You are going to think I'm nuts.

Jan. 19, 2007 - 11:05 am

It's nearly tax time, and I just got my W2. Last year, I didn't change my withholding even though I knew I'd be paying 3x as much in mortgage interest, and would therefore get a HUGE refund this year. I did it for a couple reasons: 1) I wanted to try and live on the same amount I was making before, and 2) I *wanted* a huge refund this year, to plop into the house or savings (it will be the latter).

What with the animosity at the time towards Kathy, I did TurboTax also. Recall, she was attempting to get me to pay the points on the loan that she caused me to have to take due to her delaying tactics in court. That went nowhere; I think she either saw it my way or knew she'd lose in court... likely the latter. Still had to pay $500 of the $2500 she wanted to have my attorney tell her that.

But anyway, the animosity's gone, and I asked her a few weeks ago if she'd mind doing my taxes for me this year (she's a CPA). She said no problem; she's even been commenting to others that we're getting along pretty well, and like I have always said, once the spectre of the house situation was gone, I don't think she cares enough about me as other than the Boys dad to hold any residual animus. I'm surprisingly right there with her.

Late last year, the State denied my HeadofHousehold filing status, to which I replied (but haven't heard back yet). Things should go my way, since we were divorced as of Aug 2005, and the days worked out so I was HoH for Connor, and she was for Sean, and I have supporting paperwork. She hasn't gotten *her* denial letter yet, which as a CPA surprises her.

Last year, since we were filing separately, I had to claim the mortgage interest and note that she got half, effectively taking half myself. Since we both paid the mortgage in 2005, that's all fine and good.

*This* year, there's three weeks worth on that loan from early 2006, which she was on. I just got off the phone with her on a semi-related tax question (my withholding actually went *up* after taking more deductions... that's another story how I will work that all out). I told her we'd do the same thing, but she said that we might not as it might flag an audit, and the thought that it might couple with the HoH thing above got me thinking that it might flag the HoH thing also, so I started writing...

I may (I was going to say definitely *would,* but bear with me for a sec) ask her to figure out both of our taxes both with and without the split, and just *give* her outright what she would get if we did the split on the taxes themselves, probably ~$300. It seemed the right thing to do; regardless of if she was trying to squeeze more out of me last year.

But as I'm writing this, I wonder if I might not regret it. I should have skipped down and written my thoughts as they came to me, but now I can't remember specifically why I might regret it... maybe she'll come back with the whole, "since you paid me, therefore you owe me the $2500 from before, too."

It *still* seems like the right thing to do, but I have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind...