Ah, January. The beginning of the month is all about starting new and fresh…we’re all full of hope… ready to make our world a better place...Then the tax forms start showing up and reality hits us square between the eyes.
Taxes…
I do my own taxes, because overall, I don’t mind doing them…I
may even enjoy it…I always learn something…and I always feel a great sense of
accomplishment when they’re done. I'll admit that every year, there’s at
least one moment where I’m reading through the tax codes about something and I
want to pull out all of my hair and pay someone to do my taxes for me. But every
year, I make it through and the numbers work out in my favor.
Well, until last year, when we had to pay additional taxes
for the first time. Which of course made me think that my husband and I are finally
at a point in our lives when it’s time to pay a professional to do our taxes
for us.
There are easy tax years, when I know that I can ignore my
taxes till April 1st and get them done in one night (those years
aren’t as common anymore). Then there are the more complicated years, when I need
to start in January because there’s a new and exciting taxable something or
other in our lives that I need to deal with.
This year is going to be one of the complicated years
because I need to learn about depreciating a rental property. Fun for the whole
family… Just a quick glance at the IRS Depreciation of Rental
Property webpage and I’m convinced that this is the year that I hand it over to a
professional.
That being said, I’m still going to do them myself first so
that I’m at least familiar with the rules, regulations and numbers and then I’m
going to hire a professional to do our taxes.
My decision to hire a professional was further validated when I started asking people about their taxes and the general consensus is that the people who have a tax professional consider them an absolute must.
Looking forward to saving some money on taxes this year.
-Leah Schonlank
Finance Gym offers personal finance coaching in professionally facilitated peer-advisory groups.
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