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rivkaI did our taxes this afternoon. I'm usually a first-week-of-April kind of girl,[1] but this year I'm anticipating that I'll be a trifle busy having a baby in the first week of April. So today was the day.
Federal law requires the IRS to publish estimates of how much time it will take you to fill out each of their forms. We file the 1040A, the short form for people who make less than $100,000 of taxable income and don't itemize their deductions. (It probably won't be worth our while to itemize until we buy a house.) The IRS estimated that tax preparation would take me:
1 hour, 10 minutes for recordkeeping
3 hours, 28 minutes to learn about the form
5 hours, 13 minutes to prepare the form
34 minutes to copy the form, assemble our W-2s[2] and other attachments, and mail it to the IRS
...for a grand total of 10 hours and 25 minutes, not including any of the optional schedules.
Tax preparation actually took me:
5 minutes to pick up tax forms at the library, because I forgot the IRS had sent them by mail
10 minutes to find and open all of our W-2s and 1099s[3]
5 minutes fruitlessly searching for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
curiousangel's calculator
5 minutes making a tasty tax preparation snack
25 minutes preparing the form in pencil
5 minutes copying the form over in ink aftercuriousangel checked my math
10 minutes (estimated) to copy, assemble, and mail the form on Monday morning
...for a grand total of 1 hour and 5 minutes, again not including any optional schedules.
Who are these people who take ten times the amount of time I do, to fill out a form that consists of the front and back sides of a single sheet of 8.5x11 paper? Am I missing something? Do all the other Americans on my friends list take ten hours to do their taxes? Or is the IRS smoking crack?
In other news, I decided to re-figure our taxes to see how much less they would be if the Li'l Critter had been born before December 31st. I was feeling like an unbelievable geek - who refigures their taxes recreationally? - until, in the process, I caught an error I'd made on our state and local tax form, whichcuriousangel had also missed when he checked my work. We owe $187 less than I thought we did! And there was much rejoicing.
It turns out that having a baby during 2004 would've saved us about $1300 on our federal, state, and local taxes (not counting any tax credits for childcare, because I still don't know what we'll be paying for it). Funny - after some of the things I've read on various childfree sites about the vast, bloated, unfair tax subsidies given to parents, I would've thought it would be a lot more.[5] I wonder if I should go to one of those sites and complain?
Explanatory footnotes for non-U.S. readers:
[1] Taxes are due on April 15.
[2] Official statements from anyone who paid you wages, declaring how much you earned and how much was withheld for various taxes.
[3] Official statements of interest earnings, plus official statements of unemployment benefits.[4]
[4] Yeah, unemployment benefits are taxable. Don't you think that's weird? I think that's weird.
General explanatory footnotes:
[5] Yes, I know that $1300 is a decent sum of money. But it's a small percentage of the total tax we paid, and seems like a pretty meager adjustment for the fact that our income will be supporting three people rather than two.[6] Comparatively, for example, you'd get a much bigger tax break for supporting a non-employed spouse.
[6] No, we're not having a baby for the tax advantage. Yes, we're aware that it was our own choice to reproduce, and that it was hardly going to be a lucrative choice. I'm just sayin'.
Federal law requires the IRS to publish estimates of how much time it will take you to fill out each of their forms. We file the 1040A, the short form for people who make less than $100,000 of taxable income and don't itemize their deductions. (It probably won't be worth our while to itemize until we buy a house.) The IRS estimated that tax preparation would take me:
1 hour, 10 minutes for recordkeeping
3 hours, 28 minutes to learn about the form
5 hours, 13 minutes to prepare the form
34 minutes to copy the form, assemble our W-2s[2] and other attachments, and mail it to the IRS
...for a grand total of 10 hours and 25 minutes, not including any of the optional schedules.
Tax preparation actually took me:
5 minutes to pick up tax forms at the library, because I forgot the IRS had sent them by mail
10 minutes to find and open all of our W-2s and 1099s[3]
5 minutes fruitlessly searching for
curiousangel's calculator5 minutes making a tasty tax preparation snack
25 minutes preparing the form in pencil
5 minutes copying the form over in ink after
curiousangel checked my math10 minutes (estimated) to copy, assemble, and mail the form on Monday morning
...for a grand total of 1 hour and 5 minutes, again not including any optional schedules.
Who are these people who take ten times the amount of time I do, to fill out a form that consists of the front and back sides of a single sheet of 8.5x11 paper? Am I missing something? Do all the other Americans on my friends list take ten hours to do their taxes? Or is the IRS smoking crack?
In other news, I decided to re-figure our taxes to see how much less they would be if the Li'l Critter had been born before December 31st. I was feeling like an unbelievable geek - who refigures their taxes recreationally? - until, in the process, I caught an error I'd made on our state and local tax form, which
curiousangel had also missed when he checked my work. We owe $187 less than I thought we did! And there was much rejoicing.It turns out that having a baby during 2004 would've saved us about $1300 on our federal, state, and local taxes (not counting any tax credits for childcare, because I still don't know what we'll be paying for it). Funny - after some of the things I've read on various childfree sites about the vast, bloated, unfair tax subsidies given to parents, I would've thought it would be a lot more.[5] I wonder if I should go to one of those sites and complain?
Explanatory footnotes for non-U.S. readers:
[1] Taxes are due on April 15.
[2] Official statements from anyone who paid you wages, declaring how much you earned and how much was withheld for various taxes.
[3] Official statements of interest earnings, plus official statements of unemployment benefits.[4]
[4] Yeah, unemployment benefits are taxable. Don't you think that's weird? I think that's weird.
General explanatory footnotes:
[5] Yes, I know that $1300 is a decent sum of money. But it's a small percentage of the total tax we paid, and seems like a pretty meager adjustment for the fact that our income will be supporting three people rather than two.[6] Comparatively, for example, you'd get a much bigger tax break for supporting a non-employed spouse.
[6] No, we're not having a baby for the tax advantage. Yes, we're aware that it was our own choice to reproduce, and that it was hardly going to be a lucrative choice. I'm just sayin'.
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-13 06:20 pm (UTC)MKK