Check! or rather, Electonic Transfer!

It's done! I finished our taxes this afternoon. Somehow I've stepped into the tax preparer roll in our family. Here's how the first 3.5 months of each new year usually play out:

• January 1 I recognize that with the new year comes more taxes. I tell myself I'll think about it when I start getting our tax documents in the mail. I also promise myself I won't put off filing until the last moment.




• The Important Tax Document Enclosed mail starts arriving


• The burden sits in the back of my mind from January 1 until I will myself to sort out the tax mail (that been thrown into a "look at this tax stuff later" pile)



• While cleaning off my desk before having guests over (I usually just pull down the roll top), I sort through the pile, remove envelopes, and itemize which of my mutual fund 1099-DIVs didn't get mailed. For some reason, I'm always missing at least one. This year I didn't receive two separate forms.



• A few days (weeks) later I track down the phone numbers for the offending companies and make some calls requesting duplicates


• I see the newsprint tax forms lining a table at the library, reminding me again that I haven't started my taxes and I wonder, "Who uses the paper copies anymore?" (take the survey!)



• Kraig asks when I'm going to do the taxes, helping me remember to get started. He offers to take the children out for the morning while I start taxing away. Two hours later, I'm done! Yahoo!

Finishing up taxes this early in March is a record for me. I feel that a huge burden has been lifted from my shoulders and my mind has been calmed from one of the persistent, nagging, worries that keeps me up at night.

I hope your taxes go as smoothly as ours did this year! And for Pete's sake, come visit us with your tax return money :)

So, Uncle Sam, until next year!