Tax time!

Apologies for the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks. I've been occupied with other things.

Like taxes. Today, of course, is Tax Day.

And I'm glad I procrastinated this year and waited until this past weekend to do them.

Last Saturday, I received a notice in the mail from the IRS saying that we owned a few hundred dollars in back taxes from last year. It had to do with the dependent care benefit Lori receives from her job that wasn't included in our 2007 return's Schedule 2441 (Child Care Expenses). Oops.

As much as it sucks to owe the IRS money, two good things come out of this:

1. Lori did our return last year, because I was in Dubai at the time. So I get to blame her.

2. If I hadn't gotten the letter from the IRS last Saturday, before I had finished the taxes for 2008, I would have made the exact same mistake on this year's return.

Anyway, I went back and re-figured 2008's return, and e-filed it on Sunday. It looks like the
return I expect to get back from the IRS this year should be enough to cover the back taxes from last year. Yeah!

Even though Lori and I try to go it alone with our taxes, we completely understand why people gladly pay CPAs and other tax specialists to do their taxes for them. It really can be complicated, and costly mistakes are all too easy to make.