How Congress wasted my evening - Avoid having this happen to you

Congress has given me a new way to deal with disagreements. From now on, when important decisions must be made at work, I plan to do what Congress does. I'm going on vacation, You read it here first. Forget deadlines, I'm just going to drop everything and take a break no matter how difficult it makes it for everyone else.

This year I thought I'd be a good girl and get my taxes done early. Little did I know how much all of the congressional bickering of late would affect me. I made my appointment at H&R Block, gathered my information and went this evening. I ended the evening thinking about what a bunch of idiots we have representing us.

I was dreading taxes. I was worried I'd have to pay a fortune because of the fact I'm working now and our income has gone up so much. I also had my Student Loan interest statement and had receipts to take the home energy credit. I thought I was prepared. Of course, I was slapping myself for all of the receipts I could have saved for other things and didn't. I was even beginning to think of my children as good for tax deduction purposes ? it's report card day, so tax deductions were as good as it was going to get for either of them.

Well, it turns out that Congress took that nice little vacation and delayed coming to an agreement on things like student loan interest credit, home energy credit and a few other things. What that means to the average tax filer who plans to claim any of those things is delayed returns. The IRS is not prepared for the new laws. They will not be prepared until February 11, 2008.

Luckily H&R Block doesn't charge you until you actually file the return. The girl who worked with us was very kind and we made an appointment to come back next month and actually file. The difference for us between filing now and later is $345. I'm sure the difference is much greater for those who've had extensive work done on their home and/or have larger student loans.

Congress should be fired. If you or I neglected our job and thought so little of our customers, we would be fired in a heartbeat. I'm lucky in that I didn't have big, immediate plans for my refund. I can afford to wait until February. I feel bad for those who were really counting on their refunds and are now being told that if they file now, they don't get as much back.

Maybe that is part of how they are really paying for those checks later in the year. A lot of poor people will need their refund now and not take the deduction on their student loan interest because they can't wait until February 11th.