Taking on Your Taxes

Now that I’ve started working and receiving a steady by-weekly income my fina
ncial responsibility has shot through the roof and I haven’t liked it one bit.

With financial stability come taxes, and lots of them. I remember getting my first “big girl” salary pay check. Yes, it was more money then I had been making serving cups of coffee three days a week, but holy Mary mother of all that is good did they take a chunk of money out for taxes. They could have feed a small orphanage in Ethiopia with that kind of money.

The good part about giving up all those taxes, is that some of it come back to you, at least that’s what I was hoping when I sat down this past weekend to do my taxes for the first time as an –independent, no longer a dependent on my mother. (She’s still currently jumping for joy at the re-established income she’s gotten since she’s stopped financially supporting me.)


There are a few ways to do your taxes:

· Turbo tax or similar online programs that you can purchase in store or online for about $30-40

· H&R Block or similar walk in places that’ll do your taxes for you at areasonable fee, depending on who and what you're claiming

· Accountant or CPA , a more costly investment


Seeing as I don’t trust myself doing my taxes on my own because I’ve seen one too many movies where the IRS comes after people for back taxes, I decided to opt out of doing them on my own. I’m scared of not doing them correctly and not getting all the money that I can possible get back, so I did a little research for myself.

There are so many kinds of over looked deductions according to your career and income, they all vary per state, your best bet is to do some state research and see what kinds of deductibles you can get in your area.

Be prepared with all your forms and your account number for your refunded to be directly deposited into your account. I used a tax checklist to make sure I had everything ready. I also used a tax calculator to estimate my return.

I still don’t own a home, I have no children, and I’ve only been working for six months, so I decided to go H&R Block and meet with Mary, a tax preparer. She walked me through my forms and also pointed out areas where I could be saving more money, such as the miles I drive back and forth to class can be added as a deductible, as well as the books I purchased for class or any kind of seminars that I have to attend for work are considered higher education and can also be deducted.

After going through all the forms and coming to the end of the process, Mary helped me get a whole two months of pay back from my taxes. I also had a coupon for $25 dollars off and through my tuition tax forms I was able to waive another $30 off my tax preparation fee. My total cost ended up being only $75, which is nothing for the peace of mind of not having the IRS come knocking on my door.

Now to figure out how to investment that money, hmmm. That's a topic for another day.

As for an accountant or CPA, these are the guys you go to when you have a multitude of investments, your own business, or you make a substantial amount of income. I have none of the above, so I'll be sticking to Mary at H&R Block.

Happy Tax Season!