Apr 19, 2010

I love electronic filing and direct deposit

Our accountant electronically filed our taxes probably early last week, and now the IRS web site shows that our refund will be deposited on April 21. I'm old enough to remember when everyone filed paper returns and everyone due a refund received a paper check, so it's just amazing to me that we can get our refund in less than two weeks. (Funny how that makes me sound so much older than I am. It's really just a reflection of how quickly technology has progressed in the last 20 years, since I first started filing my own tax returns.)

I used to pride myself on doing my own taxes, and did quite well in personal income tax law class in law school. But once we had kids who had investment income, along with blog income, I didn't want to risk making any mistakes. Especially since tax law changes so frequently that what I learned in school isn't that useful anymore, beyond a basic understanding of how the tax system is set up. I do think that knowing something about tax law makes preparing the documents for the accountant and reviewing our returns easier for me than it would be otherwise.

I guesstimate what our accountant's bill is going to be each year and include that amount in my monthly Infrequent Bills total. (Learn more about how I budget for annual and semiannual bills with my Infrequent Bills Account.) From what I've gathered from my friends, we pay quite a bit more than they do, but our taxes are probably more complicated and I suspect we're paying more for quality/professionalism since we just with my in-laws' accountant. I'm okay with that, since to me it's added peace of mind.

1 comment:

Mr Credit Card said...

same here. CPA e-filed and will get my refund soon. In fact, this year, we will set up "e-quarterly payments"..so will never be late!