Getting Your Taxes Done

So, I'm finally done with my taxes. I'm not sure why it took me this long to get them done and sent out. I usually try to get them wrapped up by the end of March so I'm a little bit surprised at myself for waiting this long to send them in.

Our typical approach to taxes goes something like this:

• early January - get Turbotax coupon from Costco in the mail (along with coupons for other important stuff, like frozen chicken wings, kitchen paper towels and LCD TVs)
• mid to late January - go to Costco and buy Turbotax (and frozen chicken wings and kitchen paper towels; alas, no LCD TV this year) and use coupon
• early February - install Turbotax and do a high level pass on taxes to see what the damage is
• early March - start doing taxes in earnest; see what the real damage is
• end of March - find an envelope
• also end of March - find a paper clip
• also end of March - go to the post office and send off tax return
• beginning of April - relief

Turbotax is pretty cool and super convenient. I started my return in early February and pretty much went through all of the sections (although I skipped some of the more detailed stuff like stocks and crap like that).

What was interesting was that when I restarted my tax return in early March, I did the whole "update your software" thing and after Turbotax downloaded and installed the updates, I noticed that something was tacked on towards the end of the return. The question about what to do with your tax rebate (aka the stimulus package) was now in the form, asking you if you want your rebate direct deposited or send via snail mail. It's cool that Intuit included the update feature in Turbotax to update their product when necessary.

In any case, doing taxes isn't so cool but having Turbotax update itself so that it can direct deposit money to you ... well, heck, that's awesome. I probably won't find Turbotax so awesome next year since I probably won't see that question updated in Turbotax Tax Year 2008.