Great. Not only could we not polish off our debt…

We were going to accrue more.

Before I crumpled into a heap of tears, I decided to power through our deductions and let the cards fall where they may. I grabbed our mortgage interest statement and said, ‘Oh thank God! We paid a fortune!’

Just goes to show the level of my desperation when I’m thankful for Bank of America.

Forty-five minutes and a strong cup of tea later, the amount read…

More than $5,000…

In green.

Plus, I’m still waiting for my student loan interest statement so that number will only get better.

I ran down the hallway, slid across the living room floor in my socks Tom Cruise style, all while screaming ‘WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!’ and throwing my arms in the air.

It’s over folks. We did it.

My office distributed our tax forms on Friday and I opened mine to get a cursory look over the numbers. I started walking back to the payroll department to question them about my low income numbers before I remembered, I didn’t work for 5 months of the year.

Hmm. Maybe I need more sleep.

We are waiting to file until after the first of February since we usually have a tax form or two mailed late.

Are we seeing a tax guy this year? Nope! This will be year three of filing ourselves and – don’t tell hubby but… I kinda enjoy it.

Some of you shared some great software you use to prepare your taxes. Would you share again? I’d like to save all of us as much money as possible!

We considered changing our deductions since we’ll have a child to claim and childcare write-offs but we decided to wait another year and see where next year drops us. We don’t want to put ourselves in a position that forces us to pay. I don’t need that kind of stress!

Whew! Another tax year over!

I get a lot of e-mail each day. Not because I’m popular or important, but because I get junk mail. Every few years, I switch e-mail addresses but without fail, the junk still comes. Because of this, my junk mail settings are stringent. I glance through the junk mail box and catch a non-junk piece or two but it’s not a fool proof method.

I printed my tax receipt from the charitable organization and realized I had missed three months of payments. Not consecutively, just random months were missing. When I checked my junk mailbox for one of the months, the bold reminder e-mail was still unread. Apparently some months make it through, while others don’t.

I made up the missing payments and set a reminder on my calendar but I can’t help but wonder if I’m not the only one whose charitable giving was lessened on the new e-mail system. Those three missed payments would have covered nearly two decades in postage fees to mail the paper copy to me. Fortunately I caught it and 2011 will be a more reliable year of payments from me but has anyone else experienced the same problem? Or is it just me demonstrating, yet again, that I am perhaps the least tech savvy person on the planet?

I’m facing my biggest foe this weekend… the IRS. This is the second year we have decided to prepare our taxes ourselves with free tax software. It’s a huge savings from the $200+ we were spending on our accountant but I’m always a little leery about dealing with the government on my own… and I work for the government.

That should tell you something.

We will still have to consult with a friend about some questions we have, but I’m hoping we’ll come out on top again. We got a huge chunk of cash back last year but we didn’t adjust our withholdings since our deductions were changing this year. I know Dave Ramsey yells at people who let the government withhold too much money, but since our deductions are far from predictable, we have to take a safe route.

I’ve cleared my schedule (and the living room floor), chilled a 6-pack of beer to keep hubby interested, and I think we’re ready.

Poll time!

Do you prepare your own taxes or pay an accountant?

Also included in the 48 hour countdown is our energy efficient spending. According to the Wall Street Journal, and the ever so helpful staff at Lowes, this is the last year of the 30% tax rebate for energy efficient insulation, water heaters, windows and doors. Bad news: Our house has zero insulation and we’ve been working on fixing that problem for two years. Despite all this work, we still need an additional $600 worth of insulation. Thanks to the removal of the tax credit, we’re forced to bite the bullet and buy the remaining insulation now. At least it’s on sale. Good news: I guess our water heater picked a good year to go kaput.

My husband is ripping apart our walls as we speak. Our thermometer is reading a crisp 56 degrees…in the living room. I’ve always fantasized about having a living room temperature above 65 during cold spells. I guess my wildest dreams are finally coming true.

It’s amazing what a 48 hour deadline will do.

Obviously, I’m not a tax person. Consult with a professional before investing or donating.

Each year, the city re-evaluates all reductions and can raise the tax bill if property values have risen. I’ve been nervous over the last two months as the city re-evaluated our home. Our home is not worth any more than it was last year – perhaps it’s worth even less – but when it comes to government and needing money, they usually err in their favor (trust me. I can say this. I’m a government employee and…that’s what we do).

I opened the mail over the weekend and found an official letter from my city. It said…

they have decided my home value is stagnant and have approved another year at the reduced tax rate!

Yes!!!

I spent about an hour compiling information and completing forms in the tax software. It was far easier than I expected and I am a bit perturbed at how difficult our accountant made us think it was and more importantly… how much he charged us to do it.

It’s upsetting to me how many hundreds of dollars we have wasted in the past for something so terribly simple.

Don’t tell my husband but… I actually enjoyed doing it. The chronic organizer/obsessive compulsive in me loved the structure and numbers. My husband offered to do the dishes for a week if I took care of the taxes. If he finds out I actually enjoyed it, I’m on KP duty again so… shhh!

So far, the results are going to make a change to our debt. We can’t finalize anything until mid-week but as it stands now, it’s a far different number than we were expecting.

More? Less? Are we going to have to pull out our credit card to pay the tax due or are we getting some cash back?

I guess you’ll have to wait and see…