Taxes Done In Just One Evening?!

I hadn't really even looked at my W-2's and my 1099's until this evening.  I'm one of those guys who procrastinates doing his taxes because, well, obviously it's a pain in the ass, but also because, since the days where I could use my student loan debt to cut into my taxable income to the point where I got a refund, I have consistently owed.  I know savvy financial minds say that's a good thing; you have money that essentially belongs to the government to do what you wish, such as investing in it and pocketing the interest or dividends.  But it was no damn fun figuring out that The Big, Bad Government demands you fork over a grand of your cash every April 15.  It's not too far past Christmas, and so I barely recover from paying off those shopping bills before getting hit in the gut with this tax garbage.

This year, not only did I have to start soon, since Tax Day is Tuesday, but I also had to finish soon.  I alluded to this in my previous post: I got a job doing a second scoring project evenings for at least next week.  I could have done it, put the finishing touches on it (such as checking the amounts, making copies of the federal and state tax returns and stapling the W-2's to the federal) and wait in line for the correct postage at the post office Tuesday evening.  (I remember that last year, when I was surprised that I owed so little, I nonetheless had to wait at the downtown Minneapolis post office to mail my returns in.  The line snaked to the revolving front door and around.  Was in line for at least an hour.  Should have known but didn't, and therefore my parents ate dinner without me.)  Now I can't do that since I'll be working.  Well, I could, but I didn't want to be waiting at the post office at the airport close to midnight.

My new job would also preclude doing my taxes Monday evening.  Add to that my car acting up very badly on the drive home from work (there are now some serious accelerating issues; I could barely get it to speed up this afternoon and it scared the shit out of me) and I don't know if it could survive an extra trip to MSP when it already has to go from one end of the metro area to the other and back.  I now think I have to just go to a post office closer to home ... which aren't open nighttime hours and won't be open any hours I'm free Monday or Tuesday, so I have to mail my taxes Saturday morning.  Which means I had to do them this (Friday) evening.

And you know what?  I did.  Now, I don't know if I did them correctly, and I don't have time to check them.  But most of the stuff dealing with income and dividends I've done before.  I was worried about calculating capital gains off of selling stock and/or mutual funds, but according to my composite 1099 I didn't sell any securities in 2013.  I also have to make sure my Health Savings Account doesn't require another form, which I think the instructions say needs to be attached to my fed return.  But I probably can do that in the morning at the library where I'll be making copies.

Everything else seems to be in order.  If I'm right, I get a refund from the country but have to pay the state.  However, in balance I get less than $100 back.  Just about neutral after some long stretches of employment (and unemployment) last year.  But there are no surprises money-wise, and that is more than great.