Tuesday, March 14, 2006

It's All Backwards

Finally. After needless wasted hours that I shouldn't have had to blow, my taxes are complete and e-filed away. I went out and bought TaxCut instead since TurboTax totally blew. Taxcut worked fine. I think it asked a few too many questions in its wizard interface, but I'm sure that was to make sure that it covered all the bases it needed to.

I ended up getting back a little over $350 from my federal return, but I owe $25 to the state. Seems like it works out that way every year. I wonder how I can get more state tax withheld so that I don't have to send them a check every year.

One small annoyance that I came across this year for the first time was having to pay e-file fees. In the past I'd simply filled out the paper forms and mailed them in. No fees to do that. E-filing, however, incurs a $15.95 fee once for federal filing and again for state filing. I don't understand why the more efficient method for the state and federal government has a charge attached to it, while the harder to process hand-written or typed hard copies are sent in without being charged a fee.

It's absurd that those of us who are e-filing should be subsidizing the processing fees of those who go the paper route. It's ridiculous. Seriously, I'm pissed about having to pay over $30 to file my taxes the most efficient way. True, I get $16 back in a rebate from TaxCut, but I'm still out another $16 for the other filing. It's so dumb.

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