gerisullivan | Taxes. Oh, the joy.

I did my taxes about 3 weeks ago, but I waited until tonight to check them over and fill in the final copies of the Massachusetts forms. After 3 years of TurboTax, I went back to doing them by hand to save the expense of the software. My overpayments are going toward 2008 estimated taxes, so it's not like I'll miss out on getting refunds any sooner.

The Feds make it easy. Download the PDFs, fill 'em in on screen, print as many copies as I need. The only hand writing involved comes with the signature. Taxachusetts on the other hand.....

Massachusetts tax forms are the best reason for using TurboTax, some other software, or a paid provider that I can imagine. Not only are the rules perverse and arcane, the downloadable PDFs have to be filled in by hand. Well, okay, I suppose I could manually turn the darned thing into an electronic process by using Acrobat to make hundreds of little fill-in boxes, then filling them in, but that would take me even longer than writing the numbers in the boxes by hand.

So, I did it all by hand, double-checking rules, noticing too late that I don't *have* to fill in a Massachusetts Schedule C since the numbers are identical to my Federal Schedule C. I can substitute the Federal form...but only after writing "No Massachusetts Differences" across the top of it. Okay, that's useful to know for the future.

I keep reading and re-reading the rules and can't find anything requiring me to submit copies of any of my Federal forms, so why did TurboTax prepare and send the Commonwealth a Fed Schedule C and Form 4562 as well as a Massachusetts Schedule C last year? I haven't a clue.

Form design...we won't talk about form design.

So, anyway, I finished the forms, made photocopies for my files, and started to fold the originals so they'd fit in the envelope. There, on the top of the Form 1, centered, in bold face: "PRINT IN BLACK INK." It's not on any of the other forms. I don't see it in any of the likely places in the instruction book.

Sure enough, I'd done everything in blue.

I'm aware that I can be overly rule-abiding at times. This is one of them. I'll fill out the Massachusetts forms all over again after I've slept. If I do them now, I'll screw something up in my tiredness.

So much for not using TurboTax and filing electronically.

Much as I like the automated arithmetic and the electronic filing that tax preparation software offers, I far prefer my own, long-established routine for filling out the various forms. Even after a couple of years, using TurboTax took me longer than sitting down and doing everything by hand. Plus, it was much more maddening in the process.

I am glad to be done with it for another year!