I am amazed at how many of my friends are still working on their taxes. Guys, don’t you realize what kind of lines you will have to wait in to get things mailed? I’m especially amazed at the people who are hoping to get everything done over their lunch hour today. Seems like a bad idea to wait that long.
I know a number of people who mailed them off yesterday. After all, if you owe money, why pay it any earlier than you have to? Of course, in my opinion, I just want my taxes done. Maybe I owe money, maybe I’m getting it back, but I just like having them done and not having to worry about forgetting or losing the paperwork or some other disaster.
So what kind of a tax person are you? Did you do your taxes the moment you got your last form? Did you put it off as long as possible? Are you planning to be in line at the post office after work tonight? And did you make your decision on when to file based on whether you owed money or would be getting money back?
Megan is a 30-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
Blows my mind that people wait this long too. They must owe…
I love doing my taxes. Every year it’s a game to see how close to $0 I can get. This year, I received a $1,350 federal and $300 state… FAIL! I still think it’s way to high.
Anyway, I have mine complete around the middle of February.
They’ve been done since early February. I had a refund this year, so they were e-filed in February too. The years where I have ended up owing, they’re still done in February. They just sleep in their envelope with the check to be mailed off on April 15.
This year… I procrastinate. Did ’em online a couple nights ago, will finish the last bit and submit this afternoon. Small three digit refund this year. About right.
But I tend to go back and forth. Last year, and next year, I’ll probably have them done and filed mid-February. Then in 2012, probably early April again. *shrug*
I efiled March 26th and scheduled my tax payment ($400) for last week sometime – came out of my account through eft. Awesome!
I e-filed last month, and the refund was direct deposited to my account about 2 weeks later. Works for me. 🙂