Tax windup

[Kay/NC]

Just wrapped up my part of the tax books for 2011.  This leaves one more bank statement to reach in my office tomorrow morning(to copy for the accountant), one partnership return to beat out of someone else's CPA, and I have to rattle the bars on our investment guy's cage tomorrow, since that bunch is notoriously slow in sending the year's results to us. 

I will do the first and last one, let my CPA harass the other accountant.  They all speak the same language, and it is not mine....

Mike and I got a good laugh tonight watching "Raising Hope". I had decided to bring in the things I needed to figure my work out into the family room. Burt, the nutty dad on that show, had spread his stuff all over their living room floor, to work on his corporate income taxes, too.  I had just fussed at Sue the Wonder Mutt, for stirring up my stacks, when the mom on the show got mad at Burt, and blew his piles of papers to Kingdom Come with a leaf blower. 

I guess some things are universally frustrating...having someone mess with your work at tax time is one of those experiences.   

I sort of want to celebrate being done (except for the one copy and the one phone call), but Mike and Sue are both sound asleep.  In fact, she has taken over my side of the bed. 

Do any of you do a happy dance or otherwise do anything special to celebrate being done with the drudgery of tax time?  I am thinking about a mani-pedi, but can't get there until at least Thursday. 

The tax trip (a hundred miles one way to Richmond) is Friday afternoon, and I have a ton of stops on the way there and back.  Thank goodness they e-mail the vouchers and e-file for us, then we mail the corporate stuff in later, after they ship it FedEx, so only one long drive is required now. 

Hopw far do you have to go to get to your accountant's office?

[Ruby Lou]

Aargh! I have been putting off finalizing 2011.  Tax man emailed his clients and said the calendar will be coming out soon.  He usually comes to our home as his home is a good hour /hour 15 from us.  He stuck out of his own a couple years ago from the business he was associated with.  He has some satellite offices, but since we are one of very few in my area, he just comes to us. Most of his clients are from central Iowa.   He is the DH of one of that lady's that teaches here at my work.  He has been very good to us.  Hopefully he won't get too frustrated with my disorganization this year. 

[turkey feather]

My nearby appointment is next week and I finished getting things together yesterday. What a relief!

[linda/IL]

We travel 20 M. to ours.  Started out 5 m., then the lady opened up in the larger town & eventually sold it.  We're happy with their service & knowledge. 

I should be done BUT knew I had to take littlest grand to preschool this morning which entails about 2 hrs. of my morning plus the milking/chores so that shoots it.  DGS has had strepp again, (I question those tonsils but nowdays they don't want to remove), and my DIL was frantic as she had taken off Mon & Tues so since he was on medication since Mon. I said bring him by.  They just left & I'm soooo NOT wanting to hit taxes again.  Absolutely sick of them.  I did get my medication/dr. info emailed to BASE yesterday which was a big relief.  First time working with them & their forms are a bit different than I'm used to.

Appointment is Valentines day but it's in the afternoon so we won't be celebrating then.  Usually it's in the morning & we go to a nice place for lunch.  Maybe we'll get out soon enough for at least a cup of coffee & pie.  I'm always so relieved when it's over.  Like a kid on vacation.  This year has been worse than usual for some reason-probably my procrastination.

I'm going to get busy now.

[dennymal]

I told my wife you did a great job this year. Lets take some of this 7.00 corn and go to los Cabos in March.

[Kay/NC]

Our stuff was really simple this year...I guess because so little changes now that the kids are grown and gone.  I get last year's note pages out to go by, and then add anything new (like the GS's 529 Plan this year.)

I have been thinking that I need to make out some forms, to say which state, which enterprise, and then income and expense categories under each one.  That would steamline things even more than making sheets of notes for each one each year from scratch. 

Computerizing the books for the two main farm accounts has made the ordeal bearable.  I ran totals for them Sunday, and did the rest of the small,  handwritten accounts in about thirty minutes or less last night. 

I spread out the 1099s by entity and note each one in my notes, as to whether it is earned income or rent or other income that is handled differently for tax purposes.  I pencil in a Schedule F for each farming business, and the totalspf each expense line are taken from the P&L report on the Quickbooks program.   

I tell myself that I am busy taking care of the baby, and that is the reason I waited so long...but I could do the expenses on January 1, and then just wait for our 1099s.  I need the deadline of the appointment to get me into gear. 

[Suey73]

I think I'm done with our taxes.   Reconciled the 1099's to the computer this morning.  Stressed.... in the middle of that work the power went off.  Just blinked.   Said a quick prayer that records were okay and they were.    E-mailed the accountant the final backup of the farmbooks for 2011.   

Now,  I need to reconcile my in-laws  1099's.   Their taxes aren't due till April 15th.   Not looking forward to it either.   My FIL and MIL  will be helping out the US  and Illinois governments this next year.   

I keep getting better at filing the receipts and records.   Lots of 3 ring notebooks and manilla envelopes.   I have a 9x13 manilla envelope for each month  for each of our accounts.     My in-laws reciepts go in an expandable file.  Then all of this along with anything else goes in one big rubbermaid container.   One thing I put in every year is the calendar that hung in the kitchen with appointments and etc.    I've always thought it might be useful to prove something some day.  

I know that they say we only need to keep files and reciepts for 7 years.   But,  I keep them for 10 years.  And then I still keep the main yearend tax printout report along with any major reciepts for purchases and the 1099's.   That really did come in handy a couple of years ago when I could produce a 12 year old 1099.   

With my in-laws in their late 80's I'm not allowing any tax records that are filed and stored to be thrown away.   We might need to know what they paid for something in a couple of years. 

Here's hoping that we have enough corn sold by March 1st to pay the taxes.  

[Kay/NC]

How long to keep records can be a really interesting question.  I have never consciuosly thrown away any of ours...now, some of them are stored in a concret block building on another farm, but they haven't been thrown out.  I am not as organized as you guys are in keeping receipts segregated; however, I don't toss them, for sure. 

I watched my mother go through nearly forty years' worth of receipts once, to prove which farm items my father boiught alone, v partnership purchases with his older brother.  When he decided to buy him out, he didn't want to pay for half of something the brother didn't own to start with.  The only partners we have anymore are each other, so unless Mike finds a new chick, I think my concern is just more of my OCD manifesting than anything. 

I still have some records from the time we bought and built this place that could send peopel to stay at the government's expense even today, because some of the activity was not subject to a statute of limitations. Our original loan officer ended up giving her home to the bank she worked for, to stay out of jail on their end. 

Bad period in our lives.  I would like to that think one day I could set a match to those boxes, and let the go of the angst of that era once and for all.  Not today....

The thing that I don't get about doing taxes is that, for as good as it feels when I get done, I sometimes still delay the gratification of that feeling.  It gets better each year, as the computer and I get better at making it less of an ordeal. 

[linda/IL]

Suey, do you mean you keep a manilla for ea. checking acct. or for each company you deal with?  I'm going to give the binders a try at least for the monthly vendors we deal with a lot.  I've always used file folders but the invoices always seem to get mixed up; guess I'm not very careful about putting in order.  And I must have a million receipts from Farm & Fleet.  Thinking of getting a credit card from them so I can write one check.  TSC is great because they send you a list of everything you bought from them & if it was ag tax deductable.  I noted to DH that I didn't have as much bookwork when we had a local feed mill & bought everything from them & pd. once a month.  The feed company we now have is about 60 M away so we buy calf feed & milk replacer as needed from F & F.  Feed co. s also gives a deduct if each delivery is pd. within 5 days.  More to keep up with.

One thing I did last year for our bank was to make an asset list on a spreadsheet with the values.  I got so sick of printing (mine gets pretty sloppy) this off every year.  Saved on the computer plus backup and I just correct, add or delete to it and print off.  Much easier to read & much faster. 

Saw a file system through an organizational site but thought it wouldn't work for me.  I am going to color code what files I do continue to use. 

DGS is here again today & littlest grand has dance tonight at the same time as his dr. appt.- hinting for me to take but I don't know.  Sure hope I can get  some work done this afternoon on taxes! 

[Ruby Lou]

I worked on taxes last night. Got the year in checkbook and reports printed.  Excel spreadsheet 90% done.  Told DH, I was "almost" ready for the tax appt.  Oh, yeah, Then I remembered I have to have his mom's stuff ready too as our tax man does hers at the same time...and my DD's too!  So, I guess I am not that ready... My DH brought home the bank papers the other day for the new loan year.  Oh, yea, I think I made a spreadsheet or a mock up of the papers last year so I didn't have to fill the machinery and the values in again in those tiny lines!! They need to update and go electronic with those!  We go electronic with banking, so why can't they do it with those spreadsheets! And Linda, I am thinking about getting Casey's cards and Walmart cards cause we seem to use the debit card WAY too many times at those places and it would make bookkeeping a little bit easier.