I got my taxes done on Sunday.
I think.
I hope.
I got there early, as I usually do, and got checked in. It must have taken the receptionist aback that I was early and she offered their drop off service. I said “No thanks, I’m fine with waiting,”
She told me the name of the tax pro that I would be seeing – different than I’d had last year – and said he would be finished soon. I was fine with that and sat to wait with some paper to fold.
When it got close to the appointment time, another tax pro came over and told me that my guy was just finishing up. I thanked her and said I was really fine with waiting.
When it got to be a little past the time for my appointment and he still wasn’t done, she came back over and took me back to her office to do my taxes. It looked like she’d been working on someone else’s and I saw far too much of their info before she got that put away.
I saw on the computer screen that had her name that she had 4 years of tax experience.
Hmmmm….
We got started and I gave her my paperwork – and then my driver’s license when she asked for it. She commented that they had the Date of Birth on the new licenses in a strange and hard to read spot, but she got it typed in – then commented that I had a birthday coming up.
Puzzled, I told that it had just passed. We looked at the license again and that number might have been a 4 instead of a 1 – though the full DoB was elsewhere on the license and much more readable there.
Hmmmm…
With that corrected, she starting going through the paperwork – carefully entering information onto the screens and then studying it. And then deleting those records.
I tried to follow along and it looked like she got the interest paid and interest earned forms mixed up. When the summary fields showed red errors and the refund was projected at $3,000 more than last year, she called another tax pro for some help.
Hmmmm…
The two of them worked through that error and she kept going – setting “completed” forms aside and then going back to them to re-enter the info. One of the documents had a number in the wrong box and she called for some help again – they decided that it should just be skipped.
Finally got around to the refund and it was set to be about $100 less than last year – which is what I expected. She asked if I wanted direct deposit and I handed her my open checkbook. She typed the numbers in – twice – and needed my help to correct the error that kept coming up.
Hmmmm…
I had to sign the documents electronically and then also sign them manually. Also, hmm…
With everything submitted and printed out, I went up front to pay my bill. I have to mail in the city tax info, but the rest has been submitted online. I got the text messages saying that the Federal and State had been accepted.
And… I’m guessing I’ll be audited. With as much trouble as she had, I’m almost certain there was some mistake there. The company will cover it, but holy crap, I have no confidence in my taxes this year. And since that’s a huge part of why I have them done instead of doing them myself, I’m a little wary. I’m debating on going back and seeing someone else for a double-check.
Just in case.
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We’ve got support ticket system at work that is being upgraded. There’s some confusion at the moment since requests sent in by email are going to the old system, then manually closed (with a How Did We Do? email) and replicated in the new system by the helpdesk crew.
The users are deeply confused and one of these tickets got to be such a mess I gave up and called the user and we then finished working it out by email. I closed both versions of the tickets and updated my boss.
He’s been a little frustrated with the change-over as well and we talked about it for a few minutes to see how we might be able to help. Not coming up with any solutions, I instead offered:
“It’s like Global Thermonuclear War. The only way to win is not to play,”
Being the complete geek he is, he got the reference immediately and did a real-life Laugh Out Loud.
It’s the little things.