Well it is officially past April 15 and I still haven’t finished our taxes. Luckily for me the deadline this year got pushed by a month and Tax Day isn’t until May 17, 2021. A variety of things have contributed to my putting off of getting ours done this year (including quitting a job last year and starting a new one recently — this post always helps remind me what I’m supposed to look for on my paycheck!), but that deadline sure does feel like it’s looming. Coupled with the fact that my podcast feed has been lighting up with lots of tax-based topics and all of a sudden I felt like I was the only one who hadn’t filed yet. (I’m sure this is not the case, please tell me in the comments that I’m not alone!) On the upside, I have learned a few things to hopefully help maximize our refund for this year, and wanted to share the episodes I’ve listened to for anyone else still in process on filing. Related: we have a great roundup of finance podcasts in this post!
Unwelcome Tax Surprises with Nerdwallet’s Kimberly Palmer (Bad with Money with Gaby Dunn)
Gaby is one of my favorite people to listen to when it comes to money. She tells it as it is, asks questions that others might feel are too basic or easy, and seemingly always finds bright spots to focus on. (Big fan, obviously, as seen here.) Her episode on this year’s taxes covers all kinds of things related to the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment, getting extensions, law changes that affected filing status, and lots more. I’m a big reader of Nerdwallet, too, so I was super pumped to see that her guest writes
Get Your 2020 Taxes Right (Call Your Girlfriend)
If you’re a freelancer I can’t recommend this episode from Call Your Girlfriend enough. As two successful freelance ladies, they obviously have been through filing taxes like this many times before, and have their accountant, Claudia Yi León (also the founder behind Taxes For Artists, and excellent resource) on to chat all things filing.
How to Hate Taxes a Little Bit Less (Freakonomics)
An oldie but a goodie, I love this perspective from Freakonomics on how we could make the tax-paying system in the United States a little better. The experiments talked about here take a variety of approaches from letting tax payers choose where and how (some of) their taxes get spent to getting your refund by way of online shopping. I appreciate how this show often takes a different angle to something seemingly boring that makes me think, “wow that’s actually kind of interesting.”
Anyone else still working on their taxes for this year? Have you listened to any podcasts about taxes or other finance topics that you liked lately? Let us know in the comments!
P.S. – if you haven’t already, don’t forget you have until Tax Day (May 17, 2021 for this year) to contribute to your Roth IRA!