Taxes

This past year has been pretty eventful- a big move, a new climate, a new job, a whole new understanding of how much time Tom spends playing videogames- it's a lot to take in. It's also a lot to lay out. In tax forms. This year I have expenses to claim- I spent over a thousand dollars just getting all my crap up to this freakin' ice cap, then I had to buy a GPS to figure out how to get to work on a daily basis. This year I have two different employers to add up and unfortunately and most painful of all- I have two states in which I owe taxes. It also doesn't help that the part of Alabama I came from collects taxes on three different levels- state taxes, county taxes, AND city taxes. No wonder most people try to stay the hell out of Birmingham city limits.

This has lead me to seriously consider professional tax preparation. I've done this in the past- but by a "professional" who was actually just my Dad's friend and in no way certified to do this stuff professionally. I'm not even sure if he was good at it, but when it turned out I owed money he wouldn't take it from me. He would make my Dad pay it. And that's the kind of tax prep I can get behind.

Unfortunately I'm no longer able to use the services of my Dad's friend. I'm sure his limited knowledge of Alabama tax forms would not translate well to the bajillion deductions allowed by the Massachusetts tax forms. So, I called H&R Block. It would cost me at least $80 to get my taxes done- probably a lot more since I have to file in two states. Someone told me that it's a lot of work just getting your documents in order to drop off to the tax prep people. If I'm paying for this, what do they expect me to do? I'm not trying to expend effort here- that's what I'm paying to get out of. Cripes. I figure I'll wander over to H&R Block with a couple of W-2s, a Penske truck receipt, and say "peace out."

I hate taxes.