Found Not Lost

Starting next week, most of us will be receiving a letter from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Don’t pretend like you didn’t get this mailing and throw it away. Open it so you know what you’ll have to do to get your bonus from Uncle Sam. Apparently, all you really have to do is file an income tax return. However, if you don’t normally file a return, you might want to read the letter so you know what you need to do.

In case you’ve forgotten, this is the money that we are getting to stimulate the economy. (hehe!) I’m laughing and taking the money, thank you very much. Each adult is to receive $600 each or if filing jointly, $1200. Add to that $300 per child and your total could be up there. I have three kids, so yeah, another $900! Should I tell them about it? Should I let them go shopping with it? That’s what the government would want all of us to do. Hmmm….. maybe they can finally get their own laptop and leave mine alone.

How about you, what are you going to do with your money?

Sue me! It’s a great comeback when you want to be a smart aleck, but you better not hope nobody ever sues you for real. It is not cheap and it can wipe out a huge chunk of your budget. Unfortunately, we do live in a litigious society and more than likely we will get sued sometime in our lifetime. If you do ever get a suit brought against you or have a valid suit against someone and you don’t have any money, you may want to look at litigation funding. Litigation funding, also called “lawsuit cash advance” can loan you the money to fight your case now. There is no credit check or employment verification required, the interest rates are reasonable and you pay them back when you win your case and get a settlement.

One of the things I don’t understand during tax time is the number of people who actually fall for the tax refund advance scheme. This is where large tax preparers offer you an advance on your refund. You go to them to prepare your income tax, you pay them a fee and then they ask you if you’d like your money now. You start seeing dollar signs and you say, ‘heck yeah!!’. Well, let me just say, you just threw money away.

First of all, they are not doing you a favor by ‘advancing’ your refund. This is actually what’s called an anticipation loan. For a fee, which comes out to a pretty high percentage, they will give you your refund, minus the amount of the fee, and your check will go to them since you already have your money.

Another thing I see are people who I know make less than $30,000 a year paying to get their returns prepared for them. Some of them pay as much as $85 dollars for an easy tax filing. If you don’t make over $35,000 a year, don’t have a lot to claim, you will do better filing your own taxes using a number of the free services available online. If you don’t own a computer, the public libraries usually have computers that you can use. What more, there will probably be volunteers there who can help you through the process. Check with your library.

If you file electronically, you can usually get your refund in as little as 10 days if you are having them deposit it directly to your account. It may take a little longer if you want a check mailed to you.

My family has always been susceptible to heart attacks. We all have high blood pressures and a number of our family has suddenly died due to heart related problems. We always assume ‘heart attack’ is the same as ’sudden cardiac arrest’. According to the InsideCardiacArrest.com website, the two conditions are drastically different. A heart attack has more to do with a physical blockage preventing blood and oxygen from reaching your heart where as a sudden cardiac arrest is an electrical malfunction which makes your heart beat inefficiently thus preventing blood and oxygen from reaching your heart. While arterial blockages are treated by surgically removing plaque or other blockages, an electrical malfunction can be easily remedied by an ICD Implant which will regulate the electrical activity in your heart.

April 15 will be hear before you know it. It’s going to be March in a couple of days. To tell you the truth, I haven’t done mine yet either. I’ve gotten all my W-2s and 1099 so I should be ready to go. But of course since I am procrastinator number one, there are still some things I haven’t done yet.

I haven’t sorted my receipts. I have a filing cabinet where I have folders for each tax related items like medical expenses, mortgage expenses, insurance, investments, etc. When I get a statement or receipt during the year, I usually just stick them in the file and forget it. So now I have to go through each file, sort out receipts and statements and add them up. Figure out if I have enough deductions to warrant itemizing or if I should just take the standard deduction and file the short form.

My finances are not too complicated. I don’t have that much But if you have a more complicated financial situation, it is probably prudent to have an accountant help you out. They may be able to find deductions that you didn’t even think of, which means more cash in your pocket. Hopefully.