Monday, April 02, 2007

Tax time is here again

I had a wonderful, peaceful weekend, in which I puttered in the garden and saw no-one. Well, apart from the acupuncturist. But it was so wonderful, it made me think how much of a solitary person I really am - I have the best time when it's just me and the cat, a sunny day and a good book. And when the weather is the right temperature to have the windows open and breezes wafting through the house. I did lots of weeding, and even mowed the lawn with my new push mower. Yup, a manual push mower. Those things are way easier than they used to be folks, and so much better for the environment.

At times I really felt like it was the calm before the storm of IVF#5 starts up. I have a really good attitude this time and am being very Zen, so far, so if it doesn't work, nobody can say I was too stressed.

I finally did all my tax forms, but can't file them yet due to a weird situation where I'm waiting on a bank to do something. Which was caused by me selling off mutual funds in order to pay for IVFs. Hopefully I can get that one final piece of information quickly, so I can file and get the cash. But I am getting a gargantuan refund. I'm very pleased - it's far larger than I anticipated, and will offset almost all of Big New Clinic's IVF fees. Yay! Of course, the reason I am getting this gargantuan refund is due entirely to the $47k in medical expenses that I claimed for the year. Which makes $60k in all that I have claimed on my taxes in this baby-making pursuit, because I claimed $13k in 2005. These are such staggeringly large sums (to me) that it almost seems impossible to fathom. I keep thinking the IRS are bound to pull my file and question all the medical expenses, but then there are plenty of people I am sure who have spent far more than me - I mean, just think how much long term cancer care costs, even if you have insurance. It's crazy that anybody has to pay for medical care - with all the faults of the National Health Service in the UK, I am definitely looking at the care I received from them through rose-colored glasses these days.

4 comments:

Becks said...

Glad you had a good weekend, it was even sunny in the UK...miracle!

Care said...

I hear you on claiming medical expenses. Mine (or rather, mine for E's stuff) takes quite the bite out of my paycheck. Glad you are getting a nice refund to offset some of those fees at the Big New Clinic. Hope the Zen-ness continues.

Anonymous said...

medical stuff...tax stuff...ugh.
glad yours is done.

Which push mower did you get?
I use an electric mower that I LOVE> I get so many funny looks from the neighbors - me mowing with a big extension cord wrapped around my gut - but it is so quiet and NO fumes....mmmm.
xo

Lollipop Goldstein said...

Oy--but to see those numbers on paper. It adds up. And it adds up way too quickly. Glad you're getting a refund.

We also have a manual mower :-)