H&R Block: how i loathe thee

So remember that time we did our taxes and we didn't get a ton back and H&R took most of it?

They're still screwing us over.

According to Kris' and my last two digits of SS, we should have been stimulated economically before May 9. For those keeping track, that was yesterday.

So yesterday afternoon, i was online trying to find out why we hadn't gotten the money yet. We elected to receive our tax refund through direct deposit, and we didn't take out a refund anticipation loan, so our money should have come by yesterday.

We needed it weeks ago. There are lots of reasons we needed it, but not having been able to answer our phone for the last month has a lot to do with it. We are not irresponsible people, necessarily, but for the long time that Kris only had one job, we just needed more money for living than what he was bringing in. He got a second job, but it's still going to be a while before we get caught up. Hundreds of dollars would have helped our situation.

i was on the IRS website, and VERY FAR underneath where it talks about problems with your refund i read something interesting:

Q. I chose direct deposit for my 2007 tax refund but also requested my electronic filing and/or tax preparation fees be deducted from my refund. Does that affect my stimulus payment?

A. If you requested that your electronic filing or tax preparation fee be deducted from the amount of your refund, you have entered into a financial agreement with the tax preparation provider or e-file software company for a refund anticipated check (RAC). Both Refund Anticipation Checks (RACs) and Refund Anticipation Loans (RALs) are bank products. The money that is deposited into your bank account comes from the financial institution associated with your electronic filing software provider or tax preparation provider, not directly from the IRS. Taxpayers who use RALs, RACs or enter into similar loans or financial agreements with their tax professional or tax software companies will not receive their economic stimulus payments by direct deposit. Instead they will get a paper check that will be issued according to the schedule that has been published for paper check distribution.

Awesome. So when will we get our paper check? On or before June 13th. Did i mention we could use the money now? And that we were kind of counting on it?

Pray for me, my family, and our poor credit scores. After tomorrow's Mother's day party, i think we will be on a spending fast like my friend Sarah. If we look at not spending as a game, it will seem...more like denial kinda fun, right?

Grr...taxes

Kris and i are in our second year of marriage. Last year we filed at H&R Block and were pretty happy with the results. We got together all of our stuff, brought it to the place, paid them like $110, and we got around $1000 back. We were pretty excited about this year's tax prep, because we had our son last year and figured that plus our property tax would be a major cha-ching for us. Plus, if H&R Block was only a little over $100, it was about $30 more expensive than tax software, surely worth it because we are certainly not qualified to do a good enough job ourselves, right?

Umm, no. Turns out we made just a little too much to qualify for earned-income things, and what we got back from having David was put into paying the gov. back for all of our self-employment stuff we did. Kris worked several 1099-worthy jobs last year, all of which were week-long type gigs, like being the on-site medic for a couple movies that were filmed in MN and being a every-so-often drummer at our church. i was not considered an employee of my church till Jan 2008 so all that i made last year had to be taxed and social securitied from the child credit. Anyway, we were looking at about $800 federal after all was said and done. i thought, "Oh man, and we have to take $100 out of THAT for H&R Block?"

Then Tax Man, who really is very nice, told us the news that H&R Block charges you for every piece of information they put in there. So Kris' $400 of drumming at church? A $30 fee. We ended up paying $354 just for H&R Block! The Tax Man did as much of what he could by giving us a $20 discount, but it was still very disheartening. He gave me a ray of hope, though, and said that if we had paid over $2700 in medical bills this past year, we'd get some more back.

So i went home and called the hospital and the two clinics and Walgreens about every doctor's visit and prescription bought for all of us this last year. Took me like 3 hours. i found out that we had indeed spent $3000 on medical stuff last year. i called Tax Man back and he said "Great. Let me input that and i'll call you and let you know how it will affect your return."

i got excited. We spent over a certain amount on medical bills, so maybe that would put us in a different tax bracket or give us some sort of medical refund thing or something, right? Tax Man called back. We got a whopping $38 from having paid that much! And guess what? The H&R fee for inputting that into our taxes was $18. So we got $20 back from that. i can't complain about it. i really can't. i want to, but can't.

However, i can learn from it.
i learned to

• Buy the tax software. i guess it's just as easy as can be and you're not paying someone upwards of $400/half hour like we did today!
• Be a better saver if you must be self-employed. My church hired me this year, so i won't have that blow next year, but for Kris' "gig"-type jobs, i'll try to follow my mom's advice and put some of the money into a savings account so we won't spend what really won't end up being ours.
• And above all else, i learned to not depend so much on the tax return!
  

Thankfully, something very wonderful happened to us this week, reminding us that God knows what's going on in our finances and wants us to succeed. Really, it was quite powerful and moving and i'm not going to go into detail, just....Some people were very loving and generous towards us from an unexpected alley, reminding us that God shows us His love through a lot of people and places, and we are very grateful to Him and to them.