taxes

Usually I look forward to doing the taxes because we always get a good chunk back. This year we got 3 different W2s for 3 different states. So I've been putting it off as long as I could. I decided to finally do them this week. (Hence part of the reason for my absence).

Sure TurboTax makes things easy, unless you had 1 measely stock sale. (There is a TurboTax for investments, but it's at least $30 more than the one I got. I actually had 2 stock sales, so I didn't feel like spending the extra dough on just that. It also wouldn't have helped me at all, now that I've finished and figured it all out.)

Besides the confusion on the type of stock sales I had, I also had the 3 different states' taxes. TurboTax only offers 1 free state tax and you have to buy the extras for $40 each! (For one state we had to pay $15 and for another we got back $48 - so another $80 on top is not really worth it.) I downloaded the wrong one on TurboTax and it wouldn't let me go back and change. So I did all the state taxes the old fashioned way. (Except I could fill them out and print them online, that was nice.) And - after I figured out the stock sale thing, I realized I'd done them wrong last year. So I did an amended return and got back another $150.

The moral of the story is - maybe I should just do my taxes without the "help" of TurboTax. But either way - I'm glad I'm done for this year. (Except I still have to make copies and sign and mail everything in. Ugh.