Tax Day Rant

I won't gripe about paying taxes. Except the Kansas City Earnings Tax. I think reasonable taxes are fine.

For the first time in quite some time, we did the taxes ourselves. By "we did the taxes ourselves," I mean that I did the taxes. Ashley did her share of the tax work by signing the returns and asking "How much are we getting back?" and "Do you think we ought to take it to H & R Block?" repeatedly.

Like every other form of commerce, tax preparation can be done online. We filed electronically this year. My best estimate is that it added about six hours worth of work to the process.

Since we were e-filing, we had to fill in all the information that is included in the W-2s. Got that done. Didn't like it, but I got it done.

Then I had to re-create Form 8823 for Noncash Charitable Donations. Check.

I filled out the Federal returns and filed electronically, only to be rejected because we needed a specific form for a contribution we made to a non-profit organization. No problem. I went back and attached the form, filling out all the necessary information and re-filed. It was rejected again because the specific form needed a supporting form.

The first one was easy enough. I'll just go back and find the 1098-C form and attach it. After a half hour of looking, I came to the realization that Form 1098-C is not available. No problem.

I'll just print everything and add the form and mail it in. Kickin it old school. That's how I roll.

I couldn't access my returns. My password didn't match. Had I forgotten the password? No way. But I decided to reset the password through the website. Except that it didn't recognize my email address.

Now I was in trouble. I gave up. Time for a beer and a couple of hours not looking at taxes. I stepped away.

When I returned to the computer, I decided to try one more time to access my returns on the website. It worked! All I had to do was print the returns, add the Form 8823 and 1098-C and I was golden.

Time to move on to the state returns. Because I worked in Kansas, I had to pay taxes in Kansas and declare a credit for the state of Missouri where I live. The Kansas form took 25 minutes to fill out. The Missouri form is 16 pages.

I finally got it done. I was done.

Then, and only then, did I realize that Missouri won't allow you to e-file if you exceed a certain income. We exceeded it. And I was back to mailing it in. Old school.

OK... now I'm done.

Not so fast.

We live in Kansas City. I realized that I had to file city taxes too. Kansas City takes 1% off the top. No deductions. No credits. Nothing.

I went to the city website and got the necessary form. This was the biggest pain in the butt during the whole ordeal. Why? It's one page. It's one percent. Why's it such a pain?

Each individual number was in its own box. And the tab key didn't move the cursor to the next box. So putting in the income information wasn't "65327." It was 6 (move the mouse) 5 (move the mouse) 3 (move the mouse) 2 (move the mouse) 7 (move the mouse).

And each of the 14 freaking lines on the form was the same way.

So now I'm down to the wire. I just need to address the envelopes and pray that I have some stamps.