Cha-ching??? Not really

It's "tax season", and I'm sure everyone is diligently putting together all the crap they need to do their taxes.

For the past few years, I've used Turbo Tax. With a condo that didn't generate enough interest payments to get me over the standard deduction, and no other considerations, it was the easiest and fastest way to go.

This was the year I thought I'd need to dole out the dough for someone to figure our taxes, what with the selling of the condo and the buying of the house.   I was anxiously delighted to find out what kind of tax break I'd get for losing thousands of dollars on the sale of the condo.

But at the last minute, I couldn't find it in my heart to fork over $300-$400 to have a professional do it, and decided to give Turbo Tax a try.  I paid the extra $20 to do the upgraded version.  

Sadly, it turns out you don't get a break on a personal loss.  If I'd been a business and sold a property at a loss, I could have gotten something off my taxes.   Go figure.

Anyway, after punching in all the numbers and answering all the questions, I came up with a return of over $2K between the federal and the state ( We have to pay MA state tax cause Hubby works there, even though we live in NH  -   the bastards).

Cha-ching!!   $2K!!  Until a friend reminded me that it was my money in the first place, and they've just been holding it, interest free.