Monday, July 9, 2012

Lessons learned

When we moved to DC ... I was in a predicament. I wasn't exactly sure what the heck I was supposed to be doing for my tax withholdings.

Exhibit A: my permanent address was in Maine, I was temporarily living in MD, employed in VA and would be moving to the District of Columbia in >60 days. Exactly which jursdiction do I pay taxes to? HR's brilliant suggestion was "don't withhold anything".  *cough* Right ... because THAT sounds like a brilliant plan ... In a moment of pressure, I opted to withhold taxes for the District of Columbia, as that was where I would be establishing residency. (Unfortunately, the Military Spouse Relief Act had totally slipped my mind. I had established residency there with Drew for Recruiting Duty.)

Now of course ... I've picked the brains of the accountants in my family, and I'm glad they understand the process and what forms I need to be filling out because I sure as heck don't. :-/  Piles of paperwork, tables that I don't understand ... itemizing? It's all starting to look like Greek to me.

I keep having to remind myself that those that can write are worth their weight in gold because ah... at the moment I feel incompetent.

What have I learned?
Well ... I need to start talking to accountants sooner rather than later.
Retrieving taxes paid to DC looks like one heck of a process ... and it's one that I could have avoidied.

Here's the part of being a grown-up that I just don't enjoy.

5 comments:

  1. I was just going to say- you need an accountant for tax purposes. I plan to hire one this year too, it's just getting too complicated.

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  2. gosh, I didn't even think about that. that gives me a headache just thinking about it :( glad you have access to some awesome people to help you out.

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    1. I think I'd be royally up a creek if I didn't have an accountant to help us through all these "unique" situations -- I screwed up big time last year and didn't withhold enough between my (3) jobs of 2011 and man, that was one big financial ouch. I vowed to NOT make that mistake again ... hiring an accountant is something we need to do; this is just not one of my strong suits and I don't think it's one of Drew's, either.

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  3. Turbo Tax. We have some seriously complicated accounts (thanks John) that date back twenty years, have no associated information, flow between each other on a regular basis to maximize income, and weird deductibles that only apply to certain areas. (This is all John's fault, too...mine were easy before marriage.)

    Three hours on TT and it was done...legally and relatively stress-free.

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  4. It's not Greek.. it's beautiful!!! :) Haha! Hire an accountant that specializes in tax - trust me, not all of them know much about tax!

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