Taxing time of year

By Staff
Melissa Cason
It's that time of year again.
It's tax time. For those who have small children, this means you'll get a tiny bit of the money you paid out back. But, if you are like us, tax time is stressful.
When Jimmy and I first got married, we dreaded having our taxes done. The first couple of years, we only got back a tiny bit. But, once Jordan was born, that changed.
We started benefiting from the tax deduction of having children. Jimmy enjoyed the benefit so much that when I found out I was expecting Cameron, he did a little dance and shouted 'another kid, another deduction.'
I'll admit. There was a span of five years or so that we loved having our taxes done. That has now faded away.
With Jimmy working out of state, he doesn't pay Alabama income taxes. We have to send in estimated tax payment every quarter. The problem is, with the cost of everything increasing and fuel through the roof, we didn't make our estimated tax payments in 2008.
So we have been dreading having our taxes done.
So much so that Jimmy mentioned waiting until April before filing them. But, I insisted that we should have them done so we know what we are facing.
After all, it's always better to know how much we will pay in.
So, last week, we visited our accountant. The same guy has been doing our taxes since we married. In fact, he's been doing Jimmy's since he was 16, and Jimmy parent's taxes since the dawn of time.
This guy has been in the business a long, long time.
We use him because we know that if we are ever audited, he will have our back. But, we also continue to use him because he has always gotten us back a good tax refund-enough to make up for the fact we have to pay in to the state.
So there we were in his office. It took about an hour to figure out where we were on our taxes. When the accountant told us how much we will have to pay in, Jimmy and I about had heart attacks.
But, when he told us our federal return, we knew will be able to send in that dreaded payment in to the state, and that's all we were really worried about.
While everything worked out for us, I have a friend whose parents have to pay the IRS $4,000 because they decided to take money from their retirement a little early.
So for many, tax time is a stressful time. It's a time when you just pray you paid in enough because times are hard enough for us without having to mail in a big check to the government.
For all of you who do get a good tax return back, I say enjoy it while it lasts because there will come a time when you will be in the same boat we are in. For everyone else, my prayers are with you.