Last minute tax filing woes
It always happens–right around April 10th each year, I realize I’m probably not going to hire an accountant to do my taxes. So it’s off to TurboTax for the Web. I’ve always been oveall very impressed with this application, I’ve used it for a few years now. This year, things were pretty simple, so it was straightforward… except for finding my new son’s Social Security number. Now, where did that card go? We looked all over the place, through the files over and over again, in the piles of mail, etc. No luck. It’s gone. OK, no sweat, turns out we can go to the SS office in San Mateo to get the number, and a new card. Enter the beaurocracy… fun fun fun. Two hours later, we actually had the number–after convincing them that the paperwork we brought was “good enough”, as we didn’t have the official birth certificate yet. Fine.
Well, during this same time, my parents were in town visiting, so I was pretty distracted from finishing up the taxes. They finally left April 15th, and when I got home from work it was time to get serious about finishing up. OK, get the paper with the kid’s social on it and… uh… where’d it go?!??! Yikes. We gave the parents some paperwork that was with that, before they left… did we accidentially give them that too? As we called them to find out, I prepared the Extension to File in turbotax… ugh… anyhow, they don’t have it. Grrr. OK, it HAS to be here somewhere! Maybe in the car? Yep! What’s it doing on the floor of the back seat? No idea. Well, at least we found it. Then the only thing left is to decide if I’m going to actually report that pittance (well, but still Real Money to the Feds, I’m sure) I made off AdSense last year. OK, fine, it didn’t affect the refund that much, might as well report it. I’m probably the only unincorporated small website owner who actually reported it, but at least my audit will be clean!
Hmm, what’s the deducation I should shoot for next year… buy a house (not likely with prices still rising in the Bay Area), or another kid (not likely if the wife has anything to say about it…) Hmm…