Good tax year... unless you're a mouse. And: Good way to get unfriended.

[thistlechaser]

I did my taxes this morning. Usually I owe money, so there's never any drive to do it, and so most years it lurks over my head for months. I always say I'm going to do it, then never do until the last minute. It's always more dread and putting it off than work to actually get it done, so I kick myself for not just doing it. This year I did it nice and early.

Quite a nice surprise, this year I'm actually getting money back. Almost $900 from federal and state combined. Why? I have zero idea. Nothing has changed over the last couple years, yet usually I have to pay around $1,000, and this year the opposite. Such a mystery.

Also a mystery: Turbo Tax now charges nothing, no fees at all, to file federal or state. Their site makes it so easy to do, I have no idea how or why they now charge nothing at all. I've used them for many years, and I would have happily kept paying the $20 fee to use them.

Oh nice, as I'm typing this up, my state return was accepted. Wow, in less than 20 minutes! C'mon federal, you can do it too! (Edit: Woot, federal accepted within the first hour.)

In less related but cuter news, Ellie New Cat has decided my mouse pad is her new favorite bed.



The black and silver thing at her paws is my mouse. That makes gaming a challenge!

Yesterday I unfriended someone faster than I ever had before. She posted a GIANT close up illustration of a spread open vagina. Not LJ cut or linked, just displayed on her main page. Thankfully she posted it on a Saturday; if it had been on a weekday I would have had it on my screen at work...

I've always said everyone is free to post anything they like in their LJ, but it's everyone else's decision if they want to read or friend that LJ. If you post NWS stuff outside of a LJ cut, I'm going to have to remove you from my friends list.

Comments

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the taxes!

I've de-friended people just for putting too many large photos not under a cut. Never mind what you describe!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Yeah, I'm really tempted to defriend someone else for that. Luckily I got a Firefox addon that lets me resize images in-page, but still, it's annoying it's always this one person who makes me have to resize his images or sidescroll.

[elo-sf.livejournal.com]

Yay refunds! I'm not sure what Intuit is up to these days, they certainly make $ from advances/loans on the refunds.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

They did push pretty hard to upgrade to their paid version, but I've been through that in previous years and resisted just fine. I think you must be right.

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

I suspect they're planning to make a ton of money on telling people WE CAN FIND YOU ALL THESE DEDUCTIONS YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT IF ONLY YOU USE THE PAID VERSION, which is frankly a dick move, for people who only have a W-2 and take the standard deduction there isn't really much to find. STOP BEING A DICK INTUIT.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Probably that too! Luckily I'm a simple gal with simple taxes. YOU CAN'T FOOL ME, INTUIT

[hamsterwoman]

Yay for a tax refund! (I can never predict if we're going to have to pay or get a refund from year to year either, even though not much changes on our end...)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yes yay! First time in many years that I've gotten a refund, so it's especially nice.

It's a little worrying how random it is though, made me wonder if I did something wrong or left something off by mistake!

Hope you're able to get a refund, too. :)

[teaandfailure.livejournal.com]

It may be a change in either your withholding (especially if you have changed jobs recently), or in your retirement plan (if you have a 401K). If you joined a new job and filled out your W-4 differently, for example, if you chose to take no exemptions (like I do), that could result in the change. If you started putting money, or more money, in a deferred retirement account like a 401k, that money is not taxable now, but instead will be taxable when you take it out of your retirement account when you are elderly (hence 'deferred').

If none of those things are the case, I am not sure what it could be, but there might be a change in tax law I don't know about. I would double check it though, and make sure everything went where it was supposed to go, just to be sure.

I used to work for PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Hence the taxnobabble (like technobabble but with taxes)!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Same job, same withholding. About the only difference is a slightly higher salary. Either a couple thousand more a year bumped me up into a higher tax bracket, or it's some odd tax law change that I have no idea about.

Ha! Taxnobabble is my new most favorite word!

[postingwhore.livejournal.com]

Why did that person even post a giant photo of a spread vagina in the first place? O_O

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Some kind of comment on the evils of Valentine's Day and how giving people flowers is stupid. I didn't really read the post very closely, the giant picture told me more than enough.

[ashmedai.livejournal.com]

Ugh some people just don't think, do they? I'm only looking at LJ at home, but even there, I don't need to see smut. If I wanted smut, I'd sign up on Tumblr.

*gives New Ellie Cat ear scritches*

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I can't imagine what this person was thinking...

And Ellie would like that! :)

[bacchuslives.livejournal.com]

No worries about genetalia pics on my page... Pretty cat! One of mine has similar markings. I love stripey cats. :) and congrats on the taxes. We usually break even. About 5 years ago we miscalculated and owed about 6K. That was a world of suck...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ack! I can imagine how painful that would have been!

And thanks. :)

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

Ugh I need to do my taxes and if Turbo Tax is truly free, that would be awesome! Maybe they did it because the federal and state governments have cut back SO MUCH on what forms they will send out (the library got less than nothing because the booklets we ordered were cancelled).

I hope I get some money back...last year, having savings screwed me over. How dumb is that? I have $11 in interest on my savings account and that made me owe money. :-\

Also, I cannot imagine in what context posting a giant vagina to a blog with no warning would be acceptable. Even if it's an illustration. I think unfriending was the right policy.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I kept waiting for there to be a some kind of catch with turbo Tax... maybe doing it is free, but they charge to file? But nope, nothing. They did send me an invoice at the end, but it was for $0... Very odd but nice. Plus the site was really easy to use. It's never been challenging in the past, but it's even easier now.

And yes! I had a similar thing! Some tiny amount of interest made on my savings account made like $200 difference. I couldn't understand it, how could under ten dollars of interest make me owe $200?

And agreed. That it was an illustration made no difference, it was very detailed (including hair) and in full color...

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

Aww, it is nice to see Ellie again. She has a dog bone tag! XD

We always owe at tax time. I can't remember the last time we had a refund...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yes! I love that tag. Originally I had to get it because it was the only one of a reasonable size, but now it just amuses me.

And yeah, I thought of you while I was doing mine. There was some question about pre-paying an estimate the previous year, and I figured that might have been something you did.

[mousewings.livejournal.com]

Ack! I'd defriend for that too. I sometimes check LJ during my work breaks and that would have been awful to come up on screen.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I didn't like seeing it unexpectedly at home, but at work? Gah!