A Pilgrim’s Digression

Thursday night, I did our taxes using H and R Block’s online tax preperation software. I’ve prepared my taxes online every year for the past three years, but I thought this year might be an exception, and that we might have to hire a professional to prepare our taxes. Since we bought a house this year, we were going to have to itemize. In the past, we have just taken the standard deduction.

And in the past, we have always owed taxes, sometimes as much as three or four hundred dollars in taxes.

This year, I even had more taxes taken out of my pay, in an attempt to prevent us owing money to the IRS. Nevertheless, despite itemizing, and despite having the extra taken out, we still have to pay. We owe $90.00 to the federal government.

But we are getting a sizable refund from the state. What does this mean?

New iPod. Oh yeah.

Because of some problem with the IRS’s online submission software, I can’t submit my taxes for processing until February 15. I am having our refund direct deposited, however, so I should see the money within 10 days, I would expect.

Lest you think I am spending the entirety of the money on me, me, and me, we are using the biggest portion of it to pay for someone to paint the interior of our house. I get the smaller portion of the refund to use for an iPod.

What’s more, this brilliant idea was actually suggested by my beautiful wife, rather than by me. I think the fact that I have installed Texas Hold’em on my current iPod, and my wife likes to play the game (we are without cable TV, remember), may have something to do with it. She wants my “old” iPod.

I’ve already decided that this time, I am going back to white. The black iPod shows finger prints and smudges too badly, and it is hard to see in a dark car, when you’re trying to toggle between podcasts and playlists.

I have also decided that this time, I am not skimping. I am going for the full 80 GB iPod. My 30 GB was fine, when Apple only sold music. Now that it sells films and TV shows as well, my 30 GB iPod is bulging at the seams. I had to remove Brendan’s Spongebob episodes in order to fit the current season of “Lost” on the iPod. With an 80 GB iPod, we can both have our favorite programs.

Buying a new piece of technology is always exciting. Even if it isn’t exactly new. There is no obvious difference between the iPod I am buying and the iPod I already have, except that it will have a bigger hard drive. Thus there is a part of me that is screaming, “Wait! There may be something new coming.”

I am inclined to wait. I have this inkling that Apple may be going to introduce a widescreen iPod with on-screen touch pads or scroll wheel, à la the iPhone. I’ll need to do some investigating to see if waiting for the next generation of iPod might not be wise.

On the other hand, I’m bad at saving money. If I don’t buy now, I probably won’t have the money to spare when the next generation is released.

Also, I just wanted to say that those people who said buying a house would mean a larger tax refund for us: you were right, and you were wrong.

We only paid a little over six months in taxes on our house last year, so the help this provided was not tremendous. Until we deducted our charitable donations and home office expenses, we were still going to have to pay several hundred dollars to the federal government. We got that down to $90.00, which is the least we have ever paid.

Still, I would not advise folks to buy a home expecting to get a large refund from the IRS. However, maybe next year will be different, since we will have paid more in taxes.