Step 50: File Your Taxes

While I was in college, I had the excuse that I was too busy to do my own taxes, so my mama always did them for me. Not this year. :P

I always dreaded the idea of filing taxes--I'd always heard others complaining about them, so I'd assumed they were horrible to do. And though they do have the potential to be more confusing than building a computer from scrap, if you use an online site it's actually not so bad.

My mama and I use TaxACT. I still had to have her help me with it (I have to read every single word when reading ANYTHING, so it would have taken me all day to get through the dang thing), but with her skimming it and telling me what each page wanted, I was able to get my federal taxes done for free in about an hour.

Now, the bad thing about TaxACT is that they do charge if you want to file your state taxes through them. Since I'm cheap, I voted to go the paper route and only spend 49 cents on a stamp. And since the paper form for filing taxes is the most confusing thing in the world, my mama offered to do my state taxes for me. I'll learn to do those another year.

All and all, it wasn't the most fun thing to do on a Saturday, but it also wasn't as terrible as I was thinking it was going to be. Then again, I don't have all those exemptions like renting a home and being married with kids to deal with. Maybe I'll stick to the single life and live in my mom's basement until I die. ;)

So my question to you: How do you file your taxes? Do you do the paper version all by yourself (if so, I applaud you)? Do you have a site online? Do you pay someone?
And my challenge to you: Enjoy this beautiful spring weather and don't worry so much about the government and all their money issues. It's not worth it.