The countdown is on.  No, I’m not Kix Brooks or Casey Kasem. It’s less than two weeks until taxes are due.

Personally, I had that fun meeting with the tax preparer yesterday.  And although yesterday was a beautiful day, that experience wasn’t such a beautiful day, however the positive is it was less painful than last year.

Enough about me. Can you help me with a few bucks?

Here are the latest tax trends for this year. Nearly half of us feel just the thought of filing taxes increases our stress levels. That is partly why we use a professional. Imagine making a mistake and the Feds or the State chasing you down. No thanks. Don’t need that stress.

And although I don’t fall into this category the survey done by Retail Me Not, says that 85% of tax filers expect to pay less than $100 to have their returns done by someone else.  And those that do their own taxes, over a third use tax prep software.

Over four out of five taxpayers are expecting a refund.  Nice.

How do they spend that money?

Thirty-nine percent are putting at least some of the refund into savings. Never a bad idea, right?

Over a third of people are planning to splurge at least part of their refund on a long-time anticipated purchase. And that has to feel good.

Almost half of those in the survey put the money toward bills. Everyday essentials like groceries and gas are part of that percentage.

One in four will pay off credit card debt when they get the refund.  Hurry up IRS, the credit card bill is due soon.

FYI, a fact from the IRS and the Maine Department of Revenue, most refunds are processed within 21 days.  Unless you are getting a check issued which can take much longer than that.

Good luck to all, and to the IRS and the Maine Department of Revenue, please spend what I’m sending you wisely. Thank you.

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