What I've Been Reading Instead of Cleaning My House

Monday, February 25, 2008

The taxman cometh

I'll admit it. I love doing my taxes. Maybe it's the bureaucrat in me, but I love filling out all the paperwork and looking things up in tables and figuring stuff out. I used to do it all by hand, but now I use a tax software program and it's so much fun! In fact, last year I did my taxes so early that the IRS told me that I had to wait a few more days before filing because they weren't ready yet. One year the IRS wrote me a letter saying that my figuring was wrong and that my return was actually $10 less than I thought. I called them up and made them redo their math while I was on the phone. Yes, I was right. They very politely apologized and sent me a check for $10. How can you not love that?

9 comments:

dalene said...

I loved it more when I used to get a refund instead of a big IOU to the IRS.

dalene said...

Which is silly, really. Better them to loan me interest free than me to loan them, no?

Lois said...

CW -- yes, all the financial gurus say that it's better to pay than to get a refund because you don't want to give Uncle Sam an interest free loan. Of course, I'm waiting for the day when I actually make enough money to pay taxes!

b. said...

I adore you. Seriously.

Lois said...

B -- you adore me? This from the queen of blogs, so I'm very honored. Thank you.

rabidrunner said...

So here's an interesting tax fact, or story rather: While Orin Hatch (R-Utah) was campaigning for his last election, he held a "come ask me questions" dinner. At the dinner he said that amongst the senate and congress it's a known fact that you can take your tax stuff to three different tax preparers and get three different numbers. Such efficiency, wouldn't you say? Besides that, when you call the IRS, you get an out-sourced individual from India. I wonder what their tax code is like?

Lois said...

RAPIDRUNNER -- I don't know who comes up with these tax rules (it's not you, is it?), but they make no sense. What ever happened to Steve Forbes' idea of the postcard sized tax form?

Geo said...

The IRS apologized to you?

I didn't know that was possible!

Lois said...

GEO -- oh, I don't let the T-men get me down. No siree!