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2009 Tax Relief - Paige Scott

April, 2009:  I held my breath.  My husband was on the other end of the line and was informing me that he had just gotten off the phone with our tax accountant.

Darling husband:  I just got off the phone with Cindy.  She said that we were getting some money back on our tax return this year.

Darling me: Did she say how much?

DH: No, all she said was that we were getting some back.  I asked her to give me a ballpark figure, but she needed to gather one last line item on one of the stock losses from last year. 

DM:  Well, when will we know how much? 

DH:  She said she will call me as soon as she knows.

DM:  Please call me as soon as you hear something!

DH:  I will!  Oh, and she did mention that it might be a few thousand.

DM:  Why didn’t you tell me that in the first place?  A FEW THOUSAND?  Does that mean two thousand?  Three thousand?  What does a few thousand mean?

DH:  That’s all she said.  She doesn’t know any more.  I’ll let you know as soon as I know!

Oh, such suspense!  If you recall, Chris had called me awhile back to inform me that there would be no bonus, no pay raise and likely a pay cut.  All this right after I had paid the non-refundable deposit for the kids’ school tuition.  So a few thousand would certainly help.  Hell, any amount would help! 

In thinking back to prior tax returns, most years we always had to pay money at tax return time.  Lots of money.  (Hint:  If you have to pay a lot of money on your tax return it most likely means you made a lot of money that year.  Hint hint:  If you get money back from your tax return it probably means you lost a lot money that year.)  Trust me, I am no tax accountant but it’s all that profit and loss thing.  Terms I truly don’t understand.

So I waited……………and waited………………and waited.

Then the e-mail came.  All it said was this:  Just got the amount from Cindy!  Will call you when I am out of my meeting.  Luv u!

WHAT THE #@!%!  He was going to make me wait until his meeting was over?  Why bother e-mailing me this tidbit?  Wasn’t this more important than his meeting?  Wasn’t the stress on my body more important than his meeting?  My heart was palpitating so fast!  Wasn’t my heart attack more important than his stinking meeting?

So I called his cell phone.  No answer.  I texted him.  No answer.  I e-mailed him back.  Don’t leave me hanging like this? How much is a few thousand?!?!?!?  Tell me NOW or I might die and leave you to raise 5 children alone!

Ha!  That got him.  He immediately e-mailed back and all it said was some numbers.  A LOT OF NUMBERS!  Are you ready to know how much we were getting back from our 2009 tax return?  Are you ready to know how much I could use towards my kids’ tuition for next year?

Oh, the suspense!  I love the suspense part!

Here……

Is……

How……..

Much……..

We………….

Are………….

Getting………..

Back…………..

From…………………

Our………………..

2009………………

Tax……………….

Return…………….

$13,679.00  (thirteen thousand six hundred seventy nine dollars and zero cents)

Oh my gosh, it was then that I had the heart attack!   Just kidding!

Thirteen thousand dollars?  WHAT A BLESSING!  Never mind that it meant that we lost a lot of money in 2008!  Never mind that we had debt to still pay from 2008.  Never mind that thirteen thousand dollars didn’t put a dent into things my family needed!  It was thirteen thousand dollars that we would be getting directly deposited into our checking account.  Yippeeeee!!

I was so excited!  We were halfway where we needed to be for the kids’ school tuitions.  WHEW!

Then the bill came the very next day from our tax accountant.  It said this:

Due to the number of hours it took me to research the stock losses, the amount will be higher than in years past.  It will be $900.00 and it will be due in 30 days.  Thank you again for your business.

NINE HUNDRED DOLLARS????????????????  I had another heart attack. 

Well, that still left me with $12,779.oo for tuition.

Then three days later, I received this letter in the mail from our community association:  It appears you have overlooked your community assessment fee that was due January 31, 2009 in the amount of $2,750.00. Since you are two months behind, please add the additional fee of $88.00 for a total of $2,838.oo due immediately.  Thank you.

Now before you go thinking I didn’t pay my community assessment fees, I called my husband and chewed him out for forgetting to give me that bill to pay.  After he no longer had an ass, we realized that we actually never received that bill and so it had been an honest oversight on our part. 

Sigh…. I was still left with $9,941.00  That’s not SO bad, right?

Then the final straw came yesterday.  I know you are thinking that I am making all of this  up.  But really, who could make this kind of stuff up?

The envelope said it all.  Internal Revenue Service. What was this?  I knew it wasn’t our tax return since that had already been directly deposited  into our bank account.  The bank account that had $13,679.00 which was now down to $9,941.00.

This is what was inside the scary envelope:  A lot of paperwork and a lot of tax mumbo jumbo, but the bottom line is that it appeared that there was some discrepancy on last year’s tax return.  Something with my husband’s W-2 and something with our dependent care flex account.  Bottom line is that the IRS said that we owed them $1,349.00 from last year.  Didn’t we pay our professional tax accountant $600.00 last year to figure all this stuff out for us? 

So now my kids’ school tuition bank account was down to $8,592.00.  From $13,679.00 to $8,592.00.  Easy come, easy go! And I thought I was doing a good thing when I decided to enroll them all in Catholic school.   Oh well, I still like to think about the initial $13,679.00 I did get back.  In fact, I forgot to mention that when I found out we were getting that much back I decided to go ahead and use a couple of thousand of it to finish up some home projects we had put to a halt when the economy tanked.   Could somebody please call 9-1-1?