Tax time is coming. For those of us in the United States, April 15 is -the- day, and as it approaches, more and more anxiety builds. It’s usually not pleasant, but it’s necessary, because in this country, taxes are seen as a necessary evil.
In Hawai’i, we also pay state income taxes, so our local tax day is April 20–five days later.
Tax day is not anyone’s favorite day, but being prepared for it early will help to alleviate the stress and frustration associated with it. I’ve gathered all my papers but haven’t put much time into it yet.
Where are you with dealing with your taxes this year?
I’m still gathering and organizing my tax documents. In addition to the two (final) W2s I have from my two jobs–I’ve already discussed the several error laden W2s I received–I’ve had 1099s for blog income, from Google, for interest at two different accounts, and dividends at two different accounts.
I also have deduction documentation such as charitable donations and mortgage interest to gather and process.
And I have a 1040 form, its related attachments, and a thick instruction book to wade through.
Yes, taxes are supposed to be getting simpler over time–at least that’s what we are told every time there’s some kind of paperwork reduction act or tax reform. But I have a hard time believing that’s true. Gone are the days I can simply file my taxes over the phone, and many, many hours are spent just getting all of this in order.
Simple? No. But necessary.
I have now had one tax document–the W2 from my primary employer–revised twice, and one other tax document–from Google–revised once.
I’m really surprised by this as I cannot remember ever having tax documents updated before.
My tax document from Google–and the amount of money I made from Google was very, very small–was also incorrect. To their credit it was only revised once.
At least one of my documents–Sharebuilder–came out later than I expected, in the middle of February, and another, from iGoBanking, was late due to my being locked out of my account and being unable to contact them to get access again due to the time difference between here and there.
Fortunately there’s still a lot of time before taxes are due. I have to get working on those.
As those of you who have followed this blog for awhile know, I have a model portfolio made up of four funds, two stock and two bond, that I track regularly. This is actually essentialy the portfolio I have in my 403(b) as well.
Any portfolio where asset allocation is a consideration–that would be every investment portfolio–needs periodic adjustment. For me, that adjustment happens yearly. Quite frankly, if the adjustments are very minor I often leave the portfolio alone, just because it’s often more trouble than it’s worth. That’s not the case this year.
If making adjustments to your portfolio, please consider fees (commissions from sales, for instance) and taxes (which is not an issue here since these funds are all contained within a 403(b)).
Also, consider what your overall asset mixes are. For instance, last year I decided on a more aggressive than usual 75% stock/25% bond allocation; this year I’m going back to my usual 70% stock/30% bond mix. Of the stock allocation, 47.5% is a domestic stock index and 22.5% is an international stock index; with bonds, 15% will be a total bond index and the other 15% will be a GNMA fund.
To match those up with the funds I discuss in the model portfolio posts, the domestic stock fund is the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTSMX), the international stock fund is the Vanguard Total International Stock Index (VGTSMX), the domestic bond index fund is the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index (VBMFX), and the GNMA fund is the Vanguard GNMA Fund (VFIIX).
Turns out that I will need to take a bit off both my domestic and international stock funds and put them mostly into VFIIX but a little into VBMFX. I will work on that today!
It appears I got my submissions correct; I got a check in the mail today reimbursing me for my prescription medication and doctor’s visit earlier this month, as well as mileage. Since I also submitted to Ceridian the paperwork to have future payments be direct deposited into my account with ING Direct, I think I’ll be even happier with future payments.
It did take about a week for the check to get to me from its claimed mail date; I believe Ceridian (the branch administering this program, anyway) is in Florida. Hopefully the direct deposit will remedy this issue.
All I can say is I’m happy to have gotten some of my money back!
It’s tax time and I am trying to gather my tax forms from a few different financial institutions, some of which I have accounts that are either untouched (emergency fund money gaining a small bit of interest) or on autopilot (making regular investments every month).
In the process, despite having passwords I am sure are correct, I have been locked out of two accounts and have to call to get access restored. The most hideous offender in the overly secure account category is Treasury Direct, where I have now been locked out three times; I used to be very happy with them but awhile back they started using an onscreen keyboard with somewhat randomly placed keys in combination with a bizarre plastic security card where you had to play what was like a virtual game of bingo to get your account accessed.
If there was a better alternative to them I’d use that. While I appreciate the need for making sure people’s money is safe, there’s nothing more annoying than an overly secure account–resulting in a lockup.
I have to get this fixed soon, not just so I can make sure I still have the proper buys scheduled, but to get my tax forms.
For the first time–the first two times, actually–I submitted claims with my flexible spending plan administrator, in this case, Ceridian. They encourage online submissions through their Web site at Ceridian-Benefits.com which of course requires registering. A day after I registered, to my pleasant surprise the entire $1100 I had budgeted for the year became available.
I had two receipts, one for a prescription refill and one for an office visit. I was happy to find out that the plan would reimburse for mileage, albeit at a rather low rate, although I could not find a way to submit for parking (I did not, however, have a parking charge–I was looking for a coworker who stated her husband’s similar plan allowed for parking reimbursement). Their Web site is attractive but not the easiest to use. Once I submitted the claims, I printed out a couple of forms, one to set up direct deposit for future claims, and the others to submit via fax with copies of the receipts–yes, despite being able to file online, you still have to either mail in or fax in copies of receipts.
Within a few days, my claim appears to be approved. I am waiting for the literal check in the mail. All in all, a pleasant process–we’ll see how things go as my expenses climb throughout the year.
As I promised myself (as my backup pair of glasses used for driving falls apart even more), I went to the ophthalmologist on January 4 to get a new prescription for glasses. Since I now have access to a flexible spending account at work, it’s really a great time to get them.
Glasses are definitely expensive, even if the tax advantages of the flexible spending account nets me a cost about 30% lower than without such an account. So while I plan to buy at least one pair of glasses locally, I’m going to order another pair from one of several mail order prescription eyeglass providers on the Internet–which one I have not yet determined.
I need to do more research on these sites as I have just begun reading reviews, but some of these sites sell prescription glasses for $29–or less.
I’ll definitely let people know how things go.
This is the first year I have a flexible spending account. A flexible spending account lets an employee put aside dollars pretax to use for medical expenses (such as office visit copays, medications, prescription glasses, and many more). The catch? The employee must use all the money by the end of the year or it’s lost.
It’s only the seventh of the year and I already have $34 in expenses to claim, and I’m about to buy new prescription glasses, so I’ll have lots of dollars to claim. I recently went online to my company’s human resources Web site (which I am not all that fond of) to research what to do to file a claim.
Our program is administered by Ceridian, and they encourage online submissions–although the employee still needs to submit receipts via mail or fax. Since there’s no money in my account yet (the first payday of the year is not for another week), there’s really no account at this point, so although I’m registered and I have some receipts, I have nothing to claim.
I’ll update this as I get my first actual taste of the claim process.
One of the best features of the economic stimulus packages that have been going around since the economy got flushed down the toilet has been the homebuyer tax credit of up to $8,000 for first time homebuyers, which is set to expire at the end of the month.
Fortunately, there is bipartisan support for extending this credit.
This is a huge break for those looking to buy a home, but it comes with the usual gotchas (besides the credit actually getting extended, which the lawmakers are working on right now): the buyer has to have a down payment saved up and decent credit to get a loan–which really, is the way it was always supposed to be–and find a lender willing to lend you the money.
That said, if you meet those requirements, you may have a few more months to make this into a fantastic time to buy a home.
