The Unpleasantness of Reality

[ladysprite]

For a few months now I've been basking in the simplicity, freedom, and delight of being self-employed, working as a relief vet. Unfortunately, now I've run head-on into the down side of this career choice, namely figuring out my own taxes.

Okay, I need to pay quarterly taxes - I can handle that. It shouldn't be too complicated; the Estimated Quarterly Tax form is only one page. Simple, yes? I'm fairly adept at arithmetic, I've kept careful records, and I'm giving myself almost two weeks to work on it.

Of course, each line of the form references a separate form that has to be filled out first in order to come up with the base numbers, each of which in turn references another two forms that have to be filled out, And in all of these forms and references, there are even more details that are never actually mentioned. Meanwhile, most of them don't even apply to me, since I have to fill out the same paperwork as people running corporations, but I need to fill them out in order to determine that I don't have to fill them out.

And then, when I finally give up and call the IRS, I'm told that I needed to do this back in April. Even though I only became self-employed in March, even though I filed a regular tax return in April, even though I wouldn't have had anything to pay beyond a few dollars. When confronted with this information, the tax guy on the phone just hemmed and hawed at me.

I've done as much of the paperwork as I can without my hubby's info, and I've come up with a reasonable number, and I've set aside the funds to pay it. I'm not sure whether I should be paying a quarter or a half, since I didn't make an April payment, but.... I'll figure that out. And then I'm hiring an accountant, or a tax preparer, or something, to rescue me next quarter. Because this has managed to reduce me to a whimpering pile of frustration like nothing else in the world, in record time.

Comments

[braider.livejournal.com]

Write/email them, and get a TEXT response from them regarding what you should do. LEAVE A PAPER TRAIL. This is important. Then do what they tell you to do.

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

It may be worth getting something like TurboTax for next time- Anna can sing it's praises better than I can. because I've only used their online version for my individual taxes last year. It was nice, though, because it would take you to the worksheets for the forms to figure out what the baseline number is for your one page form. And keep track of it all.

My dad, who is one of those people who (and no, I don't get this either) *enjoys* doing his taxes (the doing, not the paying), also loves TurboTax.

[spiritdancer]

I can recommend a good, relatively inexpensive accountant who's happy to do stuff by phone/fax/email/etc - call me, if you'd like a reference (as I download my Quickbooks file via FTP frm their machine to mine).

Yep, the IRS can drive you out of your mind very quickly :-)

IIRC, You would just send in the 1st quarter payment, and remember your next one is due June 15.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Hiring someone to do your taxes for you is one of those things that I consider "money well spent". And remember, you can deduct the fees you pay them!

[meranthi.livejournal.com]

If you hire someone for next quarter, get them to explain what they're doing. Some of them seem to have a hard time with this concept. That said, I think it's not a bad idea to hire someone, if only to help with the frustration.

[sdavido.livejournal.com]

I do turbotax, and it's wonderful.

I also got a notice that said I have to do the quarterly payment thing, and yeah, the first payment was due back in April, just as I was paying my taxes for 2004! It seems one of my schools didn't bother to withhold, so the IRS is now requiring that I pay everything for this year upfront . . . even though I'm not working for that school, and having all the other schools withhold as normal. What this means is that I'll get a refund . . . but of course no interest, etc. Arghhhh.

Yeah, pay the 2 quarters, because if they're late, it's okay . . . if you're late, they take you to court.

If you decide to go the turbo tax route this coming year, I'll be happy to come over and help you through it.