Credit Where Taxes Are Due
Can I just say how much I HATE the fact that Al is considered the Taxpayer, and I am considered the Taxpayer's Spouse, when it is I who prepare our taxes every year? I am constantly misreading instructions in TurboTax and every other tax-related form I receive (hello, I'm talking to YOU, City of Philadelphia School Income Tax Form) because I mistake the you in "Do you or your spouse..." for me. "Your income" is not MY income, but his income. "Your spouse's income" is my income.
It's ridiculous. TurboTax, at the very least, should ask who is running the application. For the plain old paper forms, I'm on my own: I have to check to see if the form has Al's name on it, and if so, sign under Spouse instead of Taxpayer. Aren't taxes difficult enough without adding this extra complexity?
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Comments (3)
I'm the taxpayer in our household. Heh.
I used to be the one who prepared the taxes, but ceded that delightful task to the spousage when his income started getting complicated.
Also, he got an A in tax class in law school. :-)
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April 11, 2007 10:40 PM
Posted on April 11, 2007 22:40
I, too, handle the taxes, although through a friend of mine who acts as my accountant. And my husband made some smarty comment this morning about having to sign on the spouse line. I guess if we did it ourselves I'd be the spouse, but she nicely puts me in the lead role. :)
Posted by lori | April 12, 2007 8:17 AM
Posted on April 12, 2007 08:17
I'm not sure how Al ended up as Taxpayer, but I suspect it was the accountant who did our 2003 taxes (when we first moved to PA, we needed help because we'd sold two houses and had to file in two different states). He always treated me as the "little lady", so it makes sense that he would think of me as just the Spouse.
What I'd really like to see, aside from TurboTax explicitly asking who's running the program so they can phrase questions appropriately, is the Federal and State taxing authorities acknowledging that it's not uncommon for families to contain two or more wage-earners. Stop referring to joint filers as Taxpayer and Spouse as if we're still in the 1950s. Refer to us as Filer #1 and Filer #2 if you have to; just find a way to acknowledge that you're taxing EACH OF US. It's enough to make one want to file Separately.
Posted by Lori | April 12, 2007 11:39 AM
Posted on April 12, 2007 11:39