💸 Tax Time
I finally pulled the trigger and ordered my yearly copy of TurboTax tonight so I can start working on our taxes this weekend. We always (knock on wood) get a return because of the size of our family and our modest income levels, but with the Trump and Musk inflicted chaos in the IRS and elsewhere I expect a repeat of 2020 where we don't see it for several months. That really hurt at the time during the pandemic, but at least we're in a better place now with Mary working part time and the raise I got last fall.
This will also be the first time I need to help one of my kids with their taxes as my oldest daughter has been working a lot for the last year. Hopefully she has been having plenty withheld from her paychecks as well so she'll get a decent return. I still remember the shock I got the first time I discovered I owed a nice chunk of change to the U.S. Government after doing my taxes one year in my early twenties. The cherry on top of that moment is that I was using the tele-file system at the time and had to listen in disbelief as an electronic voice broke the unexpected news to me. Needless to say I learned to adjust my W-4 deductions after that.