Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

UPDATE: [01/30/26] This time it took only 4 days for the Federal Refund deposit to hit the bank account. That’s not the 3 day record, but pretty close.

After a couple of months waiting on the desktop tax prep software and the IRS to get their forms finalized and released (which is usual for every tax year) and also waiting for the release date for the last of our investment 1099 forms, we were able to put the numbers into the program today to finalize and send the 2025 Federal tax return to the IRS.

It so happens that our investment brokerage released our last 1099 form today which coincides with the first day that the IRS will accept 2025 returns on-line. We literally are filing on the earliest date possible given the completion of all necessary documents having been received and the IRS opening up the gate.

As is usually the case, we organized our income and other important items into a spreadsheet which allows us to forecast our impending tax situation with surprising accuracy. This year, thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill and the Senior Deduction Bonus, we took the impetus to manage the withholding during the latter part of the tax year such that we nearly broke even with what we owe versus what we withheld. I’m proud to say that our refund this year will be substantially less than $100.00. The bonus was nice, but we still feel that Social Security should be tax exempt, if not all seniors income should be exempt, but that’s another fight for another day.

So, in conclusion, we’re waiting for our pittance refund in a couple of weeks and not depending on it to be a windfall of any kind – we don’t need to do that, thank God. We have already started modeling our 2026 tax year in another spreadsheet and hope to stay on top of it for the coming tax year. I have already adjusted the withholding such that we expect to come close to breaking even again in a year.

Keep safe, keep warm and God Bless!

Addendum: I didn’t mention the Arizona Tax Return above, mainly for the reason that we don’t pay any state income tax. In AZ, if you contribute to schools (public or private), you get a dollar-for-dollar reduction of the 2.5% state income tax assessed against the state Adjusted Gross Income, which is much less than the Feds. Since we contribute a significant amount to our local parochial school, we always come out with out having AZ tax. Still, the return must be filed. So, since our tax program wants to charge us $25 to file electronically, we will do it the snail mail way as soon as the AZ forms in the software are available – we have until April, just like the Fed deadline.