Not Sure if This Is a Good Idea
I still haven’t gotten a couple of my tax forms, but I couldn’t wait any longer. I had to get started on my taxes. Money is ridiculously tight right now, and we need that refund. And seeing how ridiculously tight money is, I decided to bite the bullet and try to do the taxes myself, against my better judgment.
So I went for the TurboTax Free File option, as I’ve done for the past few years. Up until this year I was quite happy to use it, because my taxes weren’t terribly complicated. I had enough home business income to make it a little more complex last year, but at no time did I feel that I was in serious danger of screwing up. This year, however, is a different story.
Not only do I have my business income, but we also bought a home. Now, buying a home changes your taxes a lot on its own, but when you have a home business, it makes it seriously confusing! I had two different home offices last year, so I have to figure expenses for both of them. And then there are the subtle and often unclear differences between owning a mobile home and owning a house, which I’m having serious trouble with. Ugh.
TurboTax keeps suggesting that I purchase the edition for small business owners, and the one for new home owners. Can you even do both? Not that it matters, because I can’t afford it. Both of them combined would be much less than paying a professional, but when you’re rolling up change to buy groceries, it’s just not an option. So I’ll just have to keep wrestling with it until I’m comfortable enough to file.
At least it looks like we’ll get a decent refund. If we didn’t need to catch up on the bills and get a new computer, I’d put it toward some luggage and a much-needed long vacation. But if nothing else, maybe having it to get us caught back up on the bills will make it possible for us to go somewhere this summer. I’m not getting my hopes up, but maybe.
