Well, Tax Day is coming up on Monday. Even though this year it is on April 17 instead of the 15th , I still have work to do. In case anyone has forgotten, I am an accountant so I am not just talking about our own return. I should remind you - if you cannot file in time, file an extension!
In the past week and a half I have done and mailed out 4 tax returns to clients and also sent estimated taxes for 2018 to another - very estimated they are based on his 2016 returns, so it does not show his 2017 income and deductions and I have no idea of how the change in the tax law will end up affecting him. (I did use the calculator at IRS’s website to calculate what his tax will be.) In addition he has had a life change so his taxes will be filed totally different for 2018 than prior years. I will adjust it when I do his return - he always gets an extension. I have another return sitting here 99% done, but needed one tiny piece of info that I am waiting for and this will be an extension also, as the return will not get to the client until after tax date just due to the distance to the client after I finish it. I also finished our corporation return and it is ready to be signed, paid and mailed.
This sounds good - 4 gone, 1 almost done which will be on extension and another one also to be on extension and our corporation return done also. Lots of time to do our return right?
Ummm, Saturday I had a call from a client whose taxes had been mailed to her the Monday before - “Where are they?”. I told her to wait for this past Monday and if she still did not have them, I would mail another copy by Express Mail. She received them on Monday. She also went crazy as her taxes were more than she anticipated. (We don’t have a lot of money - she has none.) I ended up spending 2 hours on Tuesday writing up a breakdown comparing her 2016 and 2017 taxes for her so she would understand. Time I really needed.
Husband is (again) planning a day trip. This one on Friday, so I was trying to get everything done by then, but it won’t be. We went to the bank today to transfer money to pay our RV insurance and I transferred extra money to pay what I figured we would have to send as a first estimated payment for 2018 as we don’t earn wages/have withholding and have to pay our taxes on our own.
Then I started our return. I should explain that we don’t generally pay income taxes due to our low income and high deductions. We do have to pay Social Security taxes if either or both of us made $400 or more from businesses - and we pay double what people pay on their salary as we are the employer and the employee. We also have ACA (Obamacare) medical insurance so we have to adjust our advance credit on our return - we always seem to have received a small bit more than we are entitled to. No problem - we paid estimated taxes based on our Social Security taxes and the advance credit we owed in the past.
I should also explain that husband is always in a panic when we have to spend/pay money that we did not anticipate - because we don’t have a lot of it.
So last night I started working on taxes - I summarized information - and today I started doing the return.
First problem - I used our computer bookkeeping software to figure out husband’s business income and expenses after some adjustments. I then went to enter it into the tax program. Uh oh! Several expenses were missing - the entire categories of expenses. I tried several times and in frustration complained to husband - working at his computer across from me on whatever. He came over. With the questions he asked, I figured out that somehow some of the expenses had become unchecked to be included on the statement and that is why they were not included. I fixed that and printed out the corrected form and entered the information into the tax program.
I went on to get the same sort of statement printed out after making some adjustments - and this time checking that everything was checked to print. I then managed to erase some forms from the tax program related to both of these forms and had to start all over - entering his business info and mine.
I then entered our other incomes - you know, the whopping interest now being paid on bank accounts, the small dividends from the small number of shares of stock he received as boy, etc. Going well - no problems.
I then went through our items for deductions. While the bookkeeping software has all the items paid by check or charge cards, I have to see if I paid anything by cash and then there are charitable donations of “stuff”. As I went to enter our medical expenses - it all went blooey!
I had to enter the ACA medical insurance into the form that calculates if one is entitled to more credit or owes part of the credit back. This form brought me to a complete stop and I went into panic. It seems that when one spouse goes on Medicare and the other stays on ACA - it throws it all off. We owe back 2/3 of the advanced credit we received. I kept looking for what I did wrong. I was shaking. I finally decided that I had to tell husband - we don’t have enough money in the bank to pay it. Luckily rather than panicking he started to see what he could find out online - he was actually comforting me rather than the other way around when we have an unexpected expense. Nope, he found no way around it. So tomorrow we will go and take money out of his IRA to pay it, as what we had and I transferred is not enough. After Monday when I can breathe again, I will call and stop this year’s advance credit so I don’t have the same problem again next year.
It is important to know that other this oddity, I think ACA insurance has been great, as even without the credit it is considerably less than we were paying before it - and it has been several years since, so we would be paying even more. It was just a bit of a shock.
So all of our papers which were neatly sorted are now strewn around my desk. I put it all aside until tomorrow - well, I will probably do some calculations tonight after I finish this post - we donated stuff and I have to add up what it was worth.
I know that somehow the return and the two extensions for clients will be done and out on time. I will make sure it is. Then Monday afternoon and night I can relax and rest - oh, wait, I can’t. We have a reenacting unit meeting that night and I have to write my Treasurer’s report and go to the meeting. Oh, and today the electric co came and trimmed the trees - they even actually trimmed the ones around the wires that run through the back yard that never get trimmed. We do have tree limb from a neighbor’s tree which overhangs our garage and the line from the wires in the back yard to our house - they could not touch that, but there is a unit that does so and I have to call and have them come - since this tree branch is one of the things that scares husband during storms (not only would be without electricity, he is positive the wire coming down would set the garage - which is really his wood workshop - on fire), so that is something else to do on Monday.
I also have a folder next to my desk. It contains all the things I have not done - or I only did what absolutely needed to be done and the followup was put in the folder - over the past 2 weeks - bills to check, items to scan or copy or send out, etc. I still have to deal with that early next
week.
Oh, and I as do all of this - every time I need something from the office storage closet - business checkbook, more manila envelopes... I have to move the two stacks of stuff I set aside in January to donate in February - which will still be there until early May - and mentally scream about them.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
No matter how well one plans, something goes wrong. One has to roll with it and do what one can. The extra money is upsetting, but it won’t affect our day to day lives (luckily). The errors in the bookkeeping program printouts were found as I match this year’s taxes as they are done to last year’s so that nothing is forgotten.
Oh, and my friend who is getting an extension, had a marvelous trip to Europe as a gift from a friend as it was cheaper to bring her along than pay the single surcharge. That is a great friend she has!
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