Ok, ok, ok…I’m the QUEEN of procrastination! I sat down yesterday at 10:00 to work on my taxes. Piece of cake, I said. A full FOURTEEN hours later, Turbo Tax is taunting me with “We’ve only found TWELVE items that need your attention.” Seriously??? I mean…SERIOUSLY? I have no one to blame but myself. ‘Cause, hey…there’s only ME. In my defense, I have always filed my taxes on my big desktop computer. It’s been packed away since last June. In the process of downsizing, my really super big monitor went by the wayside and I substituted it with the small one Mr. Virgo used for photography. I pulled the CPU out from under the couch in my camper and set it up….hmmmmm, ok…on my bed. That’ll work.
Next, cables. I had them in an old ammo box on the floor on the other side of the bed. And the monitor? Balanced it on the plastic tub I’ve been carting it around in since Colorado. Great…everything was hooked up and….the monitor gave me a message. “No signal detected.” Terrific! I tried every configuration and even switched out cables. I was about to lose my religion when I texted a friend and asked what on earth I could be doing wrong. She suggested I turn everything off and start the computer up again. Voila! It worked. The next thing was gather all my papers. Now, this camper isn’t that big, and I made a concerted effort to keep every important paper onboard and not tuck them in a box somewhere. But even with that, my W2’s were in a folder in the truck, the receipts were in an old purse, and the rest of the important papers were in the designated “Important Paper Box” on the shelf over my bed.
Once gathered, I started entering the data. I got as far as “Prescription Costs” when I realized I had a problem. I do all my finances on my old laptop. I use Quicken which is pretty handy. I used to be really good at keeping up with downloading my transactions every month. But since Mr. Virgo died, I’ve only downloaded them when it was time to do the taxes. Yeah…he’s rolling his eyes, too. I tried four or five times to connect to my bank and kept getting an error message that it’s not detecting the internet. Banks have changed their security parameters since the onslaught of the rabid “Poodle Virus”. I’m not kidding. There’s a “Poodle Virus”.
After a phone call to my bank and three sessions with the online chat support for Turbo Tax, I finally was able to download my transactions and spent the next several hours categorizing all 1278 of them. Sigh. Finally, finally, finally…at 12:10am…on TAX DAY…I filed my returns. Feeling a little smug, I sat down and figured out how much this day cost me. TurboTax $49. Quicken upgrade $69. Virus Protection Renewal $84 for 2 years. Sold a house so needed TurboTax upgrade $31.11. Second State (Yes, I had to pay for WV…a state in which I did not make an income but I needed to file, nonetheless.) $42.39. Electronic Filing Fee for the 2 state returns $52.98.
$328.48 and I didn’t get out of my jammies. Heck, I barely made it out of my bed! But here’s the GOOD news…I’m getting a big enough refund to actually PAY for filing my taxes and have a little left over for coffee or something. AND…I got to spend 14 hours doing it. Silver lining. What’s the silver lining? I didn’t have to PAY. I didn’t have to file an extension. And I am done so I can get back to the really fun stuff…like sorting through boxes and donating items for NEXT year’s taxes! See? There’s ALWAYS a silver lining!
❤
“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.”
Proverbs 27:1