Mo Money, Mo Problems

Well, the problem isn’t that big of a deal, I suppose, but did have to get a new credit card after some suspicious charges showed up over the weekend. After confirming with Ian that he didn’t not make a purchase from “Digital Store”, I did some research on the company – found a phony website and a bunch of sites full of people sharing similar experiences. Clearly, it’s fraud and these people are hoping that small charges of $25 will go overlooked by most. Unfortunately, I bet it works a lot of the time. The most annoying thing is that I have to wait 10 days for a new card and I have a re-occurring charge going to it, as well as lots of travel plans for work coming up. PITA to change everything! Boo!!!

In other household financial news, we met with a tax person on Monday and got that stuff taken care of. Prior to the meeting, I did them myself on TaxAct.com to get a vague idea as to what the bottom line would be, then see if/how much paying a professional to do it would actually benefit us. Boy was it worth it! Even after the $260 preparation fee (woah! sticker shock, yes), we will be getting several hundred more back than if I’d filed for us myself. It was crazy how many deductions she calculated, particularly for Ian’s job.

The biggest thing I learned is that you should just TRY for everything. I wouldn’t claim much because, for example, we didn’t have hard proof that Ian bought a new pair of sunglasses for work, or that he drives around the city for “job area familiarization.” You know what though? The chances of being audited are slim to none, and worse case? We get audited, don’t have all the receipts, and have to take off those deductions and pay back $20. Right? Totally worth it!

Della, the tax expert, said she was only ever audited once back in the 80’s and they ended up owing HER $70 more because she dug up more and more receipts for deductions that she hadn’t claimed the first time around. So take that Uncle Sam! lol

Another fun fact – Did you know firefighters can write off surfboards and mileage to and from the beach for surfing? You just have to call them “paddleboards” and say you’re driving to the ocean, so as not to sound so recreational, and then it’s considered “extreme water rescue training”, or something like that. Crazy, huh? I’m still ok with Ian not surfing though.