Of course, with procrastination, and me being, well, me, that is not necessarily wise. I have fucked up my taxes before, especially with that mistake which I am still too ashamed to bring up now. I'm also lulled into thinking that since I have to fill the same forms and schedules year after year, I know which lines I need to automatically plug in because I think they're the same every year. That would be the case if I actually remembered which forms and schedules and lines I have to fill in every year. But like most things, if I don't do them on a ... well, if I'm being honest, a daily basis, I will forget. And who even wants to remember tax season? That made me write down a list of schedules and forms I need to print out every year. And even then, I don't remember which lines I have to fill in on each schedule and form. I keep the rough drafts of every tax form I figured out my taxes on for years now. It would make sense for me to, say, reference what I did last year in order to remember how to do it this year. I'm sure the copies of last year's forms and schedules are in my storage unit. And with basically the weekend for which to do it, I don't think I want to go out there just to rummage through all my stuff to find it.
So no, maybe I'm winging it, and maybe that's not a good idea. On top of that, my 1099 from my stock portfolio added a new line item I apparently got money from. It has taken me this past week to figure out where to report it and what I need to do with it once I find the line for it. That necessitated a brand new form, which initially shocked the shit out of me.
So with the new form and my brain doing a self-wipe on how I did my taxes last year, I guess I have taken a nonchalant attitude to my taxes when I shouldn't be. But, I spent a couple long nights over the past week (after I took evening naps) to power through, and I had the time to go over my work. I'm glad I did, because I have found mistakes. Problem is that I'm scared that I haven't done my due diligence to make sure I haven't made more mistakes.
Tuesday is Tax Day. I have a bad memory of standing in line for a couple hours at the post office just to mail my forms, so from that point on I have given myself a deadline of doing it the weekend before. However, like I said, I slept for five hours last/Friday night. That would have been time I could have spent giving my taxes another once-over, but alas. I am going to at least try and do my final tax drafts at the library this/Saturday afternoon, then go to the post office at the airport tomorrow/Sunday afternoon to officially file. (By the way, I still don't trust the government, and I especially don't trust this shitty and probably illegally-installed government, so I will not file electronically.) Is that enough time to ensure I've done my taxes correctly? Have no clue. But as I lie on my bed to blog post this, I have no desire to work on them now.
My taxes are going to get more complicated starting next year, so I have thought that I should give up doing these myself. At the very least I thought about using tax software, but from what I have seen, my situation is too complicated for any of the free ones out there, so that gives me pause. Maybe I need to go to a preparer, but the first thing I gravitated to when I searched for it are local preparers who have been disciplined. Shit. Maybe it's still worth it going out on my own, even if it costs me money.
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