Have you done your taxes yet? Hubby and I tried last weekend.
It nearly killed us. We took this weekend off and will try again next weekend.
Before you think we have a Trump-like balance sheet
(hahahahahaha... sorry, got a bit hysterical there), we don’t. We have a teeny,
tiny small business that requires all sorts of paperwork to keep legal in the
eyes of the taxing authorities in our town and state—not to mention with Uncle
Sam.
This story is all about our state—the Commonwealth of
Virginia—so I’ll save our adventures with the IRS for another date.
Now, I love living in Virginia. I love the pretty gentility
of the landscaping around the shopping centers. I love the kinder drivers who
actually let you merge without delivering that one-fingered salute. I love the
kids who bag my groceries in the grocery store.
But our process for filing taxes? Not so much.
As with most bureaucracies, the state has different forms
and different filing requirements for different types of legal entities. Looks pretty normal to me.
For
our particular category, we’re required to file the annual income report
electronically. But that's okay. We're smart people. We can handle it. Probably just download from the state, check some blocks on the form and click 'send'...right?
Wrong. The state doesn't provide the form. You have
to use a state-approved commercial tax-preparation software for filing this
specific form. The state does provide waivers if your chosen tax software doesn’t support Virginia’s electronic filing system.
Every year to this point we’ve been granted a waiver (and have filed manually with paper forms), but this
year the state notified us that our waiver-ability had run out.
Not ready to admit defeat, certain that the state couldn't FORCE us to buy expensive software (could it?), I called and
was told by a really nice representative that we might qualify for the EZ form,
which is filed manually and doesn’t require special tax software. All we had to
do was answer “yes” to a bunch of eligibility questions.
We checked...and we answered yes. Yay!
Things were looking up, until we tried to file the blasted
thing. It seems our little company’s ID starts with a different series of
numbers than the entities that are approved to use the EZ form.
Close, but no cigar.
So off we went to look for the state-approved software...a
CHEAP state-approved software.
Turns out there is no such animal. These things are designed
for those companies with Trump-like balance sheets....or their armies of CPAs
and tax lawyers.
But we soldiered on, and we purchased a package by a nationally known
company that had a less-shocking sticker price. We downloaded the software, realized we had to do the Federal return first, struggled
and yelled for about an hour while we tried to figure out where to put our
information. Then it was time to sign the federal return.
Believe it or not, we had to download a form, sign the form, scan it and save it as a PDF, then attach it to the
electronic filing. I kid you not.
Somehow we got through it and supposedly filed the federal
taxes.
On a “high” from
beating that approved tax-preparation program into submission, we started the
state return and made it to the electronic signature page. There we discovered that a different signature form
was required. We went to the little toolbar that held all the forms—and the required form wasn’t
there, although it looked like we could get it, if we paid an additional
$19.95. Sigh. Whatever. Just wave the white flag at that point and surrender.
We looked again. We went to the company's website and searched. We Goggled it.
Finally I called the Help Line and (thankfully) actually
spoke to a person. The conversation went something like this:
Me: “I’m trying to download form (blah, blah) but the
payment button doesn’t appear to work.”
Tax preparation software rep: “Oh, I know what’s going on.
The form isn’t yet available.”
Me: “Why not?”
Tax preparation software rep: “It isn’t approved yet.”
Me: “What isn’t approved yet? I’m sorry, I’m confused.”
Tax preparation software rep: “Form (whatever it was) to certify your
electronic signature. It isn’t approved.”
Me: “Well...whose
approval is needed?”
Tax preparation software rep: “Virginia’s. They just haven’t gotten around to it
yet. Check back in a few weeks.”
We haven’t checked yet. We’re milking this reprieve from
torture. Only a lottery win between now and next week will save us. At least
then we could hire a team of CPAs and tax lawyers to file this single form for us.
Here’s hoping your tax-preparation season is going more
smoothly. If you’re thinking of going into business, check your state's tax filing requirements first!
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Leah writes stories of mystery and romance, good and evil and the power of love. Learn more at leahstjames.com.
