Ah, Taxes

The dreaded taxes.

This year, for the first year, well, ever, we are doing them, early. As in tomorrow. February 1st. We are motivated by the desire to get the scratch ticket that will double our tax return at H&R.

Truthfully, we are just, for once, emotionally and paperworkly prepared, to do the taxes early. I say emotionally because for the longest time we did it ourselves, and it was always dramatic. Our little booklet with its attached forms, our combined W-2s and education, bank, and childcare statements, referring from line H to page 28 to figure out what we're supposed to put on line H... and the inevitable, where'd you put this form, didn't you keep them together, did you lose the W-2... how could you lose a W-2... I didn't, you did... you see what I mean. Once, we had the finance office do it for us, when we were in the military. Then, we used Turbo Tax. One year we actually owed money. We were mortified. That was the year we realized we couldn't just keep renting. Then, after we bought and sold a house in an 18 month period, and moved across country, things got confusing, and we dreaded our taxes. So we went to H&R Block, April 15th. In my defense, at least we had an appointment... After we realized how easy it was to fork over some money to have someone else handle this crap, and not screw it up, we made a promise. We'd never again do taxes ourselves. Now, I'm not advocating H&R Block over any other accounting firm or tax places. It's just convenient, recognizable, and perfectly fine for people like us who don't really have a lot of investments beyond the normal house gig.

This year, I am proud to say, come Feb. 2nd, our refund, no matter how paltry it is, will be on its way to the bank! And my husband, his proud moment? For once, he can claim Head of Household, instead of jointly. This has been a long-time wish of his, to be able to call himself in some way or another, head of household, and to him, if it's on a tax form, it's official, and he can officially call himself, Head of Household. Ah, the little things...