I Heart Tax Prep!

I have been waiting all year long to do my 2007 taxes. (um, hasn't everyone?) I am so ready for this years tax season!

I love the sales tax itemization rule for Washingtonians and have saved every sales receipt with more than $1.00 of sales tax. I have spend countless hours logging them into a spreadsheet. It is a little depressing to think that I actually spent that much money on "stuff" but I did, and my efforts resulted an almost double deduction amount than the estimated deduction.

Paying cash for my surgery wasn't fun, but it does come in handy with the medical deduction portion of the taxes. I'll be honest and only deduct the amount I actually paid, not the bill they sent me which was $27,000 MORE. That would be wrong, and based on this huge refund I fully expect to get audited. So no funny business, I even entered the $3.56 in interest income from my small online savings account

The other coup of the century is Turbo-Taxe's "itemizeIT" feature where you enter in the items you donated to GoodWill (or where ever) and they assign the value. On my own, I over estimated the value of some items and totally valued books and clothes. CLOTHES!? Yes my friends, thanks to "itemizeIt" I am getting to deduct almost $800 in clothing due to my shrinkage.

The super SA-WEET refund will end up being about 10k! Sorry to talk openly about dinero - but damn - that's awesome! Check back with me in a year where I'll be crying over my sad little $1k refund. But for now let's debate what should be done with it?

Dreams:
Down payment on a super hot car
A night of bliss with Marco the Italian Male Prostitute
Custom flame paint job for the jetta

Reality:
Apply the refund to my surgery finance fund

Reality is so not a sexy car, or a sexy man-for-hire. Reality is responsibility.... snooze.