Finally finished my taxes and got everything mailed. Always a relief with a tinge of worry that I did something wrong. I’m getting money back for the first time in years, and was able to pay this years first quarter estimates with over-payments of last years estimates. This was due to me making less than previous years, but it did feel good to not have to deal with the estimates.
Except, of course, for Cleveland, part of CCA. CCA makes you, with the way the form is set up, subtract your over-payment from the whole year estimate and then pay a quarter of the remainder. Even though my over-payment was more than my estimated quarterly owings, I still had to mail in a check. It’s like a penalty for over-payment. And if I instead took my over-payment as a refund and then payed the real quarterly estimate, they have separate mailing addresses for returns that have refunds and returns that have payments. Not sure what I should do when one return is both. Confusing. Which is a common problem with city taxes. They always seem to have things that are vague and confusingly worded, set up differently than federal and state, and there isn’t the software guidance or countless web articles, posts, and answers to help that there is for federal and, to a lesser extend, state.
As I say every year: Next year I should probably pay an accountant to help me with this stuff.