Now that 2008 is over, I started to do what I always do…gather up my paycheck stubs and other documents to do a rough estimate of what my taxes are for the year and how much of a refund to expect. I logged into the free H&R Block TaxCut online and started putting in some info. But things didn’t get very far before I realized that my taxes this year aren’t going to be as simple. After some false starts in the TaxCut program and other research, among the many things I have noticed that make this year a pain in the ass for taxes…
- I got married (legally) in 2008 – which is a plus since I get a larger standard deduction and am spending my life with the woman I love. And since A-Yo can’t work, she has no income to bump me up into a higher bracket. But this leads to some trouble since…
- I’m married to a nonresident alien without a Social Security Number. This isn’t a big deal, we just have to apply for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. And since I am a US citizen, we can choose to file jointly and count her as a resident for tax purposes. So we have to do the ITIN form and attach a statement claiming A-Yo as a resident. More complicated than usual, but probably a piece of cake compared with dealing with immigration bullshit with USCIS.
- The other big change: Moving to Colorado and taking a new job – which is good since I make more money and can deduct the moving expenses. But now…
- I am renting out my house in Tallahassee. So I have to count the rent I receive as rental income. But I do get to deduct all the expenses and the depreciation of the rental property. And since I lived in the house as my primary residence for most of the year and converted it to a rental mid-year, I have to split my deductions for personal use from the rental business use. So in some ways it balances out (I get to claim my homeowner mortgage interest deduction for part of the year and claim mortgage interest as a business expense the rest of the year), but it is a bit more complicated than usual.
- Now that I am in Colorado, I have to pay state income tax (The horror!). I had it easy for so long in Texas and Florida…this is the first time I’ll ever have to pay a state income tax
Hopefully it won’t be too big a pain and I’ll get a refund from that too.
Taken together, all these things make my taxes this year a lot more complicated and tough to get a rough idea of how big a refund I’ll be getting. I’ll just have to wait for all my W-2s and other tax documents to come in the mail, pay to unlock some of the advanced features in TaxCut or TurboTax (or do my taxes by hand the old fashioned way!!!), and file a little later than usual so I can make sure everything is in order. HopefullyI won’t have to pay to go to an accountant. I think I should be able to figure it all out and manage to pay my taxes without getting arrested for tax evasion.
sneaky
