Tax Time

Wow...have I heard some horror stories when it comes to pastor's and their taxes:

• "File one thing wrong and you'll always get audited."
• "Make sure you put 20% of everything you make away."
• "Make sure you put 33% of everything you make away."
• "You pay all of your social security...get ready!"
• "Get a tax preparer...it's money well spent."

I will appreciate 2010. I think our tax situation will finally begin to settle down. We won't have five W2s like we did in 2009. We'll have how marriage affects our taxes figured out. Most importantly, I will have a pastor's salary for a full year and can more easily figure how much to send throughout the year for taxes.

I was scared for my meeting with the tax preparer yesterday. I wasn't sure if I had all the right forms. I wasn't sure what to expect to owe the government. Would it be a lot? Would we be able to afford it? How was this session going to cost? With our tax preparer being in Madison, it gave me some time to think and to relax.

The meeting itself was relatively painless. I am thankful we paid to have our taxes prepared for us. We filed in about 50 minutes. I had all of the proper forms available and she explained each step in the process. Interestingly, this is the first year that I still owe taxes to the government. The joy of being a pastor is that you pay your entire Social Security for the year. That's a pretty big amount, something that I never had to do. So, we owe the US and Wisconsin government some money, but not as much as I thought.

Our preparer helped us estimate the taxes that we will need to pay for 2010. Now that I will be paid as a pastor over the entire 2010 year, it will be easy for us to pay the four estimated payments throughout the year. We hopefully won't have as much to pay at the end of the year.

Needless to say, not having taxes withheld from your check does make you need to be fiscally responsible. You need to make sure that you are putting that money away so you don't get socked when those payments come up.

So far, taxes seemed scary, but weren't too bad. Let's hope that keeps up! :)