Since our taxes are becoming more complicated, I decided to go to our local H&R Block office with Colleen today to get it all sorted out. Since we are not married, the tax people recommended that the mortgage interest benefit get used on just one of us. I let Colleen take it. We split off with our own personal tax people to crunch some numbers.

Colleen's visit ended on a good note, getting her a roughly $500 return. Mine, unfortunately, was not so good. My unfortunate result was due to what I was claiming at Comcast, and the fact that I claimed a freelance video job that did, which basically turned me from a person into a business. When all was said and done, I owed about $500. On top of that, I thought I would at least be getting a good deal with the coupon I brought in. It said that I could file my Federal and State returns for $50. But she informed me that they were not accepting those coupons, even though the info for the Round Lake Beach location was printed right on the coupon. The manager decided "not to participate" in that promotion. She did offer me $20 off, which got the fee down to $130, a total in which I still feel I got ass raped.

So I guess when President Bush sends me one of his tax rebate checks, I might as well stamp "Return to Sender" on it and put it back in the mailbox. I won't be stimulating the economy this year, sir.