Tax filing

Finally finished filing my tax returns today.  Did not get all the required paperwork until mid March.

Filed 4 W2's
1040
Schedules A, D, E
Forms 8949, 8917, 8283
Used Turbo Tax.  Saved $600 over the cost of having it done by a local tax franchise.

Tax code is too complicated.  Even the IRS workers don't know the answers.  I've found that If I request an answer and they give me one I don't like I just ask the question again to a different agent and I get a different answer.  I keep a record of the answer I like in case I get audited.

I have been audited twice.   Now I send explanitory notes when I do something uncommon.  So they have not questioned me in over a decade.   Maybe it had something to do with me CC'ng my congressman last time (after trying 6 or 8 times to communicate with the IRS and getting the same run around and threats from them.  They wanted be to explain it all in court in Washington DC when I lived in Texas.   That final letter where I cc'd my congressman got there attention and they settled the account and gave me back the money they overcharged me.

The reason the tax code is so complicated is because laws get passed with tax implications but the people who pass the law don't understand or care what it does to the tax regulations.  The details of forms and how to pay are then written by some staffers at an agency who are only focused on their current project and don't have the time, power, or inclination to simplify the whole code.  Ideally congress would pass a bill to simplify the tax code.  and eliminate a lot of special interest execptions and deductions.  Congress will not do that because if the tax code was as simple as it should be a whole lot of tax prep companies would suffer financial ruin. 

Also each individual deduction or loophole has somebody who will pay a lot of money to keep that item in the law so they can benifit from it.  (paying a lot of money means congressmen will be persuaded to vote in a manner that is not in the best interest of the country.)

I did send in a 4 digit check with my state tax return.   But I will get some of my federal withholding back thanks to my deductions. 

I always send my returns by certified mail because one year one of the states I file in never got my return.  I figured it out when they did not cash my check.  So I sent them another check.  They charged me a penalty for late filig but I was able to get that back by fiing a claim pleading for mercy since I did send the check in February and don't know why they never got it.

Well all this has been quite taxing and I'm glad to have completed it for the year.