1,600.
I think maybe we need to see an accountant, after all.
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