A taxing time

4 more days until my telephone consult with Dr. S. of Big New Clinic! [Can you tell where my head is?]

Got my W-2 today, and as I promised myself that I would do my taxes immediately, instantly, lickety-split, and all that, so that I could get the refund quickly as I need it to pay for some of the next cycle, I immediately jumped onto That Famous Tax Software online to start entering information. I've used the online version for several years now, and I've always liked that it imports information from last year and that you can just stop where you are if you don't have one of the pieces of information, save it, wander off to find the forms or receipts you need, and enter it the next day, or whenever. And it can often import information direct from your bank, which is great for lazy people like me.

Anyway, one thing that I do NOT like this year, is the big box at the top of the screen, which keeps a running total of how much of a refund you are owed in nice green numbers, or (horror!) how much extra tax you owe in nasty blaring red numbers.

I entered my W-2 information, and it came up with a refund of over a grand. Sweet, I thought. By the time I enter my crazily high medical expenses for the year, along with the mortgage deduction and all that, it should be several thousand dollars, which will make a nice dent in the IVF cost. But then the next thing it asked about was income from investments. And I've sold off a lot of mutual funds this year to pay for IVF. After IVF. After IVF. [And I do know how lucky I am to have been able to save enough money over the years to do this, I really do.] So, anyway, off it goes to import the information from the mutual fund company. But for some reason, it doesn't import how much the mutual fund cost, just how much you sold. So initially it works out the tax based on the whole amount that you transferred from savings to checking, as if that amount was all pure profit. And I sat there and watched the "refund" box scroll from a nice green happy number to a nasty red "tax owed" amount of over $8000.

I almost keeled over in shock.

Oh dear god, I thought, how on earth can I afford to pay extra tax, on top of a super-expensive out of state IVF?

But then I realized that you have to input how much you paid in to the mutual fund, and it'll recalculate the tax just on the profit. So I did that. And it's still showing a tax owed, but less than $2000.

I mean, I knew I'd have to pay tax on cashing in my savings, I knew that. I just didn't realize it was going to be quite so much. Ack.

I've stopped for the day, because after all, I do need to do some work. And it wanted information that I don't easily have access to so I need to rummage in the mail pile at home. I just hope it turns back into a refund really soon, once I start entering deductions. Because I was kind of relying on a refund as part of my planning for this cycle. Oh well, this weekend I will be working on a spreadsheet of my medical expenses, and will be knee deep in receipts, so I'm sure I can shock myself all over again with just how much money I've paid out this year.