Reason #48 Why You Should Do Your Tax Return

Did my tax returns this weekend.  This is generally a fairly painless process, due to decent(ish) record keeping on my part and the fine folks who make TurboTax.

Perhaps the most difficult part of my return this year was calculating my property tax payments.  Because, since I bought the house in 2009, I've been treated to:  my usual tax bill; a supplemental tax bill; and a second supplemental tax bill.  And besides that, I need to figure out the property taxes I paid for the property through escrow.  This required finding my escrow closing statement.

No problem, I know exactly where that is.  (More or less.)  Found the pile of Documents Pertaining To Buying the House, which I haven't looked at since I moved in and said, "this would be a good place to keep all this stuff."  Found the estimated escrow statement.  Found the good faith estimate on the loan.  Found my deed and deed of trust.  Where the hell is ... oh, it must be here, in this little envelope from the escrow company . . . 

. . . with a check in it.

(gulp)

Now, folks who know me really well (I'm sure my mother is laughing as she reads this) know I have something of a reputation for not making bank deposits promptly.  My paycheck goes right in via direct deposit, so I generally save up those 30-cent dividend checks and $10 rebate checks until I've got a goodly-sized stack to make it worth my while to queue up at Wells Fargo and hand 'em all in.

The refund from the escrow company was, er, rather more substantial than 30 cents.  It is, very clearly, the largest check I've ever failed to deposit.  It was an amount of money that made me think, "How could I not notice this was missing?" 

I contacted escrow and asked them to reissue it (as this one was long past its "void after 180 days" date).  I was rather relieved to discover they hadn't gone bankrupt in the interim, and would, indeed, re-give me my money.


I'll be going to the bank the next day.