A Pause in Forestville

Forestville is a village in Shenandoah County that dates to around 1760. I have shared pictures of Forestville before, but not recently.

The Old Forestville School.

The reason I passed through there today was that I drove to my accountant’s office to sign my income tax forms that he prepared. It was a relief to get that done, even though I had to part with thousands of dollars. Fortunately, my taxes were not quite as high as I had feared.

This may have been my most complex tax return ever, at least in my eyes. I spent many hours organizing my records before I even took it to Mr. Yoder to complete. I have often done my own taxes, but I wanted to be sure every detail was correct. Not only did I sell the condo in 2025, but this represented the final sale in a series of tax-deferred exchanges. They started with an investment property in Prince William County, which I eventually sold after moving two hours away. That was too far to keep an eye on the property, so I bought a townhouse in Woodstock. Years later I sold it and bought an investment condo in Edinburg. This past year, I grew tired of being a landlord. I sold it after the tenants moved out. 

Tax-deferred exchange properties can be a great investment, but when you finally sell them, there are taxes to pay, and profit is based on an adjusted basis, not just the price you paid for it. There is also past depreciation to add in, and that’s the part that I don’t feel comfortable with computing.

I complicated my return by deciding to itemize deductions. I haven’t done this in years, and since I was originally not planning to, I didn’t keep those records in my tax folder. I had large medical expenses to calculate, mostly because I had a lot of dental work plus expensive prescriptions. I won’t start ranting right now about how limited the Medicare schedule is for prescriptions, but I have certainly complained to my family about this. 

Anyway, taxes are done. I will put all my file folders away tomorrow.Tonight I rest!