Happy Tax Day! Did you wait until the last minute to file?

Nope, that’s what I will do tomorrow. The deadline is Monday, because of a DC holiday today. I owe a little, so no need for me to pay early.

I filed about a week ago. First time doing my taxes all by myself, baby’s growing up, lol.

I will file this weekend sometime.

Yes, just did an hour ago. I had to pay – why rush?

I hate having to-do’s hanging over me. I never owe money anymore abd I have the time, so it’s easy for me to file early and get it out of the way. But that’s just me.

Yes. I have been stuck on my 2013 taxes for two years so I have to file three years today. Thus, my vente Americano this morning.

I file late every year because I’m always owed money, and when you’re owed money, it doesn’t matter when you file.

I finished all of he forms over a month ago but didn’t mail them out until yesterday. Half the struggle was finding out who or where the hell I mail them to.

Tax day is the 18th this year.

I filed last week.

I have had taxes ready to go since Feb 1. Just waiting on one little thing which only my husband could provide and which would make the difference between getting a refund and paying out. He finally got that to me at about 3:00 yesterday. I didn’t tell him about the DC holiday part, just left him sweatin’ under the APRIL 15TH gun, else I wouldn’t have even gotten it when I did.

I don’t understand sometimes.

I file in February each year. My employer waits until the last day in January to mail out our forms, so I can’t do them sooner.

Legally, that’s the last day they can send out the forms, @Cupcake.

@jca Yes. I know many people who get their forms a week or two before that and file in January. I would be one of those people if I could.

We mailed it yesterday. It was very painful this year. I decided we didn’t need to prolong the agony any longer.
I used to have a CPA that said, “I hope you have a tax problem.It means you’re making money.” I try to remember that when it’s as painful as it was this year.
As my husband was grumbling on the way to the post office I kept reminding him, “Do you like having a paved road to get to the post office on? Do you like having a fire department in case there’s an emergency? Do you like having an educated population?
I think I was convincing myself as much as I was convincing him.
He kept saying that we bought the government a new BMW this year.

Can’t you adjust your deductions, @Judi?

@Dutchess_III , adjusted as much as possible. I have a brilliant CPA. Not having a mortgage hurt us. It’s crazy that we are rewarded for being in debt.

^^Probably the mortgage interest wouldn’t outweigh the taxes. You just paid it to a different place.

I know, @Judi. If you’re not in debt you don’t have any credit, either.

We do keep a credit card that we pay off every month to keep our credit rating, but I hope to never need to use it for big purchase again.

@Dutchess_III That’s absolutely not true.

@JLeslie, having zero credit history is a detriment to your rating, and the credit companies only go back a few years.

When I was in the cell phone business older people would come back with an insufficient credit rating to qualify for a phone without a deposit, because they had had no debt in the last 10 or 20 years, and they paid for everything in cash. It made for some frustrated customers.

As @Judi pointed out, they have a credit card they use specifically to keep their credit rating up, not because they need to buy things on credit.

I randomly charge stuff to my Sears credit card for that same reason, even though I could actually pay for whatever at the moment.

@Dutchess_III I’ve had years I had no mortgage and no car payments and I always paid my credit cards in full and my husband always has over 800 and I’m in the high 700’s. We did have the credit cards, so the open credit ratio to our use was really good.

My nephew had his credit run recently and he is 23 with no credit cards and his number was up in the 700’s. If you don’t screw up your credit your credit is good.

You had credit cards, therefore you had debt / credit. It doesn’t matter if the debt is $50 or $50,000. It’s the record of payments that they look at, not the amount or type. If you never use credit / credit cards, always pay in cash or by check for the full amount at the time of the purchase, and you do that for several years, your credit rating falls off and you don’t develop a new credit rating and that can hurt you when you go to apply for credit. Don’t take my word for it, call your CPA.

I don’t know the full story behind your nephew so I can’t respond to that. Did he have student loans, car payments, whatever?

^^My nephew didn’t have student loans nor a car payments. It’s possible his mom put him on a credit card? But, he doesn’t have it anymore. Although, I guess possibly she never removed him if she did have him on the card. She would have given a card when he was away at school. I’m just guessing.

What counts a lot is having open credit. Like having a credit card limit of $10k and not using much of the open credit. It’s the ratio. Not using open credit shows you are responsible.

Edit: I’m not saying using and paying on time doesn’t affect the score, it does, I’m just saying I have had years where credit cards were my only debt, and I always paid in full and my credit score was/is very high. Some people think it’s best to keep a balance, that’s false, but you didn’t say that anyway. For sure it’s not worth getting a mortgage or loan with the idea that it’s important to do to build credit. The only reason to take a loan is when it makes financial sense to take a loan.

@JLeslie, When you pay for something with a credit card, even if you pay it in full 30 days later, you are taking a loan. A 30 day loan. Even if it’s only for $25.00, it’s a loan.

I know. I’m telling you I do use my credit cards, admitting that probably does boost my score. However, having open credit is basically also a loan. Even if you don’t use the credit, you have money available to borrow, which boosts your score too.

I heard what @JLeslie is saying – the open credit is like a loan because at any time, you can go use it.

But if you don’t use your credit cards, and you don’t have open credit because you haven’t applied for credit in a decade or longer, running your credit is going to come back as no credit. Depending on the situation (such as cell phones) no credit history=no deal.
So, if you don’t have debt, of some kind, even if it’s minor, revolving debt, with a history of good payment, you have no credit.
Now, if you’re dealing with a bank that you’ve dealt with for a million years, that’s a whole different story, of course.

I would assume most people have utility bills and some other things that still show payments. @Judi might not, being off the grid, but most people do.

I would think “no” credit is likely to show up as a decent score. Bad credit is not the same as “no” credit history.

The utility office doesn’t report to the credit bureau unless you have totally defaulted by, like, by a year, and it’s sent to an attorney.
Same goes for phone bills.
And doctor’s bills.
And cable and internet bills
And just about every other common household bill.
They aren’t going to show on your credit report unless you’ve defaulted.

I realize that “no credit,” isn’t the same as “bad credit,” but “no credit” means they can’t make any kind of determination, good or bad, especially with a spot check like they do for cell phones, or store specific credit cards, like Amazon, Best Buy, Sears, etc., so they’re probably going to play it safe.

Where you live do they have commercials for shady car guys that scream, “NO CREDIT? BAD CREDIT? NO PROBLEM!” There is a reason “no credit” is lumped in with “bad credit,” and probably has the same high interest rate.

Interesting.