It's that time of year! WHOOHOO!!

You know what happens right about now. Every year. Without fail. Yep that's right. TAXES! Wasn't what you were expecting me to say though was it? Maybe you were thinking of a holiday, or colds and allergies due to all of the pollen.

Well that's it. Taxes. I have been given the luxury of never having to do my own taxes before. Being in the Navy (probably any branch of the military though) has an added perk that you can schedule an appointment and take all of your papers and have a trained person do your taxes for you, thanks to H&R Block. At least that's how it's been for us these past 11 years. And I would love for them to continue processing all of our data every year to come, if I could. Yet with me being a business owner now, we are now disqualified for their free service. Well, maybe not "disqualified" but the personnel are not allowed to file those kind of forms. Perhaps they just do not have the training to file business taxes, or are not allowed to schedule appointments with enough TIME to complete such paperwork which needs to be itemized thoroughly. I feel that it is more about what H&R Block is willing to offer as I am sure they are getting tax write-offs for these free services. Well those are my thoughts anyways.

So back to the topic - it is time to do taxes. And I am scouring online sites and desperately looking up different terms. Searching to see if I need to do anything special, such as obtaining an EIN, whether I am "self employed" versus being a "small business owner" and if I need to become incorporated. All of this seemed to be simple when I first signed up with Scentsy last February. The advice I was given from multiple sources (within and out of the company) was not to worry about it. You don't need to do anything, unless you just WANT to become licensed. And as for filing taxes, some said to just hire a CPA to do the paperwork, you could hire an accountant to help keep you accountable all year, or you could take the cheapest route and file all of your taxes yourself. With all of these online programs it's easy, right?



Obtained 3-5-2013 from http://www.rainbird.com/images/Calculators.jpg

This is the downside of never having done my own taxes, much less having to file my own BUSINESS taxes. I know the basic terms, what paperwork I NEED in order to complete my taxes. But it just seems so long and drawn out. You have your general 1040 form. It's simply follow the directions. If you can answer yes to these questions, enter this number. Go to this step. Complete the math on form such-and-such, and use that final number to put into this box. It's like going on a scavenger hunt. Or like any local here will tell you, it's Benny Russell Park. 


Benny Russell Park is one of those big "forts" made out of real wood beams and plastic slides. Some kids deemed it upon themselves a few years ago to make the park into a map. Permanent marker is found all over with random steps. Advising the other kids to go to the tallest slide. Once you get there, more directions lead you to another place in the fort, which then gives you a clue to another spot. After these poor little kids go to all of the graffitied areas (and their parents too, for the FIRST time at least...suckers), the very last clue leads you back to the first place. And these kids will keep running back and forth even after they've done the whole cycle which takes over an hour. Every. Time. They go. To the park. They're kids; what do they know? But to me it's like one of those signs that say "How do you keep an idiot busy for hours? Turn over." And the back of the sign says the same phrase.

So that's how I feel like when I am sitting here doing taxes. Reading little exerpts to see if I qualify for a certain claim. Doing the math, jumping back and forth across pages and forms. I've even tried the free online filing with H&R Block. But I have to leave some of the answers blank and come back to them later. All in all I am a visual person and I want to see the big picture. I think I am going to do everything by hand on these forms I can actually hold in my fingertips..and then just enter the data into an efile form, so our taxes get processed more quickly.

What about you? Do taxes drive you crazy? How do you file your taxes every year? What pieces of advice can you give me?

Have a good night! And remember that taxes are due in 41 days!!!
Amy