Taxes, 2nd Edition

It was about a year ago that I wrote about taxes in this column. I talked about the good, the bad, and the inevAitable part of filing, paying, and understanding the need for those dreaded days of reckoning. 

Well, tax season is upon us again; I summoned up the appropriate tax provider website and went at it for my wife and I, and also this year for my mother-in-law, who now lives near Aus in the Houston area. 

The exercise itself reminds me of building a tin shed in our backyard a lot of years ago; the directions began: Start early in the day. You could add – start early in the tax season; you don’t know the twists and turns that are going to be thrown at you. 

Filing taxes, whether you can do it yourself (online or on paper), hire a preparer, or some combination of the two is a project that you need to go into clear-headed, with a bit of preparation and collection of the documents needed to finish the task. 

After years of having a tax guy do ours, our return now has simplified enough to use the online resources. I so miss the one-hour get-together that we shared for 20-plus years (but don’t miss his fees) and having the satisfaction of having a CPA sign off on our return. But the online resources are so intuitive. I only miss the coffee refills, and our conversations in his office in comparison. 

You still have to gather all materials; W-2’s, 1099’s, receipts, possible deductions, and the strength to see it all through.

But we got it all done; our obligation complete. Taxes, 2nd Edition in the Brandon Valley Journal.