Hot on HuffPost Parents:
Child Limit Imposed On Muslims In Parts Of Myanmar
PHOTO: Virgin Mary Figure Appears With Child Battling Leukemia
It's tax time: this mom is proud of her bouncing baby deductions
Filed under: Your Pregnancy, Work Life, Sex
Given my state of permanent procrastination, I'm struggling just to prepare to file for an extension by tomorrow's tax deadline, with my husband loyally performing the duty of Chief Filing Officer. But it's not an unwelcome task. I find a great deal of satisfaction in the part where I carefully enter the social security numbers of my sons and register those lovely deductions and child tax credits. After all, it was (quite literally) my own sweat, tears and anguish that
brought my bouncing baby tax burden reductions into the world.
Who does the taxes in your household? And do other moms take as much joy in finally reaping the financial benefits of your many hours of painful, difficult labor as I do?











ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
4-16-2006 @ 9:37PM
Bonnie said...I confess that also get a tremendous amount of satisfaction doing our taxes. Additionally, I confess that, with a pop who is a CPA, I simply sent overything over his way after graduating college (with my engineering degree!) But after two years of that I started doing it on my own and continued to keep that responsibility after getting married. Although, this year, dh is concurrently taking accounting classes in his MBA program, so I'm passing off the reins... for now.
Reply
4-16-2006 @ 9:53PM
Cathy said...As my husband did the taxes yesterday, he kept IMing me and thanking me for his deductions.
Reply
4-16-2006 @ 10:48PM
Neener said...At H&R Block when we went to get our taxes done, they gave my 11 month old a bib that said "I'm a little tax deduction". I thought it was really funny and cute. Seriously, it was nice not to owe any more in taxes this year ~ and that's entirely due to Baby.
Reply
4-16-2006 @ 11:54PM
Missy said...We always file early because we're both super anal about it. Plus, both of our families are in the accounting, securities and/or banking professions, so we get tons of flak if we don't.
My husband and I are equally involved in the actual paperwork. When one does more work than the other, we just make sure we both look over the paperwork thoroughly. It all works out just fine.
We did realize this year that we had neglected to change our W-4 status since getting married and having a child. DON'T DO THAT LIKE WE DID!!! Holy shit that's a lot of money! Make sure you keep everything up to date, otherwise, Uncle Sam will be making interest off of your hard earned money and you won't!
Reply
4-17-2006 @ 12:09AM
Michelle said...I am the family accountant and I was extremely excited at the deduction for having twins that I received. I use Turbo Tax and do them right away at the end of January. If we owe, I hold it until the last minute. If we are getting anything back, I send it immediately!
Reply
4-17-2006 @ 7:30AM
Angelica said...We pay someone to prepare our taxes. With independent contracting it is tough, between writing things off and deductions, depreciation for a home office and most everything else, there is a fine line between 'income' and net loss. I feel confident enough to do them myself (I grew up in a home with a CPA/Tax Attorney and a computer software enginneer; and those are the degrees that they received here in the U.S.A.) but why put myself through the tears and sweat? I just look it over, make sure it is Kosher and sign away.
Reply
4-17-2006 @ 10:24AM
Julie said...I'm in charge of collecting all the pertinent information and scheduling the appointment and sitting there while it's done. My returns have always been a little more complicated--I run my contracted pay and a few business expenses through our taxes and for the first few years of our marriage, my husband was working in across the state line, making things a lot more complicated. Still, I like to schedule the appointment for the first week of February and get it over with ASAP. If only I felt the same about cleaning the house.
Reply
4-17-2006 @ 10:32AM
Charlotte said...I'm a CPA, so I do all the tax filing. I work full time as a Controller, but also do taxes on the side for just a few clients. I'm afraid that our own taxes always get put on the bottom of the list and therefore are always filed at the last minute.
I LOVE my little tax deduction! I got a lot of jokes because my daughter was born Jan 2. If she'd been born just 2 days sooner, I could have claimed her a year earlier! Tax time is also the only time I'm thankful for all the money we pay in child care.
Reply
4-17-2006 @ 12:06PM
Jenna said...I don't understand the need/desire to wait. Our taxes were filed on Feb 15th with our new little tax deduction bringing us enough to buy a new stove for the new house. Thanks, Little Guy.
Of course, this is coming from the daughter of a CPA. Perhaps watching my Mom get SLAMMED during the last month of tax season prompted me to never do that to myself or someone else.
Reply
4-17-2006 @ 12:27PM
Brenda said...Holy Cow! I only have 16 days left to file my taxes, uh oh....
Until this year I did the taxes with my MIL because she always buys the tax software and mine is free to do because I make so little and my husbands is crazy complicated. Last year however the tax software REALLY screwed up my return and I was left scrambling days before the deadline to do it by hand. Luckily the CRA (Canadian IRS) fixed it up for me.... maybe. Considering that we are still dealing with an audit from 3 years ago we should probably turn the whole thing over to some accountant.
And for those of you who are wondering why people don't file earlier... I didn't get the last of the statements I needed until March 20th. I think my husband is still missing a statement. The ones from the government(student loans, music royalties) ALWAYS come late.
Oh well.... I should really get the taxes done, if only my 5 week old would stop needing me for an hour or two (or 10), of course I can't even write him off this year ;)
So am I the only person under 30 who is going to file a paper return filled out by hand?
Reply
4-17-2006 @ 5:52PM
Sharon said...I've always been the one to handle the taxes and family budget, although with each passing year they are becoming more of a headache. My husband travels often and is too busy to deal with it. I've always been the one in our family with the good fiscal skills - I guess it's to make up for my goofy social skills! lol
Reply
4-23-2006 @ 12:06AM
Heather said...Oh, that photo just melts my heart! Precious!
Reply