Most people know about the financial troubles that California has right now.  State workers are having their pay reduced, budgets are being cut, prices are increasing, and the state tax returns were delayed.  I filed my taxes in January.

I got my state tax refund today.

It came at a very good time.  I was running a bit short, and we’re going out of town tonight, so the extra few hundred dollars is great.  Hell, this means I can afford to buy pre-sale tickets for the NIN|JA show in Mountain View at the Shoreline!

WE’RE COMING, TRENT, PERRY, AND TOM!

-Because I said so

In an earlier blog posted about a week and a half back my terrible H&R Block story was told. Some of you might remember the ordeal I had to go through just to file my taxes and some of you might not. Basically I went through a bunch of bull just to file simple taxes and got the run around at 2 different locations.

I e-filed my taxes on the 7th and was told that I would get my return, which is a very nice and hefty sum, direct deposited into my checking account in 8-15 days. I was hoping for 8 because I am a very impatient person, especially when it comes to money. The guy who did my taxes told me about the ability to check when I’d get my return on the IRS website so I did – many times. I must have checked that website so much that it was like I had OCD.

Monday the 9th had nothing to report, the 10th had nothing, but then on the 11th I was told that they had just gotten my information and that I should expect my return by the 24th.

THE 24TH!!!! WHAT THE HELL!!!!

By e-filing one would assume that they would get my information immediately and not 4 days later. I realize that they probably didn’t get anything on Sunday, but that still gave the rest of Saturday as well as all day Monday and Tuesday for them to get the ball rolling.

Chris tried telling me that I would probably get paid on a Friday since that was when he got his so I waited patiently until the 13th for a miracle. I logged into my online banking and saw nothing. I then checked on Saturday the 14th hoping that maybe on Valentines Day I would get my money and found nothing.

At that point I was starting to get pretty peeved. I just wanted my damn money! There were things that I needed to do with my money like put down deposits for our wedding so it’s pretty important for me to get this.

Monday rolled around and again I was disappointed. Throughout every single day of this past week I have checked my bank account only to be let down. As each day went by I kept in mind that maybe on the upcoming Friday, the 20th, I would finally get what’s rightfully mine. I even had it all planned out. If I got my money on Friday I would make an appointment to get my hair cut, since I haven’t had one since November of 2007, we would go to Target and get some much needed things for our new apartment, go to Costco for some more things, start paying bills, and then put down wedding deposits.

During Thursday night going into Friday morning I had a dream that I went onto my online banking through my iPhone. In the dream I saw that my deposit hadn’t came in. Normally when I have dreams like that they come true. I’m not trying to say that I’m some psychic or that I can predict the future because that would just be silly, but hey…. it has happened on more than one occasion. When I did eventually wake up the first thing I did was check my bank account. Guess what I saw??

NOTHING!!!

After that I checked my email and saw that around 6:30 in the morning I had gotten a message from H&R saying how my deposit has been sent and that depending on how my bank handles things, it could be an additional 1-5 days. So not cool!

All day yesterday I kept checking my bank account thinking that maybe at some random time the funds would come through. Hell, I’ve even checked today 3 times and I still want my goddamn money!

So needless to say, my plans for today are going to have to be put on hold. We aren’t going anywhere today but at least we have our Wii to keep us company. I will try my best to be patient because it is the IRS and they can fuck my world up… but I issue this statement to them:

I WANT MY MONEY NOW BITCHES!!!!

*ahem*  Thank you….

- She Who Has The Last Word

So about a week ago I got my W2 in from my former job and got giddy. In all of my years filing taxes I have always gotten a return. A very nice return if I say so, but a lot of it comes from Earned Income Credit and the Child Tax Credit from my daughter. Anyways I was told that because now I own my own business, it would help if I were to go to a CPA because they could help me get the best return possible. I called a recommended local guy earlier last week and he was telling me all of this stuff to get and how I should total everything up before I got there so that him and I don’t have to go through paperwork. Now while this might seem like a smart idea to some it doesn’t sit too well with me. If I am doing all of this work on my own then why don’t I just do the taxes my own damn self? Isn’t that what we pay them for?

Since Chris and I will be using our returns on putting deposits down with wedding vendors I asked the guy how long it would take for everything to be processed etc. I was informed that we don’t actually go through the paper work during our meeting and that he gives the information off to some other dude in the office and that it takes about a week to then go and file. After that it would be an additional 8 to 15 days for me to get my direct deposit tax return. I am an impatient person and I want my money ASAP. I then asked what his fees were and I was told that it would be 300 and that it couldn’t be taken out of my return so it had to be upfront.

300 buck up front! Sheesh!

When I was at my meeting last Wednesday my Director, Lori, told me that since I started so late in the year that going to H&R would be fine for me because of how little paperwork I have accumulated so far. Cool! H&R……

I’ve had my taxes done by them for awhile now and I even did them by myself last year online (I tried that this year and knew that if I did try with all the extra stuff that I would have screwed up and probably have been audited. No bueno.)

So yesterday I tell Chris that we should probably go to file my taxes today and he says OK. I start getting my papers together and start adding stuff up. Once I was done with that it was already about 11:30 in the morning. I looked on Google Maps the closest location and gave it a call. I was told that the earliest appointment could be at 2 but I asked if I could come in earlier since we had a lot of errands to run that day. I wasn’t fibbing about that either. We did have a lot to do.

Ok.. 1 o clock appointment with some lady whose name I can’t even begin to spell. We got there at 12:30 and I went in checking to see if maybe I could be seen early. I was told that the lady was scheduled to start her shift at 1 o clock so Chris and I went across the street and got some drinks at Starbucks, went and filled up his tank with gas, and after all of that it was around 12:50. I go back inside thinking that maybe this person is normal and gets to their shifts early, but alas I was wrong.

1 o clock came around and nobody was to be found. Instead Chris and I got the chance to sit on some rather uncomfortable chairs for a long time. After awhile I asked Chris what time it was and he let me know that it was about 15 after 1. 15 minutes late to their own job and 15 minutes late for my appointment. Seriously. At 1:20 I see some grotesquely dressed woman come through the front door. I turned to Chris and said “Watch that be her.”

10 minutes later we were at 1:30 and I finally had it. I went up to the front desk thingy and asked this lady how much longer it would be. She went back to check and told me that she was almost ready for me. No… she wasn’t. She had her pink thingy wrapped around her, was holding her purse in her hand, and was jibber jabbering with another girl that worked there.

I then told the lady that I was going to leave. Since the people there work on a commission of some sort she asked if I was sure since she was ready. I didn’t want to be rude but I was getting cranky and I really hate waiting. I was about as nice as I could be and I said: “I know this isn’t your fault, but I don’t feel confident having my taxes done by somebody who can’t show up on time to their own shift.” She understood and went to check and see if there was somebody else who could see me.

When she came back out she was accompanied with an elderly man who was really nice. Poor guy was eating lunch and I told him not to worry about it. I love food and won’t dare interupt somebody enjoying their tasty spoils. He said that he had availability at 3 o clock but it was too late for me. I wanted my stuff done already! He then asked about next weekend but I told him that we need the returns ASAP for wedding purposes. The front desk lady checked some of the other H&R Block locations in the area and told me that if I was to go to one right up the street that I could be seen right away.

Right away…..

We drive there and I saw only 4 work stations. 2 were occupied and the other 2 lacked an employee. A lady who was with clients came up and asked if I needed anything and I told her that I needed my taxes to be done. She informed me that she had just started with a couple and would see how far along the other person was. She came back to me only to say that he or she too had just started so it would be about an hour or so to wait.

To wait….

My patience at this point is already shot. It was after 2 and I should have had my taxes filed at this point. I then called ANOTHER location and this is how it started….

I was at first told that the soonest appointment could be at 5 but then was told that if I had all of my paperwork ready that I could be seen right away depending on how long it would take for me to get there. Chris and I were already on the road so we turned around with the quickness because I was on a mission at this point.

After we got to the location off of Herndon and Fowler everything was fantastic. I didn’t have to wait, the guy was nice… hell, everybody was nice. They even found ways to make my costs to them cheaper. They saved me money and found ways to get me a bigger return!

The main lady that was working there, not too sure if she was a manager or not, asked me about what had happened so I told her everything and she let me know that she would be talking with the manager of that location about what had happened and would make sure that the “Oh I’m so late” lady would be taken care of. I know that made it sound like the Mafia would be called on her, but I highly doubt she is going to wake up tomorrow with a horses head in her bed. At most she will have some disciplinary action taken against her.

My return came to $3,900 and I was pleased as punch.

Now I get to do this all over again next year! YAY!

- She Who Has The Last Word