It's that time of the year again. You know, something we all look forward to with great anticipation - with thoughts of refunds dancing in our heads. Oh come on, you know what I'm talking about - April 16th this year as April 15th is on a Sunday... The tax man commeth. Last year it took me about 20+ hours to do it and I am estimating 30+ hours this year due to various things.
30 hours you say? Yep, that is even working with TurboTax and Quicken and everything else. I did an experiment several years ago as in Texas we currently pay no state income taxes. Thus, we Texans are able to deduct our sales tax paid during the year. Now, the government gives us a "standard rate" we can deduct vs. actual. So, my experiment was to total up an entire year of sales tax receipts vs. the
standard rate and see the variance. At the end of a labor intensive task of running an adding machine tape, I found the variance positive to a significant degree - such a significant degree that even with the time invested - it was worth it. Well worth it and it goes directly to the bottom line. Plus, the ability to deduct the sales tax on new vehicle purchases, and a lot of neat other things, this years taxes will be more difficult than usual. Oh, sure, I could pay someone to do it all, but that's not my style and it would cost a fortune at the end of the day.
So, for the next few weeks this is what I'll be working on - a bit at a time. My goal is to have it in the mail by March 1st 2012.
Until next time, see you on down the road...
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