Thursday, March 24, 2022

They're Done!

My taxes are done, and this is all due to someone I now think of as my tax hero.

I've done my taxes myself since I was 16, and I just continued doing them once John and I got married. He makes a show of checking them over once I've completed them and it is good to have more than one pair of eyes on them since I am quite capable of making mistakes, but neither of us is a tax wizard. 

They've gotten a little more complex as the years have gone by, and buying the house in MD made them almost too complicated. I've soldiered on over the last three years, doing our Federal, DE (where John worked), NJ (which remained our primary residence), and checking tax law in MD to see what we were responsible for. I started the process for the 2021 tax year in February and after a week or so I threw up my hands in despair, and said, "I have no idea what I'm doing!" We had sold Ryan's house in CO and since our names were on the deed, we realized some of the capital gains, and we had NJ and DE as usual. John was in charge of everything I considered "retirement stuff" and he had sold some stock options and became vested in some RSUs. He didn't fully understand the tax implications and neither did I, but when the H&R Block tax software said we owed half a gazillion dollars in federal taxes, I knew it was time to seek help. 

I called a couple of friends who happened to recommend the same CPA, and he looked like he was rated highly. I called for an appointment in February and thankfully, he had a few openings. We went last Sunday afternoon with last year's tax returns and all the stuff I thought we might need. We sat with him for about 90 minutes, and he completed our Federal, NJ, DE, and CO returns. It was so efficient and almost painless that I wanted to hug him. We still owe about a quarter of a gazillion dollars, and his fees were an arm and a leg, but I would gladly have paid him more. He is e-filing everything, payments will come directly out of our bank account on April 18th, and he even got us a $68 return from DE. (Take that Delaware!) There was no fuss or shame, and I've finally learned what so many of you have realized long ago. It was worthwhile to consult a professional, and I think I've slept better since Sunday now that I'm no longer worried about taxes. John said that now that I had seen how to do it, maybe I could go back to doing our taxes next year. I just replied, "HA!" Next year we'll have the sale of the MD house to deal with, along with more RSUs, Medicare, and maybe Social security for me, so I fully intend to go back to my tax hero. It was the best thing I've done in a long time! 

10 comments:

  1. Hooray! I'm sorry that you owe because that can be painful but I'm so glad you found someone to take this burden from you. I have never ever done my own taxes!

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  2. Oh how I wish that Steve would get on this bandwagon! I am not a tax wizard at all... and this years taxes are so complicated I am cringing at the process. (and they are not done... not by a long shot)

    I am cheering for you (well, not the having to pay a gazillion dollars in taxes... no, I am very much booing that!) but I am cheering for your Tax Wizard who did all this work for you! XO

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  3. Congratulations, Bonny! I have a tax hero, and I would not give her up for anything! She does a great job, doesn't charge that much, and it's tax deductible. My greatest anxiety is getting everything gathered to hand over to her. Welcome to the "less anxiety" tax group.

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  4. YAY!!! I used to do our taxes, but once Fletch became self-employed, we hired someone. We've changed accountants a few times over the years, but I think now we have a winner (and it's a woman-owned company!!).Sandie does a great job. Ours were finished a couple of weeks ago. We owe PA (always), local was a wash and we are getting a (very) small Federal refund. Whew! even though Fletch is retired, I still prefer to have someone handle this for us.

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  5. BRAVO, Bonny!!!! Unfortunately . . . I AM a tax hero. Sigh. Although I only do my dad's taxes and our taxes these days, I still can't really get myself to take my taxes to a CPA . . . when I am a CPA.

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  6. Taxes have become so convoluted and confusing. I'm glad Steve knows what he is doing with them, but if he is ever not in the picture, it is a professional for me too.

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  7. I'm sure that we could have probably managed to do our own taxes in the past, but my husband has always been of the opinion that it's worth what you spend to have someone else do them who absolutely knows what they're doing, so we've been doing that for as long as we've been together. We switched to an actual accounting firm last year (we'd been going to H&R Block before that), and in reviewing our previous year's returns, they actually found a major error! So good for you for recognizing that it wasn't worth struggling with things that were complicated, and I hope the fee wasn't too painful.

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  8. CPA people are worth every single penny. Our taxes are always complicated and I don't want to think about it ever. Switching to a new one was crazy but she is really good and personal!! glad you found the help.

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  9. There are some services worth paying for and a tax accountant is one of them - at least for us. I'm glad you found someone to help.

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  10. People discount how truly qualified most professionals are and their JOB is to make it easy on you (and save you money in the long run). I'm so glad you sought help and you dan now sleep well at night!

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